This was my first book by this author. I liked the atmosphere, but the overall story arc and ending were not exactly what I was expecting. I thought it was good and creepy at times I especially love the cover. Pretty good read, especially for fall or spooky season.

Richard Elauved, a 14-year-old orphan,moves to Ballantyne to live with his aunt and uncle after a house fire kills his parents. He is unlikeable and an outcast in this small town.. When two boys go missing after being last seen with Richard, the local sheriff calls in the FBI. He finally makes a connection with a smart classmate, Karen, who seems to like him despite everyone else’s issues with him. The pace of The Night House is quick with lots of psychological clues. It has elements of horror but is never too scary or gory. The story is divided into three parts and each part left me wanting more information and wondering how much was real. Jo Nesbo Is one of my favorite authors and is the best-selling author of the Harry Hole detective series. This newest of his books moves his writing into the horror genre with its focus on the unreliable narrator, the spooky old house and the trauma that affects Richard’s life-night and day.. Readers of Stephen King and Dennis LeHane are likely to enjoy Jo Nesbo’s new book The Night House available on October 3, 2023, and published by Knopf.
My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for opportunity to to read and review this eARC. #The Night House, #Jo Nesbo, #NetGalley #Knopf

💌 ARC FROM NETGALLEY

This was my first Jo Nesbø novel, and likely my last.

I didn't care for the writing style to begin with, and though Part One of the novel felt promising in terms of horror/scares, I quickly lost interest in the subsequent parts of the book, and by the time I finished reading, I was just happy for it to be over.

SPOILERS BELOW

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The Night House falls into a horror trope that I really hate, which is that all of the "horror" of the story took place in the mind of someone that has been institutionalized for mental illness - in this novel's case, schizophrenia and PTSD. It just feels like we should be able to move past this trope ... and also past authors of horror novels having such weird, negative obsessions about weight. It adds nothing to the story when your whole big twist is that it was all in someone's imagination, anyway, but beyond that I can practically feel my eyes glaze over during those parts because they're so uninteresting. This topic is not as titillating as authors seem to think it is.

This was the first Nesbit book I’ve ever read- it was a very fast read and I couldn’t put it down! The first part was a wild, 80s kind of nostalgia, scary story, the second part got really absurd and gross and confusing, the ending surprised me- I didn’t see it coming! Thanks NetGalley!

I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me a chance at reading this book.

This is my first and probably last Jo Nesbo book. I was all for telephones sucking people through their hand-held speaker and a 14 year old boy and girl trying to discover the truth... but my god, the blatant fat-shaming and hate for being queer coming out of this 14 year old's mouth and mind.

I think both groups get enough issues as it is, but we need to read it NOW and of all places in a horror book about telephones eating people.

Sir, the fuck and no.

I hope the phone eats this kid next. I gave up 20% through.

In the wake of his parents' tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne.

This was pretty mid. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't recommend it.

This title has been selected for coverage in Fangoria's October 2023 print edition. Please reach out to the reviewer directly for a PDF of the write-up (upon completion).

Jo Nesbo has ventured away from his typical mystery/detective stories by writing a gripping horror novel.

Fourteen year old Richard moves to his aunt and uncle’s house in the small town of Ballantyne after his parents are killed in a house fire. As the new kid in town and an outcast in school, Richard is blamed for the disappearance of his classmate Tom. Richard’s outlandish story about the disappearance is not believed by the police or his aunt and uncle. Since no one believes him, Tom and his new friend, Karen, decide to investigate for themselves as more eerie events develop.

I found the unreliable narrator to be confusing at first but the author wraps it up nicely at the end. Covering spooky elements like black magic and haunted houses, the tension builds and makes this book hard to put down. Fans of Steven King will love this quick and suspenseful read.

Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage & Anchor and NetGalley for the advanced copy in return to my honest review.

The beginning was creepy. Atmospheric with the gothic house. Very strong. Midway through it began to lose me. The writing became weird and uninteresting. The ending is by far the worse.

📖: The Night House
⭐️: 3/5
⚠️: mental health disorders, death, house fire, cursing, bullying, psychotic episodes, cannibalism, general violence

THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS.

First off, I love naming the MMC Richard because he is, in fact, a dick. Secondly, this novel has aspects of horror, but it reads more like a psychological thriller. The whole story was made up under the premise the MMC has psychosis from PTSD. He takes aspects rom real life and weave them into his psychosis episodes. I feel if those episodes were more frequent and more detailed, it would elevate the horror aspect. I loved the descriptions of what episodes were included— a killer phone eating someone into another universe, a mob trying to kill/cannibalize the MMC as revenge for his misdeeds, hallucinating seeing a hung body. All of these are great horror references! I wish that was explored more. I also feel a certain type of way of the magic being referred to as “black word” or “white word”. It feels slightly juvenile. Maybe that was a way of showing the lack of maturity in the MMC. However, I feel the widely used “black/white magic” would have sufficed. Also, found it strange that certain characters deemed Metamorphosis and LOTF to be “hard reads, even for adults”. Both of those books are read by many middle schoolers. Overall, this is a good read for anyone wanting to dip their toe into the horror genre. A good beginners book for horror.

Oh, man... this was trippy! 4.25 stars.

This is a classic multi-layered horror novel, getting scarier the further you read, and the closer you get to the truth.

Because is there anything more terrifying than the truth?

No spoilers, but a note on the writing style. Just stick with it! What it took for poor translation early on (sorry I doubted you, Neil) was actually a masterful stroke that helps you progress thru the story. That being said, it nearly made me give up on it.

My perseverance was rewarded, as Nesbø comes thru with a deeply unsettling horror debut.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A reader can pick up almost any novel by Jo Nesbo and feel confident that the story is worth the investment of time, thought, and money. The Night House is a prime example of expecting a detective/mystery noir for which he is most famous and realizing quickly that the novel is also a terrifying tale of age-old black magic targeting young teenagers. Nesbo uses several tropes to heighten the suspense: mirrors and self, word magic, palindromes, cryptic names and references, and best of all, the haunted house. A few of the themes are the nature of reality, friendship and love, heroic quest, can imagination be an indicator of mental illness, what and how does PTSD affect teenagers.
The narrator, Richard, is 14-15 at the start of the novel. He self-describes as a loner and a bully who has recently moved in with foster parents after his parents died in a fire. He harasses a fellow school mate, Tom, to follow him into the woods where he convinces Tom to make a prank phone call to a name seemingly pulled at random from a phone book. The prank turns tragic when the phone eats Tom. As Richard tries to explain truthfully what happened to Tom, how he disappeared, he becomes aware that the evil is increasing in intensity. And that, dear reader, is just the first 20 pages or so.
Initially I thought this was an extremely well-crafted YA novel disguised as adult fiction. Chronology and devices were sometimes implausible however that fit in with YA imagination. Nesbo carefully constructs a slow build of Richard's teen world view that I was totally unprepared for the intense build of part 2. Boy Howdy, this is not a YA novel. It is definitely one of the best novels I've read this year.
Thank you NetGalley for the advance proof.

This book totally freaked me out! It was scary and gripping. I couldn’t put it down! A must read for anyone who enjoys a good thriller!

I have enjoyed Nesbø’s crime fiction, and so was very excited to see him jump into horror headfirst. This novel rushes by, it is a ton of fun to read and I devoured the whole thing in a day (granted, it isn’t super long). It is hard to say too much without giving away some of the interesting twists and turns and revelations that come later in the book, but I obviously had fun with the story. I enjoyed the tension and how clearly unreliable the narrator was, and you could really feel those mystery/crime writing chops adapt themselves to explore something a little different. There were also some Stephen King vibes, which is always fun. By the end it is clear that the things I disliked about the novel as I read through it were somewhat intentional, and those choices made sense when the full picture is revealed. This is all well and good, and I appreciated it at the end, but it made some of the getting-there less pleasurable. For instance, the characters were, for the most part, sketches. They were ideas instead of being fully realized. This isn’t true across the board and there were interesting details to give some more substance or depth to some of them, but if you like to be totally invested in character-centric stories this will not do it for you. Similarly, some of the early plot resolutions feel too neat and easy, not quite lazy deus-ex-machina reveals but close to it, and these make perfect sense by the end, why everything played out the way it did, but at those moments I was left wanting a little more. It is a struggle to really think of how to rate this book, for those reasons.

By the final page, when the pieces slot together, you realize how well-crafted they each is, but that isn’t always enough if I was frustrated through the journey. In the end I thought it was well-paced and fun, had some really great scenes and imagery, and kept me unbalanced in a good way, not sure where or how it was going to swerve, which I always find refreshing. Ultimately it is kind of a disposable story, I don’t imagine it will linger with me, but I did have a good time reading it, like I said, in a single day because the writing was so compelling and the action so well-paced. If you like the twists and turns of a good mystery or thriller but you want to see them play out in a horror context that doesn’t really let you feel too comfortable with your handle on where the story is going, this is great fun and worth checking out.

I want to thank the author, the publishers Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Special thanks to Sharp, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I'm sorry to say that about 25% in, it just wasn't the book for me and with the very mixed reviews, I decided to skip it. It wasn't food me.

I just couldn’t get into this book. A young boy, with very little friends, new to a small town,who sees his friend get swallowed by a pay phone. His interaction with the two people who were raising him. Sorry to say, I didn’t finish it.

This was filled with so much derogatory language I didn't finish it. The horror aspect seemed like it was going to be really cool but that just took me out of it too much. There are entire pages where abolish, fatphobia, and other derogatory language is most of the page. The author tries to excuse it by saying that he tries to make people dislike him. Outside of that being incredibly problematic he thinks a lot of these derogatory things to himself. It doesn't make sense. It sounds like an excuse to have a derogatory, bigoted narrator. Its gross and it ruined what seemed to be a good story. Also our narrator doesn't seem to care about anyone around him. While he does have trauma that may attribute to having walls up. it wasn't written well into the book.

There were two things that drew me to this book -

1. It’s written by Jo Nesb0. I’ve been a fan for a long time.
2. The cover. It gave me those nostalgic, old-school horror vibes!

If the cover is any inclination, the contents match perfectly. This short , 256 page novel read like a ghost story that you’d tell around a campfire back when you were a kid.

The book is broken into three parts. I was in a constant state of “what the hell?!” until part three when you get the “aha” moment and things start to make sense. You think.

This was campy and reminiscent of Stephen King stories that I read as a kid. It was a great read.

This isn't what you think it is. Or maybe you already know? It's a horror story in all ways that matter and clearly also very much about trauma. It's got some twists and is a pretty quick read.

The Night House by Jo Nesbo is a modern day Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale. Dark and moody. All the elements are there. An orphan boy. Missing children. A haunted house deep along a wooded path.

Richard Elauved is a young teenager, new in town and cast as an outsider. His one friend, a girl named Karen is a bit of an enigma. Smart and well liked but prefers to be on her own. She’s the only one who believes Richard when spins his seemingly tall tales about the disappearance of his two mates. One eaten by a phone and the other turned into a bug.

The story deepens as the two find out more of the town’s history and Imu Jonasson who was a former resident of the sinister house but got institutionalized years ago. With no one in the town believing his story, young Richard must be his own detective and follow this story to its end.

Of course a fairy tale is often only a reflection of the life and time of the person who penned ir - and that may be even more horrifying.

I found the tale intriguing. It’s a quick read and filled with sinister undertones and things that go bump in the night.

#TheNightHouse #JoNesbo #Knopf #NetGalley #spooky