[Snack-Size Review] The Night Guest, by Hildur Knútsdóttir

Quick Bite: Thanks for the nightmares. Seriously.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

What It’s About: Iðunn is suffering crippling fatigue, and waking up every morning with strange wounds. When multiple doctors tell her there’s nothing wrong with her, she decides to take her health into her own hands, and starts by buying a smartwatch. But when it shows that she is walking over 40,000 steps every night, and she has no idea where she’s been going or what she’s been doing, welp, things get weird.

A Word From The Nerd: This is a quick, eerie, and very trippy read. I’m still replaying the last scene, and there’s a whole lot of imagery that won’t leave me any time soon.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and some high-test coffee, sleep suddenly sounds like a bad thing.)

Idunn wakes every morning exhausted and in pain. She has seen many doctors, had many tests and they can find nothing wrong. She has taken vitamins, healthy eating advice and even buys a pedometer watch.
One night, she wears the watch to bed and wakes up seeing she has taken 40,000 in one night. She has no memory of this. Where did she go and what was she doing in the night?
This was a good mounting horror story and then the ending was just, meh. Luckily, it short enough to get finished in about an hour.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor for this e-arc.*

I will say this was a quick read that I finished in one sitting - could not put it down once I picked it up!

And while it initially had such an interesting premise, that abrupt ending and the dead cats really skewered my enjoyment with this. I was lowkey hoping this horror tale would examine the way women’s health concerns are almost never taken seriously, and while it did initially, that was quickly left behind for other plot devices. It seems our MC is just entirely disregarded in so many of her relationships, not just in a medical setting!

I’m not entirely sure how to feel about it, I didn’t dislike this book but I’m not exactly exuberant about the experience either. Regardless, it was a fast, absorbing read!

Extremely compelling story, but feels unfinished. This may have been the author's goal, but this book left me with a lot of unanswered questions.

This was a quick-moving, surprisingly funny little thriller. I blitzed through it in an evening, but there were some truly iconic lines scattered amongst the ambiently creepy vibes and resigned reflections of dating life in a small town. I also appreciated the commentary about how infrequently women are heard or believed in health care environments, but I feel like we could have dwelled on that point a little longer or more deeply. This was a perfect book to pick up for Women in Translation month, too!

Thank you to Tor/Tor Nightfire for the opportunity to read and review!

A tense, effective novella that leaves you with more questions than answers.

It had that good type of dread, where it gets under your skin and fills you with deep unease. I couldn’t stop reading and finished it in one sitting.

We follow a woman who wakes daily exhausted and covered in strange bruises she doesn’t remember getting. Soon she discovers she’s been sleepwalking, drawn night after night to the same mysterious place. The horror element here, particularly the fear of not having control over one’s own body, echoes the dread many feel about suddenly falling ill, and is validated through the medical office scenes.

This sense of losing control over her body is exacerbated by her struggles as the only surviving child of her parents and dealing with the emotional fallout from a breakup with her married coworker. The first-person narrative gives this story an insular, claustrophobic edge.

All this to leave the ending so ambiguous it loses the stakes it worked so hard to earn, and ultimately diminishing the thrill of the ride.

Still good, just not making it onto the favorites leaderboard.

This was a creepy short story with an excellent translation from Icelandic that read very fast-paced. It took me a while to get used to the pacing; it was much faster than I'm used to, most likely due to this being technically a short story. Once I got used to it, I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere was very contained and claustrophobic, focused intensely on the isolated experiences of our protagonist, and the setting really only branched out to a few different places. I think this worked excellently for a horror short story. There was some disturbing animal cruelty introduced, which really took me by surprise and disturbed me, so be aware of that. I've seen many people unhappy with the incredibly abrupt and confusing ending, but honestly, it felt fitting to the story for me. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this short story, I think the author is incredibly talented, and I'm eager to see what she can come up with next.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Ugh! This one is hard to rate. I really enjoyed the mystery of it – a woman is sleepwalking and waking up every morning with scrapes, bruises and blood on her body. Where is she going and how is she getting these? I quickly got into the story but just as quickly lost interest. I felt like it was not really going anywhere and it was never explained what was happening. The ending was a little disappointing as well. It just ended and left me with a feeling of “what did I just read”? I don’t think I was the right audience for it but I think many will enjoy it.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 out of 5 stars

Iðunn is tired. She doesn't know why. Her symptoms have been chalked up as female hysteria by old male doctors, but now she has a new, young doctor-in-training, and she has hope that she can help her. She tries getting more exercise, and so purchases a pedometer watch. One morning, when she wakes up, the pedometer shows over 40,000 steps. Iðunn chalks it up to a defective device or a glitch and resets it.

One night, at a posh bar, Iðunn finds a man staring at her in with an unnerving intensity. Her friend introduces him as Màr, her sister's love interest...before she died. Despite two years between Iðunn and her older sister, they look incredibly alike, so to Màr it is likewise unnerving.

He got her number and reached out a few days later, and they began to strike up a relationship. But one day, when she falls asleep at Màr's despite her every attempt not to, she wakes up at her house. When she calls him, he doesn't answer, then he texts not to contact him again.

What is happening to Iðunn?

An intense and anxiety-inducing book, but it was so short. Yes, it is over 200 pages, but....some of the chapters are a single sentence. Still, I enjoyed the read. I feel like some unanswered questions could have meant another 20 or 30 pages, but they weren't enough to upset me at the end. I look forward to reading more by Hildur Knútsdóttir.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an early copy in exchange for review.

The Night Guest is one of the most gripping and fast-moving books I’ve read this year. The main character, Iðunn, is struggling with an ongoing health mystery, which leaves her feeling constantly exhausted. But gradually, she starts to wonder if there may be something unrelated to her physical health going on.

This book had so many great aspects. I really appreciated how it portrayed the struggles of having an undiagnosed illness and chronic fatigue. I think many people will feel sympathy with Iðunns health care experiences.

I really liked the spooky/mystery part of this book as well. It was really unique and kept me flipping the pages.

Unfortunately, I felt that the end came very abruptly. I didn’t fully understand the ending, which felt like a let down after being so immersed in most of the story.

What a fun and creepy novella! I loved the Icelandic setting and how up in the air the ending left things. I have n idea what was actually happening and that has kept me thinking about this story! This is a great story to get you in the mood for spooky season.

This is a love it or hate it book. I loved it. Quirky. Weird. Unsettling. Gruesome. The MC is older (55) and brings up many points concerning women's health and technology in her quest to find out just why she is so tired. No doctor would ever guess. This edgy little book was full of Icelandic atmosphere. Propulsive and disturbing, this is a read-in-one sitting horror delight.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

`This was way too triggering as an animal lover that I just absolutely could not finish reading this. How awful

Super eerie short read about a woman who is waking up to random bruising on her body and an overwhelming feeling that something is “off”.
This book takes you on the journey of our MC, Iǒunn as she tries to figure out what she’s up to in the night.

I rated this one 3.75 stars on account of the ending feeling very rushed and leaving me unfulfilled.
Very eerie and a good, quick read for spooky season!

The Night Guest by Hildúr Knuttsdóttir is a face paced and eerie novella that takes place in Iceland. Told in the first person POV of a very exhausted woman Iðunn, the story touches upon the ideas surrounding personal agency, women’s agency, mental health, the dismissal of women’s medical issues, and the terror of somnambulism. There is real mystery here and the short chapters keep the pace in what is a very quick read. I loved the Icelandic setting and the way Iðunn’s story propels you forward, eager to find out what is happening to her. The ending does get weird and it is open ended, which I personally enjoy, but some may find uncomfortable. Also TW with dead cats. Thank you to TorNightfire and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ioounn can't sleep. Or if she does, she wakes up in strange places, or she's bruised, or she has blood on her, sometimes her own, sometimes from another source. She tries to get medical help. She tries sleeping pills, but she's always exhausted in the morning. When she gets a watch that tracks her steps, she's stunned to see how far she's walked.

And the neighborhood cats are no longer friendly, at the same time that so many have disappeared.

This is a quick reading horror novella. It's well written and translated.

Beware of cat cruelty.

The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. I had never read this author before though I have been to Iceland. The novella was translated from the Icelandic language and the translator did a very good job. The storyline, which I wont really go into, is interesting and a quick read, with no downtime due to inane dialogue, as many modern books tend to do. The story is a dread inducing one, yet the ending is rather abrupt, maybe setting up a longer book or a sequel?

4 Stars

I really loved this author's writing style...it's very blunt, direct, and dry. But there was also a level of humor and snark in places that was unexpected yet natural. I also love the similar writing style of Fredrik Backman, so I'm wondering if Scandinavian writers are just built different (in a wonderful way). This is an intense novella that builds in its mystery and intrigue. It's very eerie and unsettling. A lot of reviewers were left annoyed by the abrupt and ambiguous ending. I usually hate those, and while I didn't love this one, I didn't hate it either! The other thing that I usually hate is lack of character development (which is often a problem in novellas), but again, that worked for this story really well, especially since everyone in the story aside from the MC is kind of toxic.

This is Hildur's first book translated into English and I am REALLY hoping that continues with her next books; it would be lovely if we got translated versions of her previously published books as well. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the advanced reader copy of this excellent horror novella! As far as publishers go, Tor Nightfire really does NOT miss!

Trigger warning: This book includes animal brutality and cat murders (off-page, but mentioned frequently)

I give this book a 3.5 but I'm rounding up. :)

This is a quick horror novella that I read in one sitting. The book follows the main character, who has been feeling unusually exhausted during the day and waking up with mysterious bruises. Things get even weirder after she wakes up one morning to discover that her smartwatch recorded over 40,000 steps during the night. So... what is going on, exactly?

I thought this book was fast-paced and genuinely creepy. It was really enjoyable until the ending, which unfortunately fell short for me -- it wasn't really satisfying, instead, overly open-ended.

Thank you to this author & NetGalley for this ARC!

This was a surprising piece of psychological horror. I found that it started like a very familiar, simple narrative of a sleepwalker. I honestly wasn't expecting much from the simple translated prose. However, this short novel used the chapter structure to create a remarkable experience. I was surprised how unsettling the novel became, creating an atmosphere of dread as it progresses through the pages to the ending.

I would recommend this horror novella to readers looking for a short read that packs a punch.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.