I would first like to thank @tornightfire for sending me a physical ARC to read and review!

The Night Guest follows Iðunn, a young Icelandic woman, and her frequent doctor’s office visits after she lost her sister. Day in and day out, she experiences excruciating chronic pain that seems to be unnoticed by doctor’s as they all seem to ask her the same questions.

“Has this been going on for a long time?”
“Have you had the flu recently?”
“Have you been under a lot of stress lately?”


Though after a while, she notices that she walked 40,000 steps in the middle of the night after she fell asleep. This leaves her confused and unsure how this is possible since she went to sleep and didn’t wake up to take a walk.

I really enjoyed reading The Night Guest. Knútsdóttir’s writing style reminds me of Eva Baltasar when I read Mammoth back in January. Both characters and stories have a very deadpan approach, are quick to be snarky internally towards others, and the stories are heavily centered on their flaws. I enjoyed the pace of The Night Guest and its ability to be straight to the point with the layer of mystery added. Throughout the story, it's hard to acknowledge why these mysterious occurrences take place until the reader reaches the culminating climax.

Though, I was not particularly a fan of how the ending was left off. I like open and interpretive endings but this ending was a bit too vague even if you can assume what truly happened. It felt a bit empty and lackluster even though the rest of the novel was really fun to get through. Overall, I really enjoyed the novel though I wish more time was spent on the ending.

3/5⭐️

This was a creepy story. I love a book that makes you feel like you're descending into madness. It had a very unconventional and unsettling way of telling a story.

I FLEW through this book. Right off the bat, it is intriguing and engaging, and as a woman who has experienced unexplained health symptoms and struggled with doctors and healthcare, I could really relate to Iðunn. I think the writing style made this easily accessible, very to the point, detailing our MC's day to day struggles, and as the book goes on, and Iðunn tries various things to combat her chronic fatigue, you can feel the anxiety and tension, like a spiral into madness. Some chapters are so short, a simple line, which really adds to that effect. I will mention for other readers there is a trigger warning for animal death/cruelty (specifically cats) but it was not done in a way that was bothersome to me. This would've been a five star for me, but I personally did not love the ending, it felt pretty abrupt. I could see this as a movie in the future! I would definitely check out other books in this same vein or by this author.

*Content warning: cat death and off page cruelty* Overall a fantastic horror novella! I had goose bumps multiple times will reading! Very spooky and tense fast paced read. I was a smidge is a pointed by the ending, but it wasn’t the worst outcome. I took half a star off for the car deaths and the ending, but rounding up for a five star.

Thank you to Netgally for providing this ARC.

Iðunn has been grappling with persistent fatigue and decides to visit yet another doctor. Despite the usual tests and procedures, no new information emerges.

One night, she falls asleep while wearing her smartwatch and is stunned to discover the next morning that she has walked over 40,000 steps during the night.

What could be happening while she sleeps? Why is she waking up with injuries? And why does no one seem to believe her?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I should mention that it contains discussions of animal death and abuse. While these events occur off-page, they are detailed, and a significant portion of the narrative deals with them, particularly involving numerous cats. Despite this, I found the book to be a captivating, short, and engaging horror read. The pacing was brisk, and I was quickly absorbed in the story.

However, the ending felt overly ambiguous. While I appreciate a touch of mystery, this one was left too open-ended for my taste. Although I've created my own ending in my mind, it doesn't have the same impact as a definitive conclusion from the author.

On a positive note, since this book is a translation, I want to commend the translator for their excellent work. As someone who reads several translated novels each year, I've seen varying levels of quality, but this translation was flawless.

I honestly cannot quite comprehend what I’ve just read. It was an absolute mind fuck, but in the best way. It was so dark, and had me gripped from the first page. What a read!

This book is short, the chapters are quick, and you’ll quickly begin to wonder what exactly is happening.

The Night Guest is mildly disorienting, with what appears to be an unreliable narrator. If you’re a sad girl, who needs more unhinged women in literature… The Night Guest should be on your list.

I’ll throw a content warning at you real quick for cat deaths.

With that said, I devoured this one and left no crumbs.

lðunn wakes up tired. Her whole body hurts. Sometimes she even wakes up covered in blood with missing finger nails. She’s convinced that she has a neurological disorder but her tests always come back normal.

It’s not until she buys a watch that tracks her steps that she realizes that something is seriously wrong. Is she sleepwalking? And where is she going?

The atmosphere is eerie. I highly recommend this one for my spooky friends.

My only gripe with it was the ending. I feel like I *need* a mild explanation because my brain just doesn’t understand. It ends rather abruptly, and left me wanting just a bit more. That’s the only downside.

I was so excited for this book cause I have heard nothing but amazing things about it..

The beginning starts off strong and I feel this story had so much potential but there was no character development and the story seemed rushed in my opinion… the ending… what even was that?? I kept looking for more after the last page because it just felt so unfinished..

Thank you @netgalley , the author and publisher for this advance ebook.

Only giving this a four star because I wish it was longer! This was a wild ride, I kept wondering where she was going at night and I was totally grossed out at some parts. But I love translated works and this is the perfect, short, horror novel that checks all the boxes. Mystery, the grotesque, tragedy, and always that slimmer of hope that something will flip the script and something good comes out of it, but nope. I needed more story!

I'm not the biggest fan of novellas because most of the time I'm left wanting more. THE NIGHT GUEST was one of those stories.

I can't say too much without giving away a lot, so I'll just say it's kind of odd, creepy, a bit sad, very violent (animal lovers beware) but a page-turner.

I just had to get to the end to find out what the deal was! Why was this woman walking 40,000 steps a night only to wake up with bruises. What happened??

Also, I love the Icelandic setting

I thought the pacing was quick and that was exactly what was needed.

I wish this had been made into a full book with an ending that explains it all.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group / Tor Nightfire for an e-copy of THE NIGHT GUEST to review.

I rate THE NIGHT GUEST four out of five stars.

This book follows a woman named Iðunn who begins to suspect that she is not sleeping through the night. She tries any number of strategies to help herself sleep, but starts to suspect that her worst nightmare is coming true. THE NIGHT GUEST was somehow fast paced yet also a slowly unfolding horror. Knútsdóttir was able to make something absolutely gripping from page one and I absolutely needed to know why the MC was experiencing what she was experiencing. We see the structure of the book change along with the MC's state of mind through the structure of the chapters and paragraphs. I highly recommend this for a one-sitting read!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the gifted eARC!

I'm not going to lie - the premise for this novella sounded kind of cheesy when I first picked it up. But the narrator's blunt delivery and the slow build up made for a fast paced, enjoyable read! I read this entire thing in one sitting, and while I enjoyed like 99% of it the ending "twist" was kind of abrupt and not explained very well. It was as if Knútsdóttir needed to finish the story and wrote something that felt shocking in the moment, but is not very clear to readers what happens.

Iðunn wakes up every morning exhausted, as if she had worked out or ran a marathon the night before. She goes to a doctor, but all of her labs come back normal. Friends and family don't get it - they all have mundane suggestions like exercising more during the day, drink more water, eat healthier. Iðunn has tried it all with no luck. She then buys a nice smartwatch hoping to track her activity, and finds that she's walking thousands of steps after she had supposedly gone to bed. Where is she going at night? Why is she coming home injured and waking up bloodied?

Once I got goin I really liked the premise of this - and I think Iðunn is what really sells it. She's a normal woman suffering from an abnormal fatigue, and she explains everything exactly as she experiences it. ** TW ** - there is mention of animal abuse off page (specifically cats if it matters), and while we don't experience it first hand I think it adds to the chilling nature of this novella.

If you like short horror, or horror thriller in general, I recommend this. Just be forewarned - the ending is kind of abrupt and confusing, but to each their own.

Thank you to Hildur Knútsdóttir, Tor Publishing Group, and to NetGalley for the eArc!

Thanks to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I think if it had been any longer, I likely would have given up, but since this novella was quite short, I powered through. I wish there had been more clues about what was really happening. There was a description of the map and where she was sleepwalking, but there was never any indication of why that place may have been important to the main character. She just kept saying that she didn't want to know what was there. I think it could have added another layer to the story if there had been some connection to, who I'm assuming is the sister she thought was dead, and the location where the men were found.

I was pretty disappointed by the ending, and I won't likely recommend this book. I've read some other books that are by Nordic authors, and I haven't loved those either, so I think maybe this style of writing isn't my cup of tea. I do hope it finds its audience!

Sometimes I feel like this woman too. I wake up feeling like I did all the work in the world overnight. I thought I need melatonin or other sleeping aid to have restful sleep. I got an Oura ring to follow my sleeping habits but maybe I have someone haunting me too. Who knows who gets under my skin make my walk/work every night?!

It must be horrifying to see that your watch is telling you you took 40000 steps when you were supposed to be sleeping or going to same place over and over again with missing kitten tally rose. Iðunn was truly struggling with her sleep. People suggest all sorts of "remedies" but none of them worked. She couldn't get over her sister's passing and probably sleeping with her ex did not make things better either. But no one know what exactly was wrong with her. How could she wake up with damp hair and blood under her nails?

Short but scary novella fitting to Nordic tradition. They don't beat around the bush. They hit you right in the face with crazy stories and you'll just have to take it.

Icelandic translation! Overall it didn't impress me, but the writing was engaging enough that I finished it in a day. It didn't maintain the suspense; it was either suspenseful or not at different times. The whole story was more creepy than anything, and the horror elements were very light. I cared the most about Idunn when she was trying to navigate her relationships, and maintain some semblance of normalcy. I do wish she'd been smarter at certain points, but in fairness to her she was pretty sleep deprived. I also loved that she was self-aware to a fault, and how uncomplicated her thoughts were. Because we were dealing with the big mystery of what was happening to her, if she was also extremely complex it would've gotten in the way of the plot, I think. The ending was not unpredictable, but there's only so many ways a book like this can end, you know?

This was a pretty new foray into thriller books for me, so it definitely is a nice gateway into the genre. I am intrigued to read other authors now and come back to this one.

The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir is a haunting and atmospheric novel that left me deeply intrigued and slightly unsettled. From the very first page, Knútsdóttir's storytelling prowess and ability to create a sense of dread drew me into a world where reality and the supernatural blur.

The protagonist is compelling and relatable, and I found myself fully immersed in their journey as they grappled with the strange occurrences and growing sense of unease. Knútsdóttir's character development is excellent, making it easy to connect with the protagonist's fears and emotions.

What I found particularly captivating about The Night Guest is Knútsdóttir's ability to build tension and maintain a suspenseful atmosphere throughout the novel. The eerie descriptions and the slow unraveling of the mystery kept me on edge, eagerly turning pages to uncover the truth behind the night guest. The blend of psychological thriller and supernatural elements is masterfully executed, creating a narrative that is both compelling and chilling.

Knútsdóttir's writing is beautifully descriptive, painting vivid images of the settings and the eerie occurrences that plague the protagonist. The atmosphere is thick with suspense, and the pacing is perfect, gradually intensifying the sense of fear and uncertainty. The themes of isolation, fear, and the unknown are explored in a way that feels both profound and relatable.

The secondary characters add depth to the story, each with their own secrets and roles in the unfolding mystery. Their interactions with the protagonist provide crucial clues and add layers to the narrative, enhancing the overall sense of intrigue.

Overall, The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir is a gripping and evocative read that will appeal to fans of psychological thrillers and supernatural fiction. The novel's haunting atmosphere, well-drawn characters, and expertly woven suspense make it a standout in its genre. If you're looking for a book that will keep you guessing and leave you with a lingering sense of unease, The Night Guest is a must-read.

...when you stop sleeping, there are suddenly so terribly many hours of the day.

The early chapters of Hildur Knútsdóttir's The Night Guest were some of the hardest reading I've done and have still left me more than a little bitter, you guys. Not for their quality, not for the prose, not for any literary reason at all, really, but for their specific content and how it resonated with my own past and continuing experience -- until it didn't.


For The Night Guest starts off with a young woman in quest of a diagnosis, an activity that ate up over a decade of my own life, so I related very hard, at first.

But our heroine, Iðunn, is in Iceland rather than America, so while she encounters some of the same bullshytt that I did from family and friends as she seeks an answer for how she wakes up every morning from sound and adequate sleep with incredible fatigue and soreness and mysterious wounds and injuries, she does not encounter the kind of hostility, disbelief, blaming and accusations of drug-seeking that so many Americans do in her situation.

So I spent a while envying her for that. But then it got worse.

Because there is an answer to her problem that isn't medical, which is partially spoiled by the very jacket copy of this book (thus robbing these early chapters of a lot of tension that might have made them more relatable and interesting even for people like me), so then I was envious of her for two reasons.

That's a lot to cope with when trying to assess a book critically, which I of course promised Netgalley I would do. Wanting to yell at and/or slap pretty much everyone in the opening chapters of a book is never a good sign that you're going to find what follows is in anyway worth one's precious reading time. But here we go.

Before you can say "have you tried yoga" (which of course she has, and she's a vegetarian, too) Iðunn has other problems, some of which stem from her deep past; her parents willfully misunderstand everything (a typical phone exchange when her mother is shopping for a family dinner goes something like Mom: Do you eat chicken now, I forget? Iðunn: Nope nope nope ty nope. Mom: Oh, well, chicken breasts were on sale but I'll make lots of rice) and are not dealing at all with a family tragedy we don't even realize took place until almost half of the book is over.

Meanwhile, Iðunn has started to notice some odd phenomena in her surroundings, is being stalked by a married ex-lover/co-worker who is starting to get obnoxious, is trying to start something with an attractive new guy whose motives for courting her will seem a little suspect to the reader but whom she accepts at face value, and her sleep issues just keep getting worse and worse.

One thing Knútsdóttir does incredibly well is capture how long-term sleep deprivation (something with which I am also incredibly, uncomfortably familiar) affects cognition and communication -- and one's ability to implement their good and sensible coping strategies, to follow actually helpful and professional advice. This is chiefly communicated via chapter length and brevity of sentences; as Iðunn deteriorates, she tells us less and less until some chapters are only four or five words long. I wonder if this is a quality of the original or is something that translator Mary Robinette Kowall introduced or enhanced. Anyway, it's a brilliant example of the classic writing advice of "show, don't tell" that I truly admire.

Ultimately, though, that brevity feels like truncation, the ending telescoped and rushed, though admirably without sacrificing the tantalizing ambiguity, even at the very end. If you value tidy endings with all narrative questions answered, though, look elsewhere. The Night Guest is probably not for you.

But if you like a story that remains mysterious throughout (and you can overcome any misplaced feelings engendered by its opening act) and just want a short and tense read, get this.

A short but unnerving story from an author new to me.

Iðunn wakes every morning exhausted. Her friends tell her to exercise more and suggest the 10,000 step programme. However when Iðunn checks the shiny new pedometer she bought she finds she's walked thousands more steps- when she should have been asleep. The only explanation is sleepwalking but where is she going? And why? The answers may be what she expects but the truth is far more horrific than she imagined.

The story revolves around Iðunn's family and relationships, all of which seem to be dysfunctional. Even her interactions with health professionals are fraught and unsatisfactory.

The whole book is unnerving and eerie. Just when you think you have the answer to what is happening to Iðunn you're dropped into another, stranger, more disturbing reality.

I did enjoy the book but I wanted more. I wanted more of everything with this story and felt quite let down when it finished. That's not a bad complaint to have is it? I will definitely read more by Hilda Knútsdóttir. I would recommend this book.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Tor Publishing for the advance review copy.

The Night Guest is a fast-paced, unnerving novella. Tensions remain high. I did not love the ending (didn’t hate it, either.)

As someone whose life has been lightly dictated by her fitness watch for the past several years, the plight of Iðunn, the character at the heart of Hildur Knútsdóttir's The Night Guest, is chilling: when she wakes up in the morning, her watch tells her she's walked over 40,000 steps—and she doesn't remember a single one of them. Unfortunately for Iðunn, but fortunately for readers of this unsettling book, crushing that step goal is only the beginning.

From reading the premise of The Night Guest, I assumed this would have notes of, at least, if not be a 21st-century take on, the Dancing Princesses fairy tale. This is not so. Rather, it's an unsettling story about who we are when our own backs are turned. In an era of butt-dialing, sleep-texting, Ambien Tweets, and the unofficial but far-reaching Mysterious Leg-Bruise Club, it's a relatable fear. It's clearly one that transcends national borders—considering Knútsdóttir's native Iceland—and translation—here, courtesy of Mary Robinette Kowal. Easily conveyed, too, is the claustrophobia of Iðunn's anxiety-ridden baseline long before she became sleep deprived and waking up with someone else's blood on her hands.

The Night Guest is brief and Iðunn a woman of few words (but a lot of anxieties, and deservedly so), and it uses that brevity to its advantage. There are a hundred chapters across less than 180 pages, and many of them are only a few sentences long, or less. Somehow, those are the chapters that pack the most punch and most tangibly convey Iðunn's increasingly distressing situation. Consider chapter 42: "I wake up with seaweed in my hair and black sand between my toes." Not far from that chapter, she decides she can't face a clue, only to change her mind—in another single-sentence chapter—just pages later. But it was her recounting of the night's injuries about a third of the way through that first made me gasp, that first really communicated how determined her other self is—and how much trouble her waking self is in.

That same brevity means The Night Guest doesn't overstay its welcome. It does not, however, also linger on its ending, and I had to read the final chapters a few times for their meaning to fully sink in. (This is by far a short enough book that you can reread it immediately, if you really want to get that sweet, sweet context.) Still, Iðunn leads us there, one sure step at a time, even if she doesn't realize she's doing it at all.

(A longer version of this review, including a synopsis, will go live at 2:39 p.m. on 3 September 2024 at https://ringreads.com/2024/09/03/night-guest-preys-on-fears-of-self/)