Bizarre but utterly enthralling, The Night Guest was a quick read that kept me in suspense from page one. Ominous and eerie and rich with mystery, this book left me feeling unsettled in the same way bizarre horror movies leave me. It does end quite suddenly with a climax, and I was able to infer who was “the night guest” early on— however it didn’t stop me from wanting to finish. I wish there was a little more explanation and conclusion than what I was given, however I feel the intention of the story was more about the ride we were on as a reader rather than having a character motive or clearly explained resolution. This is one that I may have to reread to pick up more subtle details, but overall I enjoyed the writing and how the story kept building suspense and anxiety.

This novella has been translated as the author is from Iceland.

It was a fast pace, unexpected book! I went completely blind beside the fact I knew that Iðunn felt like she couldn’t sleep.

Iðunn suffers from clinical fatigue and her muscles always feel so tired when she wakes up. Sometimes, she also find bruises and blood on her body but can’t remember anything from the night. She’s trying different ways to make sure she actually gets a good night of sleep but fails to do so.

One day, she get curious enough to a new watch with GPS to know if and where she goes every night to could warrant so much muscle fatigue. She discovers that she sleepwalks but always end up going to the same place.

Why that location? What is she doing when she’s there?

It is a bizarre ending but it does leave it open for interpretation!

TW: dead cats

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group/Tor Nightfire for providing me a digital copy in exchange for my review.

this book was an incredibly wild ride. a meditation on grief and anxiety, the night guest manages to blend a horrific situation with a sympathetic center. not sure how to feel except shocked and missing my sister a little.

A smart and creepy horror that you will read in one sitting easily, so free up those hours before you sit down!

Excellent and incredibly creepy. I love a story with an unreliable narrator and one that keeps you guessing as to what, exactly, is going on. A fast-paced, hard to put down read. CW for animal harm.

WOW this was such an unsettling and great read.

CW for cat death/abuse--it's off page and not graphic, but there are mentions of it and it's a pretty big part of the story.

Iðunn is experiencing extreme fatigue and muscle weakness--she feels like no matter what she does, she feels like she's run a marathon and lifted weights every night despite being asleep. After finding a doctor who believes she has a problem, Iðunn is thrilled--she may finally feel rested and get some real sleep.

But soon she finds out that she's walking over 40k steps every night with no memory of where she's gone, or what she's done. She's waking up with bruises, covered in blood, and attempts to keep herself locked in seem to be useless. But what is she doing? Where is she going? Why have the neighborhood cats started avoiding her? And does she really want to know the answer to those questions?

This is a very short horror read, and I think it could have improved with the addition of a chapter or two. The ending comes out of nowhere and I think another 10 pages or so to really set it up and explain it would have made this a perfect horror novella.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this one! This is exactly the book I was looking for in wanting a short horror read.

I found this book a super fast read. It was attention holding, creepy, ominous and gory - all the makings of a great novel. It has a unique storyline but I found it was just too rushed. The novella could have easily been a full on novel.

The main character is Iðunn. She’s exhausted and visits the doctor in hopes of finding answers. She doesn’t get answers but she gets herself a Garmin watch and finds out she’s walking 40K+ steps a night. She has no recollection of where she is going or what she is doing but she’s coming home with injuries and it’s not good.

After doing some investigating on her own, her Garmin watch shows she always ends up on the same location. The million dollar question is…”but why?”

The book has some intense graphic scenes, some involving cats. If animal abuse is a no-no for you, pass on this one.

The ending snuck up on me fast and had me left hanging, I honestly just sat there for a minute trying to make sense of it.

Overall, a quick read with some ick-vibe visuals in my head. Must note, the translation to English from Icelandic was done very well!

I went into this book thinking it would be about women not being listened to when it comes to their pain and ailments, and I got gory horror in return.
The protagonist’s insecure nature and the way she relates to the rest of the world make her incredibly interesting. I enjoyed how the first half of the novella is better constructed, with a quick but constant rhythm, while the more her sleep deprivation hits the more the story rushes forward.

The ending was the bit the satisfied me the least, but simply because the story wasn’t what I expected. I would have preferred something less open ended.

Trigger warning for animal death and violence.

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

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
This book was entertaining but I think it could have been shorter. Maybe a short story. It did bother me that multiple chapters back to back only had a sentence on the page.
Other than that I don't have a lot to say about this book. It was a bit disappointing but overall it was good.

This was a quick, exciting ride! The story itself was decent. I’m not sure that I liked how segmented it felt. I feel there could have been more depth. The ending was a let down and kind of rushed after the lead up.

Reading this book felt like being on a rollercoaster... that only ever goes up. Like many others, I felt that the book was leading to a big climax, only for there to be no resolution. I'm not sure if that was the intention of the author (i.e. as an artistic metaphor for the life and struggles of the main character, Iðunn), but for me, it detracted from the otherwise good storyline. I can't help but feel as though the essence of the abrupt ending could have still been preserved while adding a few more pages of explanation, which only makes me think that the ending was rushed and incomplete rather than a point made by the author. In any case, I enjoyed reading most of the book, and I look forward to seeing more from this author!

Thank you to Net Galley and Tor Publishing for the ARC.

This is a very unusual story about a woman who realizes that she's been sleepwalking at night. Where does she go, and what does she do there?

I've never read a book quite like this. I went into it expecting certain themes to be hit, and though I ended up being wrong, I still really enjoyed this book. The writing style is very engaging and different from other horror novels I've read.

The way this story unfolds is so masterfully done, and the mounting sense of dread kept me flipping pages super quickly.

The one thing I admit didn't work for me so well was the ending, because I'm still not quite sure what happened. I do like endings that are open for interpretation, but I expected more of my questions to be answered.

I'm really glad I took a chance and read this book and will definitely be thinking about it for a long time.

The Night Guest, despite being a translation from its original Icelandic, is a short thriller with beautiful, biting language. I found myself entranced by the borderline defamiliarization in the prose, in the strange way the narrator describes the world around her. She has almost a childlike innocence, and is treated as such (her parents failing to acknowledge her veganism, her coworkers pitying her for buying a pedometer rather than use her phone, etc.).

I thought the short, repeating chapters made for a wonderfully tense atmosphere. The repeated “where did I go?” chapters cemented Idunn’s innocence in the depth of her odd yet monstrous condition; she is as much a victim as anyone else, her life taken by this unknown force.

This story does a beautiful job of showcasing the struggles of a chronically ill woman, framing it with horror elements, painting a picture that chronic illness doesn’t just hurt the host, but those around them as well.

While I wasn’t a big fan of the ambiguous ending, I found that viewing this book more as a metaphor and less of a true monster story gives it more power and authority. There’s never a clear or true end to chronic illness, and when you’re a woman, it’s just “all in your head” anyway.

To close up this review, I want to applaud Mary Robinette Kowal for her brilliant translation of this work. Definitely a novella to check out if you need a quick scare with some substance!

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I’m backlogged with ARC’s but trying hard to play catch up! This book was really unexpected and took me by surprise! It’s rather short and has been translated fairly well since the author is from Iceland. Some of the names were difficult for me to pronounce but I pushed through and it was well worth it! The story ends pretty open for interpretation and I really hope there will be a follow up! I would recommend to anyone who likes mysteries and unreliable narrators!

I was hooked from the very first page. A woman feeling fatigued constantly and having to state her case for doctors over and over again?? Been there, babe!
We follow an Icelandic woman named Iðunn at her darkest point. She is always tired, waking up in mysterious bruises, desperate for answers. She meets with a new doctor, a psychologist, and even purchases a smart watch to track her health. She starts noticing her smart watch amping up her number of steps by a significant amount…. Hello??? The call is coming from inside the house.
Missing neighborhood cats, pushy icky “ex”, a dead sister, the tone being so dark you have to wait and let your eyes adjust - no wonder I devoured this. You can physically feel the fog that Iðunn is trying to navigate her way through, and it never lifts… not once.
Along with other readers, I was taken aback by the last chapter. It felt very out of tune with the rest of the book, and I’m still scratching my head trying to decide if I loved or hated it. Every part of this short book felt like it seamlessly blended together in a lovely depressing web, but that last chapter was… hmm.
If you cannot stomach animal abuse, do not read this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

Iðunn has been struggling with fatigue so she goes to yet another doctor. After going through the normal routine, they never learn anything new.

Until one night she falls asleep with her smartwatch on and when she wakes up she learns she’s walked over 40,000 steps over the course of the night.

What happens when she’s asleep? Why is she waking with injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?


I really enjoyed this book. BUT please do not read it if you have a hard no for animal death/abuse. It happened off page, but it was talked about, and there was quite a good portion dedicated to it. Like so many cats. Besides the multiple cat deaths, I really enjoyed this book! It was a short and sweet horror novel that was great. The pacing on this book was also really fast, so before I knew it the book was over! The downside was the overly ambiguous ending! I’m all for a little mystery in my ending but this was left wide open, and I needed a little more resolution. While I have made up my own ending in my head, it just doesn’t work the same for me as if the author did it for me.

As this was a translated book, I just wanted to say that it was well done, and I think the translator did fantastic! I read a few translated novels a year, and sometimes the translator doesn’t quite nail things, but I think that this one was flawless.

I devoured this and boy was it tasty! There was a lot of unanswered questions but I felt this was intentional, I felt I was losing my mind along with our protagonist, the writing style was fantastic and I would definitely read more by this author, it's fast paced with short chapters which adds to the feel of the rapidly declining mindset of our main character, suspenseful and creepy prose that gave me the heebie jeebies, this was a tense and unsettling novella

<i>The Night Guest</i> is perfect for when you want a spooky book to finish in one sitting. It's basically written like a stream of consciousness: straightforward and choppy (in a good way), which just adds to the thrill.

This is probably one of the only novellas I liked reading, and ironically its only flaw is I wish it would have been longer— the story is just so interesting that I feel like the ending doesn't do it justice! I wanted more!

Will probably reread this again in October once it's out, I have a feeling this will rate higher when I read it in the proper atmosphere ~~

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in return for an honest review!

The Night Guest was quite the ride. The story revolves around a woman who wakes up each morning feeling tired, her body exhausted and does not know what she could have done to cause this. It snowballs from there, turning spooky interweaving her family and relationships. I personally thought this story needed more depth. The ending was quite abrupt and felt too quick, not really answering many questions that I had. It left the story very open ended which as a reader reading a thriller, I was expecting more. I also found the characters to be quite unlikeable, including the main character. She had many disturbing thoughts and her inner monologue was not one I really enjoyed experiencing. I think this story had great potential and I did finish it quickly, but I found myself frustrated with the lack of storyline and ending.

The Night Guest is compulsively readable and a quick lil horror story. I was on edge and the bumps in the night were bumping! I do wish it had been longer and more fleshed out, the ending is abrupt—as others have said. I loved the peek into Icelandic daily life and I quite enjoyed the writing style and would absolutely pick up another book by this author in the future.