This was a fast, thrilling read. I believe I saw it recommended in one of the upcoming thrillers to look out for and went back to request and read it.

But first, MAJOR TW for dead animals. If you love cats, this may not be the book for you. I had seen a TW in another review and was able to skim over the worst part.

Overall, the suspense and the short chapters that kept the reader questioning what was happening at night, where was she going at night...? This made the book a one-sitting read. And it was excellent.

If you enjoy a psychological, Icelandic thriller, this is a great read for you.

"The patriarchy speaks with my mother's voice." – The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir

⭐⭐⭐/5

⚠️ cw: violence, details of injury, animal death, animal cruelty

Iðunn has been having trouble sleeping. She goes to bed, falls asleep, wakes up eight hours later expecting to feel refreshed, and instead only feels more tired than before. The doctors find nothing, and her friends and coworkers seem to dismiss her concerns, telling her to exercise more, try yoga, "what about essential oils?". She feels her life slipping away in the confusion of a missing diagnosis, until one morning, after falling asleep with her new pedometer still on her wrist, she wakes up to discover that she walked 40,000 steps during the night.

This horror novella is short and sweet and so will this review be. Clocking at around 200 pages (some of which only consist of a line or two), this is the perfect book to read in one sitting.

The book uses what is happening to Iðunn to explore themes like the pressure of expectations – both external and internal – as well as loneliness, anxiety and misogyny.

Iðunn is one of the most fun main characters I have encountered in a long while! Her internal monologue feels so real and relatable that most neurodivergent people would feel called out, especially those with a similar mix of anxiety and a tendency to get stuck in their own brain.

The only thing that could have improved this book is a different ending. I was predicting 4⭐ until the last section, but it was still one I very much enjoyed my short time with.

Overall, if you're looking for an unsettling, mysterious novella, bookmark this one for September or go request a copy!

What an incredibly unsettling and fast-paced novella. I practically inhaled this in one sitting! Warning - there is A LOT of cat death.

Iðunn wakes every day feeling sore and exhausted, but according to medical tests there is no reason she should feel this way. From that revelation, the reader is quickly pulled into Iðunn's life filled with unease and dread about what could be happening every night.

The pacing was excellent, with a ton of incredibly short but impactful chapters. The ending is very abrupt, but it worked for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for the chance to read an ARC and review!

As I watched the main character unravel, I devoured each chapter as I tried to get to the bottom of the mystery. This was a fast read with an ending that you will keep thinking about well after you’ve finished the book.

I would recommend this title to those who love thrillers and mysteries, especially those with unreliable narrators.

Also, because of the length, I would recommend this book to those who are in a reading slump and need to feel excited about books again.

Trigger warning for animal abuse.
What a great horror novella! It was very fast paced and many chapters with less than a full sentence of words, but definitely story telling!
Idunn has many ailments that no one can seem to help her with. Many doctors and no sleep lead her to taking matters into her own hands. The creep factor really starts when she decides this. All characters, even minor are necessary for the flow of the days and lost days. Idunn’s parents, her non-relationship with them and the same with her male friends, her strange connections to cats all push the story forward. All of these non-relationships help her find her greatest relationship with herself. Though frightening, it’s with herself!
I would recommend this as a quick, reset, read. It’s entertaining, creepy, and doesn’t require a lot of deep thinking.
The translator, Mary Robinette Kowal, did a wonderful job keeping the flow of the story, as this was originally written in, I believe, Icelandic.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for providing me with this Advanced Reader’s Copy, in exchange for my honest review.
#netgalley #horror #arc #translatedcopy

A quaint story that consistently keeps a sense of unease and Iðunn is the perfect character to follow. The mystery was somewhat predictable but held its own until the end (which, unfortunately, wasn't my favourite). Knutsdottir is an author I'll keep on my radar.

This was an entertaining book until the very end. The ending made no sense to me. I don’t know if it was because it’s a translation or if it was written that way, but the ending was just bizarre. Very abruptly ended as well. I was into it up until then.

Thank you to the author, netgalley, and the publisher for this e-arc to review.

This would make a fantastic movie. The pace was perfect to keep the imagery and atmosphere. I was sucked into the story the whole time.

Wow! I’m going to be thinking about this book for a long time. This book flies by and leaves you at the edge of your seat wanting more.

Iðunn is at the doctor’s office again. She wakes up exhausted every morning and often has new injuries to go with the exhaustion. After running tests with no discernible results she is left with no answers. Talking for friends and family leads to questions about exercise, diet and nighttime routines. Iðunn finally decides to buy a pedometer to count her steps. After falling asleep with it on she realizes she walked over 40,000 steps in one night.

This leads to Iðunn taking matters into her own hands to figure out what she is doing at night and it’s a wild ride.

I wanted to give this book 5 stars because it is so, so good. I was so surprised when it just abruptly ended!! I wanted so much more! I’m sure that was by design but I’m still kind of mad about it. 😆

I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the author and Tor Publishing Group for allowing me to read this title early for review purposes.

Iðunn visits yet another doctor in the hope of finding a cause for her fatigue. No matter what she tries: going to bed on time, taking vitamins, exercising - nothing helps. Blood tests show nothing and doctors dismiss her symptoms. She even buys a sports watch in the hope of becoming wiser - only to discover when she wakes up that she has taken more than 40,000 steps during the night. What happens in her sleep? And how did she get those scratches?

A wonderfully strange and mysterious book with a big horror twist. I found Iðunn
an intriguing and wonderfully cynical character. Written at a brisk pace and interesting to read something translated from Icelandic!

WTH did I just read?! I’m still sitting here wondering what happened and how to even explain how I feel about this book because I still don’t know. I’m honestly speechless…

This story started off really well and it was everything the summary said it would be, the main character keeps waking up every morning with scratches, bruises and feels like she’s exhausted like she didn’t sleep at all. Then she starts finding random spots of blood on herself, so she buys a watch to track her steps and finds out what’s been happening to her throughout the night.

Then the plot falls apart, and I’m left feeling more confused than when I started the book. I feel like I have more questions than answers and I still don’t fully understand what happened. I sadly won’t be reading anything else from this author because this was enough for me to know I don’t want to be let down again. It had such potential but that ending was so abrupt and just awful.

3.5/5. There were a few parts that I feel like I missed something due to lack of cultural knowledge, but otherwise an enjoyable quick read.

This was such a weird and unique little book.

The first few chapters could have been about me and my life. I know exactly what it feels like to live with unexplained, horrible symptoms on a daily basis, to wake up every day exhausted, to be told my blood work looks fine, and to be dismissed by doctors.
But I really hope that I will never find myself in a similar situation as the main character of this story.

Iðunn, a woman living in Iceland, is worried about her health. She‘s exhausted and keeps finding strange bruises on her body. She starts using a smart watch to keep track of her daily steps. But then she falls asleep with the watch on and wakes up to find she‘s walked over 40.000 steps in the night.

This was a quick read with very short chapters (loved it) and I finished it in two sittings.

I enjoyed the writing style. I was entertained the whole time and I loved the eerie and creepy atmosphere.

The main character was really interesting, especially from a psychological point of view. And unlike other reviewers, I didn't find Iðunn unlikable.

I especially liked the commentary on women's experiences of not being taken seriously by medical professionals.

But some parts of the story were very hard to read and I could have done without them (trigger warning for all the animal lovers).

And the ending was quite abrupt and left me with unanswered questions. The story just didn’t seem finished to me.

I would still highly recommend this to anyone who loves fast-paced and weird horror novellas.

This was a great read-fast, absorbing, scattered with acerbic humor and ever-mounting tension.
I loved that the narrator was typical of so many of us-weird symptoms? Google it and tell your doctor what you have!
Never mind the fact that she-also like most of us-got the diagnosis wrong.
The good-the mystery of what exactly is happening to this narrator while she sleeps was intriguing.Just the right amount of description to build on her sense of disbelief and dread.
The chapters were short (some literally just a sentence) and kept the story moving. I knocked this out in a couple of hours because I had to read “just one more”.
What kept this from being 5 stars-I feel like a significant chunk of backstory integral to the narrator’s situation was left out. I would gladly have read a few extra chapters to get a better sense of the who-what-why. Also, I dislike ambiguity in my endings 🤨
This has strong “Come Closer” by Sara Gran vibes. If you enjoyed that one, put this on your list right now!

*** NO SPOILERS ***

The author delivered an exceptionally gripping tale of a young woman seemingly trapped by a degenerative health issue. Sleep is not only not restful and restorative it leaves her aching and more tired. Occasional superficial injuries that she has the next morning. Could she be getting scratched and bruised by falling out of bed and not awakening? I could actually sense the growing level of frustration experienced by the lead character. No matter what "the experts" try, in their analysis all the tests fail to produce a solution. This is overlaid onto her work schedule, a co-worker ex who is bothersome, visits to parents where it seems each time is a replay of every other time, memories of her deceased sister, and attempts to get back into a "normal" life routine.

Strange bits and pieces of moments of her dreams are seeming like pieces to a puzzle. Only she has a handful of unrelated ones, and no idea how large the puzzle is.

Her life is a constant struggle of trying to juggle her exhaustion, new boyfriend, absence from work, with pressure to return or get medical authorization, her troublesome ex, and now the neighborhood cats seem to no longer like her. All that framed by an increasingly troubled realization of what happens when she sleeps.

I spent the story trying to figure out the exact answer to the problems she was having as well as how she'd be able to get past them. The author kept dangling that next little bit of information, the hint of a possibility, the prospect of a clarifying clue that kept me chasing the tale to the end.

First read of this author's works. It had me hooked, it was a fast read, a twisting journey and like many theme park rides over too soon. I can't wait to see what she has next. Highly recommended and 4.5 stars rounded up to five

I want to thank the author for her work, the translator who made it possible for me to read, Net Galley for making it a 48 hour available ARC which I devoured in one sitting. I think I understand that this review remains internal to Net Galley. I typically post reviews on Amazon (US), Goodreads, and BookBub and will do so right before or at its release date.

Thoroughly enjoyed this! Great pace, lovely dread-inducing atmosphere that keeps you hooked and I found Iðunn relatable & endearing. Minus a star for a bit of a let down ending, but worth the read for sure.

The Night Guest begins with the narrator, Idunn, visiting a doctor to discuss her symptoms of extreme fatigue. She worries initially that she might have some horrific disease, only to find that she's actually sleepwalking. The sense of dread is palpable, and over time events begin to be more and more horrific, and I found the book impossible to put down.

The Night Guest is a swift, unsettling story that will leave you feeling pistol-whipped. What a ride!

We are following our main character, Iðunn, as she wakes up each day feeling more tired than before she went to sleep. As her world starts to spiral, and she stops sleeping, what’s really happening to Iðunn?

I thought this was a great spooky tale that packs a punch in a short novella.

A quick read for me. Compelling, creepy, everything you want in a good horror story. There are some content warnings you may want to check up on, mainly for animal deaths (not depicted- only the aftermath of it shown) and references to domestic violence.

Very quick read. Easy to get through. Our FMC is exhausted and likely losing her mind and we are along for the ride, feeling every bit of her journey. I had to reread the ending a couple times and I was also left with the question of what was under the pillow? What was found there that was kept secret?