40/100 or 2.0 stars

The premise of this book and the beginning chapters were good, so this is very disappointing. It was right around the 25% mark where some absolutely unneccesarry offensive language started. The main characters are supposed to be in their forties but they speak and act like they are teenagers. The way the author set up the story, it was impossible to suspend my disbelief, and the characters are not just unlikable, they aren't even realistically unlikeable. The story fell apart, and I couldn't continue with this. I do not like DNFing arcs, but I just couldn't do this one. I am unsure if I will give Bates another chance, perhaps in a few years I will try again.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★ ★ ★
𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:

I am an avid Jeremy Bates reader! This was a good read but wasn’t quite what I usually expect from our author and maybe that was the point and I just didn’t get the point of this one. I understood what the intention was but it fell short for me. I liked the idea of a house and having to get through the rooms and it did give me some anxiety feelings but it just wasn’t the horror-ish feel and doom gut feeling I usually feel with Jeremy’s books (this doesn’t mean some readers will not LOVE AND DEVOUR this read). The ended was good but I sadly did not enjoy our characters but the writing is obviously great, it just was that this wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. If I had to give you a ‘what was this book like’ example I would tell you it is like an escape room meets carnival meets black mirror. I anticipate the next book that comes out by Jeremy.

Large thank you to our Author, NetGalley as well as Kensington Publishing | Kensington

I enjoyed this book. The people unwittingly make a deal with the devil and pay the ultimate price. Funny how some people will do anything for money. I like how it was essentially a “real life escape room” with increasingly challenging tasks/mazes etc. Really does a good job setting the creepy atmosphere.

Joe is a backpacker and hears about the No-End House and is intrigued. Joe is tormented by his wife's death. He meets mysterious Helen who talks him into the No-End House challenge. The house seems to know his dark secrets and feed his fears. The escape rooms were unique and you could feel a sense of building dread. The ending was definitely unexpected.

Props to the cover and the name of this book. Very nicely creepy and there are creepy and scary bits in this story. I enjoyed the mushroom house and when payment was collected to pay the price of the mistakes of Joe and Helen during the games. The slow unraveling of themselves as they tell each other their pasts and how it might be affecting the challenge was also quite dark. Though between that and the house, it was really hard to tell what the truth was (because oh boy, dark things supposedly happened to them both!). But then it hit the dinosaurs room and went wacky from there and was less horror and just plain odd. I will say the end redeemed it though and left me with a nice chill and questioning what might be real, what is the house and does anyone ever really escape its clutches.

So, in short, it had a good start with the finding of the house and the first few rooms, kind of muddled in the middle but a strong finish and to be honest it was exactly what Joe deserved, if it was true. Crazy story!

It's more a psychedelic trip than a horror story. Visions, time travels, the classic pact at the beginning.
Barcellona's dark and gothic soul.
I wasn't a fan of the characters I found a bit flat.
Entertaining but not my cup of tea
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I'm usually a fan of horror and the blurb for this book was so promising...a haunted house escape room style where the characters have to survive 9 challenge rooms to win the prize. Despite the ominous contract and a bad gut feeling, Joe signs the contract along with Helen, a woman he's just met and they enter the first room. What follows is more like a fever dream of odd characters, fantastical creatures, and plenty of action. But it felt like just a jumbled mess to me and not at all what I was expecting. I really struggled to finish this one, although I did like the ending.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

ARC review. I have some mixed feelings about this book. It wasn't what I was expecting and it started off slow for me, but it was an interesting premise and I enjoyed the last half and the ending. I will say, as another reader noted the dialogue detracted from the story as it felt forced and unrealistic. Further, I didn't feel any of the chemistry between the characters that was supposedly developing throughout the story.

I also felt that while the plot was unique, there were a lot of holes in the storyline. For instance, it seems like the characters went days without food or water and they took on tasks that laypeople without any kind of specialized training could probably never do? I think the book has a lot of potential but didn't quite get there for me. However, I did enjoy the read overall and would like to express my gratitude for the early copy!

This is the first book I've read by this author & I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of a trippy Alice in wonderland. It sucked me in once they got into the house, but kind of lost me for a min with the Jurassic park type area. It ended strong though & definitely had me questioning what just happened & if Joe was crazy or still part of the house.

Even after waiting a while to write a review, I'm still not sure what to say about The No-End House. The plot was interesting, though predictable at times. The characters were interesting, but I found their dialogue annoying. I am glad that I stuck around until the end, though.

Thank you, NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, and Jeremy Bates, for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley & Kensington Publishing for the chance to read this book

HUGE HUGE HUGE Fan of Jeremy's world's scariest places/legends !! Been rocking with this man ever since I got my kindle, So it almost pains me to say this but this book was a hit and a miss for me. At first I loved the idea and the characters, I would say For about the first half was great for me it, we were rolling at a pretty good speed for a while, but then the books seemed to get a bit rocky around the Nazi in the mirror, I got through it even though it slowed down a bit for me.. Picked back up and I was like whatever we can get back up and make great timing still... then the dinosaurs came about... Ngl kinda dragged on a bit too much for me with all those chapters.. I did love the idea once they started to figure out what was going on, how the rooms were coming about (trying not to say anything spoiler wise) and the fact that Helen figured out they had a bit of control. But I think some of it just was a bit too far off the plot for me to keep up with, sometimes I had to go back and re-read what was happening, whether it was like "wait did i just read that right!?" or because my brain was just giving up. I'm glad i stuck it out til the ending but honestly it was a bit predictable at that point what was coming..

This was a fun read! This is probably my favorite haunted house type book for 2025. I loved that I thought I knew how this book was going but I was completely wrong.

Jeremy Bates writes some good horror without getting into the gore. He makes it so you want to keep flipping the pages to find out what happens to the characters.

I think the ending was perfect for the title of the book.

Genre: Horror
APK: Ebook
Pages: 308
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Series or Standalone: Stand-alone

For starters, I think this is a lot more enjoyable when you go in knowing this: it does not follow rules. Not the rules of the world, or time, or any of that.
It's been a trip and a half, goddamn. It's such an easy book to keep reading. And how many random funfacts are sprinkled in there? I fucking loved that so much.
I didn't expect it to end the way it did. And then the last chapter? Another fucking plottwist, which I'm probably going to be thinking about for a while to come.

2.5 stars. Love it or hate it, The No-End House is definitely a book that will have you thinking, “WTF did I just read?” when you turn the final page.

The set-up has a ton of potential. Three years ago, Joe lost his wife in a tragic accident, and he’s been traveling the world on foot ever since. Soon after he arrives in Barcelona, two things happen: First, he meets a beautiful stranger named Helen in the bar at his hostel; and then, he overhears some backpackers talking about a mysterious place called the No-End House in the city’s Gothic Quarter. When Joe tells Helen about the No-End House and its impossible challenge – nine terrifying escape rooms that no one has ever beaten – she convinces him to find it and try the challenge with her. As you can probably guess, this doesn’t go well for Joe and Helen.

The first half of The No-End House is incredibly engaging: unsettling, full of tension and dread. It’s an atmospheric book, and the structure gave Jeremy Bates the opportunity explore several different settings – which he did well, making for an immersive reading experience. That said, though, the book starts to go off the rails around the midway point. I get what Bates was trying to do, but the horror aspects became a bit silly, and the plot devolved into an absurdist sort of action-adventure that completely changed the tone of the book. And there were some plot inconsistencies that I just could not ignore.

There were attempts at character development – Joe and Helen both have interesting backstories – but their chemistry felt forced, and Bates didn’t go quite deep enough to explore the themes (child abuse, trauma, grief, religious persecution) in a meaningful way. While I did appreciate the conclusion, it could’ve been executed in a way that felt less clunky. In the end, the book just felt sloppy and half-formed – which is a shame, because the ideas presented in The No-End House have a lot of merit. Thank you to Kensington for the complimentary reading opportunity.

I honestly don’t know what I just read? I can’t even remember the first half of the book and I really hate to say that. I don’t have anything negative to say about this story at all, it just wasn’t for me and that’s okay.

The plot intrigued me but the execution itself just fell flat. I wasn’t a fan of the characters and magical elements threw me off. I was expecting a haunted house mixed with Saw but ended up with a down the rabbit hole kinda vibe.

I still recommend checking this one out for yourself, you may be presently surprised!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Jeremy Bates for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for The No-End House coming out June 24, 2025. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I really love horror novels. I thought this one would be really fun. I enjoy the type of travel stories. Unfortunately it didn’t really hold my attention. I thought it would be a little scarier. I would check out more books by this author, though.

Sadly DNFed my e-ARC at 48%
but thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity nonetheless.

I really wanted to like this but I just couldn't get into the world. The dinosaurs are sadly what got me in the end, I just couldn't take it seriously. Maybe this is the kind of book for someone else, but the horror was not well done, it was filled with random minorities in bad positions (a nazi little person, really?) and I just couldn't force myself to finish

After Joe Hadfield's wife Is tragically killed, he decides to disconnect from his normal life for a while. Deciding to walk around the world, Joe starts off on his quest for relief from his grieving. After 3 years he has made it to Barcelona. While staying at a hostel he hears some fellow travelers talking about a challenge at a mysterious house. Those who can make it through the challenges the house offers, collect $5,000. Going about his day he soon puts thoughts of the house out of his mind until the next day. When he meets a quick witted and intriguing stranger named Helen, he tells her about the challenge. Deciding to try their luck they find the house and meet with a mysterious owner. Reluctantly signing an ominous contract, Joe and Helen are thrust immediately into The No-End House. To escape you must make it through all nine rooms. But The No-End House doesn't like to let people go once they enter.

This is definitely not what I expected but in a good way! Let me start by saying that you have to definitely suspend your disbelief. If you can just go with the flow, I think that the story is really interesting. Tourism horror is always fun in my opinion and with the supernatural elements mixed in, The No-End House grabbed my attention right away. The pacing in the beginning is a little bit slower, but this is where the foundation is laid and the characters are introduced and developed. Once you get into the first couple of rooms the pace significantly ramps up and soon it feels like an accelerated fever dream. I really liked how each room was vastly different from the last and the twists that are fast and furious at the end. I will definitely check out more by Jeremy Bates in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley, Jeremy Bates, and Kensington for this ARC! Publication date was June 24th 2025.

I wanted so badly to like this book more. I was caught up in the hype of "Saw" vs "Jurassic Park", of how "Stephen King-esque" it was supposed to be.
But it was none of those things.
Maybe Stephen R. King.
Yes, it had the house, yes, it had the challenge that no one could complete, yes it had dinosaurs.
But it DIDN'T have so much more than it had.
It didn't have a worthwhile plot.
It didn't have characters you gave a damn about.
It didn't have any real scares, which for a horror novel is pretty crucial.
And it didn't have any iindication that the writer was influwenced by authors such as King, or Ania Ahlborn (who was also mentioned as a comparison).
Bottom line: One third of the way in, I just kept wondering
"Is there no end to this No End House book??"

In fairness, I have it on good authority that Mr. Bates, known as one of Canada's top Horror authors, has written some really great books, and I am willing to give him a chance beyond this one, but I write honest reviews and it actually saddens to write this one.
Not all books are for everyone. The No End House just wasn't for me.

The No-End House by Jeremy Bates is one of those rare horror novels that messes with your head in the best way possible. At over 400 pages, I’ll admit I was hesitant at first—but once I stepped into the house, I couldn’t stop turning the pages. Each of the nine rooms is more surreal and unsettling than the last, and the way the story digs into fear, memory, and guilt added a layer of emotional intensity I wasn’t expecting. It’s not just horror for the sake of scares—it’s thoughtful, twisted, and immersive, with a creeping dread that sticks with you.

This is the kind of book that rewards patience. The length gives the story time to breathe, build, and truly pull you into the mind-bending world Bates creates. If you're someone who enjoys stories that slowly unravel into something far darker and more psychological than they first appear, The No-End House is absolutely worth the investment. It’s the kind of horror that lingers—not just because of the scares, but because of the questions it leaves you asking about reality, guilt, and what it means to face your deepest fear.