This book seems to have gotten a lot of hate from reviewers, but I think it’s because they were expecting it to be something it was never intended to be. It reminded me a lot of the indie escape room horror movies that have come out in recent years. And this story is like a cross between a haunted house and an escape room. It doesn’t seem like a serious horror book because it’s not supposed to be. And yes, there were some cheesy aspects of it, but that just added to its charm, in my opinion. Really, if you’re looking for horror simply for the sake of horror (kind of like how Edward Lee operates), this book will likely be right up your alley. And FYI, the seemingly odd mention of the propeller blade death makes sense at the end, but you have to experience the whole book to understand it. All in all, I thought it was pretty entertaining, especially if you’re just looking for something horror-related to pass the time with.

Huge thanks to Kensington Publishing Group and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

Thanks to Kensington publishing for providing me with this arc.

When I read the synopsis for this I was expecting a campy slasher, but was somewhat disappointed. I feel like this book takes itself way too seriously to a point where it just feels ridiculous. The whole premise doesn’t even seem logical to me: why would a (rich) man in his 40s who decides to walk across the world to deal with the grief of losing his wife and a 40 something year old woman that works for unicef enter this shady challenge for money neither of them need? Upon seeing the weird contract I think any sober adult would simply walk away.
Also, I strongly disliked the way Helen’s entire character was set up. I despised the way that immediately after she confides in Joe about her very extreme trauma they just start making out….. it didn’t fit the atmosphere at all and frankly was just ridiculous considering she just told him how she was abused by her own father.

This book dragged on for way longer than it had to. The challenges were extremely underwhelming, barely any violence, and the book just wasn’t scary at all. Frankly I find it insulting that it compares itself with a cult classic like Saw, but completely misses the nail.

I can not believe it took me this long to read anything by this author and by this author I mean Jeremy Bates , especially since I checked and found out that I had some of his books on my kindle that I brought when they was on sell, And since I've now read this one I've added it to my wish list , there was some some about how he wrote and how the atmosphere of the book that give it that some what of the creep and twisted feeling that I was looking for plus it was the perfect book to read doing a storm while it was raining outside my window . I think why I ended up liking it so much was because of the supernatural suspense that was though out the book , as well as how the author made you question everything from start to finish , it was like he was psychologically playing with you , making you feel like you was part of the story and every thing his characters was going though so was you.

Jeremy Bates' novel is bound to leave many people dissatisfied, on account of its touching on so many different aspects of one and the same story, coming to it from several different directions, with jarring variations in characterization, pacing, genre, and premises. It's not hard to see, from very early on, how this might confuse those readers who prefer a simple, straightforward plot, without disorienting mashups or seemingly unmotivated conceptual intrusions of one genre into another: what to make of a book that starts as an escape room challenge, transforms into a labyrinthine and messy, supernatural adventure with the promise of romance, then turns into sci-fi territory (there's apparently a visit to the Jurassic, then a trip to the far future), changes into a slasher (with two cameos by Jason Vorhees), flirts with dark fantasy (with a cannibal witch living in a mushroom), and ends up, finally, in typical grimdark style, with people fighting monsters to the death with katanas? Why deny it; such a book will definitely not be for everyone.

Yet for those of us who love dense plots, story-driven supernatural suspense, psychologically accurate characterization, liminal settings, jaw-dropping visuals, wild feats of the imagination, and twisty endings, "The No-End House" is pure gold! I myself loved the book from start to finish, realizing from early on it'd be an unorthodox excursion into grief horror, through an original spin on the familiar "escape room/haunted house attraction" trope; but I'd be lying if I said that I knew beforehand how far Bates' unbridled imagination would go from Barcelona, where the story begins, to entirely unknown, whole countries of brilliantly imagined terror and suspense. There is such a quick progression through the storyline, it's easy to feel curious about everything, and before you know it, you're deep into "The No-End House" and finding the experience hugely enjoyable. Occassionally, the action slows for the briefest of moments; this allows both readers and characters to breathe - before getting swept away again.

And the characters! They feel real, they talk like common people do (they even use slurs under stress, when they shouldn't; yes, there ARE such people in real life, so why not in fiction!), they think like you and me; and that's what made the ending hit so hard - a perfect WTF moment served right when you hardly expect it.

I recommend the novel very highly. It'll grab your attention from the first chapter, and if you like action, mystery, liminal horror, and shocking endings, you’ll enjoy "The No-End House" for sure

2 stars
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After the tragic death of his wife, Joe Hadfield decides to pack everything up and backpack around the world. During his latest stop in Barcelona, he overhears two backpackers talking about the ultimate haunted house challenge - a large gothic mansion, featuring nine rooms to escape, puzzles to solve, and a cash prize for anyone who makes it out. The catch? No one has ever completed the challenge. Joe is torn about participating, but he won't be alone. He'll be joined by Helen, a UNICEF worker whom he has befriended while in Barcelona. Helen's character was baffling; she's written to be in her 40s but acts like she's 20, and even goes as far as bullying Joe to join the challenge.

I went into this one pretty blind, and based a lot of my original opinions on the cover alone. While the story does start fairly eerie, it takes a turn when Dinosaurs and Jason Voorhies get intertwined into the plot...after that, I felt like I couldn't take the book as seriously as I had hoped. As the book went on, I found myself laughing more and more, while I had hoped to be on the edge of my seat. I haven't read anything else from this author, so I'm unsure if this is the typical writing style.

If you're looking for a slow-burning, psychological thriller that will leave you questioning the entire ending, I would recommend this. Unfortunately, this one just didn't meet my expectations!
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I want to thank Kensington Publishing | Kensington, Jeremy Bates, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy of The No-End House in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions formulated are my own. The No-End House is scheduled to publish on June 24, 2025, You can pre-order your copy today.

[3.5/5] Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for an early copy of The No-End House! The premise of this book immediately caught my interest. I was obsessed with season 2 of the ScyFy anthology series (Channel Zero) that went by the same name, so I admittedly went in with preconceived ideas of what this book may be like. BOY, WAS I WRONG. I tore through this in a day. I had no clue where No-End House would take Joe and Helen next, and with increasingly bizarre interactions and consequences, I could hardly put it down. I had a lot of thoughts (and even more questions) flitting through my head, and by the final chapter, they all flew the roost. It felt like Bates was dipping his toes into tackling identity, reality itself, and it felt increasingly, frustratingly shallow (as did our main character, Joe) for most of the book. However, I feel there's redemption in this by the conclusion. It's hard to encapsulate all of my feelings without spoiling; I found it a solid read that will stick with me for a while, for better or worse!

#TheNoEndHouse #NetGalley

The blub for this book is seriously misleading. I went into it thinking I was getting an escape-room style horror novel. You know high-stakes puzzles, a heavy dash of psychological tension, and clever twists much like the SAW movies the book claimed to emulate . Instead, what I got was... a surreal look into how grief affects people, maybe? Although it came with a very healthy side of what the heck did I just read?

I mean right off the bat we are told that Joe's wife died because she walked into the still moving propeller of a Cessna airplane, that she had just landed on her last supervised flight towards her pilot's license. You mean to tell me all of the other times she has flown, she wouldn't have known the propeller takes time to stop moving? She wouldn't have known to avoid it? She couldn't HEAR it still moving? I almost just DNF'ed the book then because that's not horrific, that's death by stupidity.

To be fair, the book does offer some creative horror within its pages. The individual rooms are imaginative, ranging from eerie mind games to straight up survival scenarios, and there are moments that get under your skin. But sadly, even when things ramped up, the pacing felt off to me with the transitions from room to room feeling disjointed, leaving me more confused than invested. And while the overall atmosphere had flashes of potential, with a few scenes being genuinely unsettling, the often silly, awkward and just out of place dialogue would immediately yank me right back out of the story. This was in part because I struggled to connect with the characters as Helen came off as unnecessarily bossy and rude, while the Joe seemed oddly passive about it. Like even when his gut was screaming at him not to sign the contract, not to do the haunted house, he still was browbeat into doing it by her. This made their dynamic feel forced and unconvincing.

And that ending? Man did that leave me with questions than answers. I’m not against ambiguity, but this felt like a puzzle I was still missing pieces to. Did Joe actually make it out? Was he ever actually IN the maze to being with or was this some kind of grief induced psychosis?

All things considered, this book was giving me heavy internet creepypasta vibes, and honestly? This book should have stayed in the vault.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

A fun and mostly unpredictable supernatural thriller that brought a new twist to an inescapable labyrinth style story. This was an easy read that had really great story pacing and kept me engaged and wanting to read more! I will say the characters really were making some stupid insufferable choices at the beginning of this one but I’ll let that slide given that the story was written well the rest of the way. I liked the relationship that built between Helen and Joe and enjoyed their creative problem solving throughout. The weak point of this novel for me was the ending, that was the most predictable part. It wasn’t explicitly a bad ending, it was just exactly what I thought would happen. Overall I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a mind bending supernatural adventure!

Thank you Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. “The No-End House” will be published June 24, 2025.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for this free copy of "The No-End House."

Author Bates has the wildest imagination to come up with these 9 rooms of horrors and tests in the ultimate haunted house contest.

And the ending - OMG! I'm trying not to spoil anything by saying that I felt like I needed a prequel and/or sequel that would explain the ending.

So Joe left a very successful real estate career to literally walk around the world after the trauma of his wife's gruesome accidental death. He's in Barcelona, hears kids talking about a haunted house challenge, meets Helen at a bar, and they decide to find the house.

Crazy and morbid! Oh, and pay close attention to the chapter headings from the "Book of Nine."

I would thank Kensington Press and Netgalley for the ARC, but honestly, I can't. Ignoring the fact the book promised SAW and delivered Jurassic Park, but the real problem with this book is there was a slur about 25% in, the one used against the dwarfism community. It's 2025, horror writers don't need to use slurs to make us scared, the scene read wrong and cringe and weird, and the author doesn't belong to that community. It wasn't cool, isn't okay, and I wish I had my time back from reading this book.

Kensington Press, do better.

I didn’t really have any motivation to continue after the uncomfortable scene with the little person. I don’t expect all characters to be morally outstanding or anything, but it just felt like an awkward attempt at cheap humor, and I already wasn’t enjoying myself much.

An unnerving plunge into the psyche, survival, and the surreal.

The No-End House is a brilliantly harrowing descent into a nightmare realm where reality fractures, time distorts, and the deepest fears of the human mind are given cruel, vivid form.

Joe and Helen, two strangers in their mid-forties, meet by chance in the romantic haze of Barcelona. What begins as a breezy, low-stakes companionship quickly morphs into something darker and more revealing once they step into the No-End House. Joe is the kind of man who drifts through life, collecting stories and sunsets, while Helen is sharp, self-assured to the point of narcissism, and unapologetically domineering. They are opposites, and they don't know much about each other - at least not at first. But inside the house, what binds them is not affection but grief, trauma, and the raw will to survive the increasingly impossible rooms that test the very fabric of their minds.

Each room of the No-End House presents a surreal, often stomach-churning scenario that challenges not only their physical endurance but their grasp on what is real. The horror is cerebral as much as it is visceral. One moment you're questioning the physics of time and space; the next, you're blindsided by a gruesome revelation dropped with such casual cruelty it forces a reread - just to confirm it said what you think it did. Shock is wielded like a scalpel here, cutting through the reader’s comfort without mercy. The house doesn’t play fair. Its rules are elastic, punishments deeply personal, and manipulations masterful.

What makes it truly stand out is how the terror becomes a lens for emotional truth. Joe and Helen are both running from pasts they haven’t fully faced, and the house doesn’t allow escape without confrontation. Their dynamic grows increasingly strained and revealing, giving the story emotional weight amid the grotesque.

This book is not for the faint of heart. The gore is graphic and unapologetic, with several scenes that are genuinely stomach-turning. But for readers who enjoy psychological horror with philosophical undertones - and can stomach the macabre - The No-End House is a masterpiece of modern horror fiction.

I love all of Jeremy bates books but this one is the best. Kept me up all night as I couldn't wait to read what happened ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I loved this book! The slow discovery of the reason for the rooms to be as they are and the fact that they become more complexe as they get through them was so beautifully written. It takes you on a wild ride of discovery through the subconscious of the main characters. Because of the nature of the story there's no way to know what twist will come up in the next room (chapter).
For a horror book, it was not gruesome which I enjoyed. It was written to keep you guessing and keep you on the edge of your seat guessing what comes next!
I highly recommend this book to anyone that can usually easily figure out where books are going because this one will keep you guessing until the end.

This book is a victim of being mislabeled. I’m a hororor movie addict and was really excited when I saw the comparison to Saw and Hostel. This had more of a fantasy vibe to it that I wasn’t expecting. On the plus side, it’s nonstop action, the author is a gifted writer, and I do believe, if labeled correctly, this book will have an audience.

Thanks for the opportunity to read!

Oh boy, this was a BAD trip. I loved the sound of the premise of The No-End House with its haunted house challenge and escape room vibe, so I fully expected to have a great time reading this book. Add the Barcelona setting, and I was even more excited to dive into this horror story... Sure, I was a bit worried about the negative reviews, but since I don't mind things going a little crazy I still hoped for the best. I was wrong. There is crazy, and there is whatever The No-End House ended up being. I don't like DNFing a book, but since there was no way I was going to give the story more than one star anyway, I decided to just throw in the towel and save me an even bigger headache.

Somehow I don't think The No- End House ended up being the story that was promised in the blurb. Sure, there is the challenge and the story is set in Barcelona. But instead of going creepy and dark, this mostly felt like someone drugged my water which resulted in a VERY bad trip. Like I said, I don't mind things going a little crazy and supernatural, but this crossed the line so much that it wasn't even visible anymore. If the story would have at least been scary, I might have been able to forgive some of it, but the plot felt mainly completely ridiculous.

I also struggled considerably with the two main characters, who were basically one-dimensional cardboard cutouts with only one or two defining traits. Joe is basically pathetic, with him letting Helen walk all over him and the constant mention of his wife who died three years ago (but he is also disrespectful towards her memory at the same time?). Seriously, doesn't he have a backbone at all?! Some of his comments were also extremely offensive to be honest. Basically the only two things you know about Helen is that she is black and has a spicy personality, and this is repeated a LOT. She is both unmemorable and very easy to dislike, and her behavior only made things worse.

I was very underwhelmed with the challenges themselves as well. Not only were they not creepy at all, but they were stretched out too long and there just wasn't any tension at all. This also had to do with the writing style and tone, which often included offensive and crude remarks that really put me off reading any further. The Book Of Nine quotes at the beginning of the chapters didn't hit home for me either... Sometimes less is more, and this book was so fantastical that it lost me even before they made it out of the first challenge room.

I'm honestly regretting ever requesting a copy now, because The No-End House clearly wasn't the book for me. I hardly ever DNF and it pains me to have to resort to a second DNF within the same week, but since I couldn't care less if any of the characters made it out alive and the sheer stupidity of the plot was giving me a headache, I opted for the easy way out. Especially since there was no way that I was going to be able to give this book more than one star in the first place... And life is too short to waste it on something that is clearly not ment to be.

The No End House
By: Jeremy Bates

4 Stars

What can I say about this book? It was captivating for one thing. It kept me hooked from page one.

After the death of his wife, Joe decides to walk the world. While in Barcelona, he meets a girl, it always starts with a girl, and she leads him on a journey or challenge to The No End House. This, or is it she, will be the death of him if he doesn't succeed.

This was a crazy, twisted book that kept me captivated. The way it was written sucked me in from the beginning. I felt like the No End House had me, too. This book had a great set of characters and descriptions that kept me so enamored, wanting more. I wouldn't call this book scary, but it was very psychological. It touched on some hard subjects and did it well. It was a book I'd say was wonderfully macabre. It was definitely a book worth the ride. Or read.



*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Reviews

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the eARC of "The No-One House".

A thoroughly average novel. It really felt like a short story that just got bloated. The main characters were quite cookie cutter and were treated quite shallowly. The breakneck pace of the book offered little development of the characters or the situation. Every "revelation " just brought more questions and mostly random/nonsensical results.

If you start it, you can whip through in a few hours, but you will keep expecting there to be more than there ends up being. The end maybe the only redeeming quality of the book, even though it is fairly predictable.

I didn’t love this as much as I thought I would. The line between real and surreal is blurred, and it’s never really clarified what is happening.

⭐️2.5 stars
With the synopsis referencing Saw and Hostel I was very interested to read this. In my opinion it was nothing like those 2 things. It started off good, I loved the vibe, then it all went downhill. There were no tags about this being fantasy/magical so some of the challenges really threw me off guard. It just fell a bit flat for me in the horror/mystery aspect.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for this ARC.