Genre: Horror
Published: October 3, 2023
Pages: 321
In the wake of his parents’ tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank-called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Mirror Forest. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . . .
She’s going to burn. The girl you love is going to burn. There’s nothing you can do about it.
When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence—and preserve his sanity—as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.
Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . .
She’s going to burn. The girl you love is going to burn. There’s nothing you can do about it.
When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence—and preserve his sanity—as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.
Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . .
I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review.
This story was a bit of a mind-fuck overall, and the main character is set up early on as a bit of an unreliable narrator, which just contributes to the overall mind-fuck. When you don't even know what to believe because it could all be lies, it just messes with you. And that's what this book does for the entirety of the story.
I was thrown off by the class reunion part of the story as well. It felt like it kind of came out of nowhere to me, and it wasn't clear what was going on for parts of it, and I just really struggled to mentally connect it to the boy disappearing into a phone years before.
Overall I give The Night House 3.2736 out of 5 stars. I'll probably give the author another shot, but I wasn't blown away by this book. - Katie
JO NESBØ is a musician, songwriter, economist, and #1 New York Times best-selling author. He has won the Raymond Chandler Award forLifetime Achievement as well as many other awards. His books have sold 55million copies worldwide and have been translated into 50 languages. His HarryHole novels include The Redeemer, The Snowman, The Leopard, Phantom, The Thirst, andmost recently Knife, and he is also the author of The Son, Headhunters, Macbeth, The Kingdom, and several children's books. He lives in Oslo.
NEIL SMITH is a translator from Norwegian and Swedish based in Norfolk, UK. His translations include books by Jo Nesbø, Fredrik Backman, Leif G. W. Persson, Liza Marklund, Anders de la Motte, Arne Dahl and Kristina Ohlsson. His translation of Leif G. W. Persson's The Dying Detective was awarded the CWA International Dagger for best translated crime novel.
NEIL SMITH is a translator from Norwegian and Swedish based in Norfolk, UK. His translations include books by Jo Nesbø, Fredrik Backman, Leif G. W. Persson, Liza Marklund, Anders de la Motte, Arne Dahl and Kristina Ohlsson. His translation of Leif G. W. Persson's The Dying Detective was awarded the CWA International Dagger for best translated crime novel.
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