The Night House
Ratings17
Average rating3.1
From the internationally best-selling author, a chilling fresh spin on the classic horror novel • When the voices call, don’t answer.
“In The Night House, the horror begins immediately. And it only keeps calling from there.”—Josh Malerman, New York Times best-selling author of Bird Box and Spin a Black Yarn
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.
Tags
Content Warnings
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
I've been a huge fan of Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole novels (the name may not translate well, but the books are fantastic) for many years, so I was very excited to get my hands on The Night House. I'll start by saying that obviously, this is an excursion from Nesbo's usual genre, so don't expect there to be any similarities to his other work. Even the writing style was unrecognizable to me... If the author's name wasn't on this book, I would have never guessed that he'd written it.
With that being said, this was a fun retro-horror-esque story that delivered on the creeps right from the get-go. Although it did contain a few cliche plot twists that might have been better left out, they in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
Be aware that if you're into hardcore horror, that's not what you'll get here. If I were to choose the target audience, even taking the plot twists into consideration, I would feel comfortable labeling this as a book for teens.
The writing is easy to read, and the story was somewhat interesting; I managed to get halfway.
But, it was kind of losing steam for me, and I wasn't vibing with the main character. Protagonists don't need to be likable, but they do need to be interesting. Richard was obnoxious without being interesting, and that just put me off.
I feel guilty cuz I had brought it to book club and it was chosen as the next read, and I noped out on it. Oops, sozzies.
So I have had books by this author on my shelf for a while that I keep meaning to read. After finishing The Night House, I'm ready to tackle those books LOL
This is a very fun and twisty (although easily predictable) horror story. I absolutely loved the writing and the feel of the story. It has Tales From the Crypt vibes, which for me, is great. It's campy and a tad geeky but I really enjoyed it.
It's absolutely perfect for Spooktober and one I highly recommend for those who seek strange and spooky but don't want overly gory. This releases on October 3 so it's also perfect timing for the Spooky season.
I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
Top Prompts
