Book Review: The Night House by Jo Nesbo

 

Title: The Night House

Author: Jo Nesbo

Pages: 245

Pub Date: May 30, 2023

Source: NetGalley

GoodReads Description: From the internationally best-selling author, a twisted, multi-layered spin on the classic horror novel

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 Black Mirror Wood. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . . .

You know who I am. She's going to burn. The one you love is going to burn. There's not a thing 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 . . .

What in the heck did I just read? It has been a while since I read a book by Jo Nesbo, but this is really not what I thought I was diving into when I began this book. I went in blind, without even reading the synopsis and ... wow. I don't even know what to say really - it was a wild ride. In the end, I appreciated the twists and the way the outrageous things that happened in the Part One and Two were rife with symbolism in retrospect.

Also, I will never get the vision of a man with his arm up to his shoulder in a meat grinder out of my mind. So there's that as well.

4 Outrageously Horrifying Stars