Publisher: Harvill Seeker (Trade Paperback – 26 September 2023)
Series: Standalone
Length: 263 pages
My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Earlier this year I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the intriguing new novel from international bestselling author Jo Nesbo, The Night House. Nesbo is an author whose work I have been interested in checking out for a while as I have heard a lot of about his intriguing crime fiction stories and thrillers. I was really excited to check out something from Nesbo this year, and whilst The Night House is somewhat different from the author’s more typical work, it proved to be a very fascinating and compelling read with a deep story behind it.
Plot Synopsis:
WHEN THE VOICES CALL, DON’T ANSWER…
In the wake of his parents’ tragic deaths fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote 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. 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 woods. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices start . . .
When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne.
Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story.
The Night House was a very unique read that combines several disparate genre elements and turns them into a personal and moving novel set around a damaged protagonist. The book is broken into three parts with three different, if closely related, stories being told in each section of the book. The first story is a great coming-of-age tale that sees an extremely angry teenager, Richard Elauved, witness a series of extremely graphic and strange deaths around town, seemingly linked to a phone number he called as a prank. Blamed for these apparent murders, Richard tries to prove his innocence and face off against a mysterious and dangerous evil threatening his town. There is something very reminiscent of classic Stephen King in this early part of the book, and Nesbo moves this horror infused storyline at a very quick pace, setting Richard up against terrors and mysterious manipulations, with many of his friends dying all around him. There is an interesting conclusion to this part, which really explores the protagonist’s deeper feelings and desire to be the hero, and it proved to be a great self-contained story.
Things start to take an interesting turn as Nesbo suddenly jumps into a whole new story. The second part of The Night House puts a different tint on the prior events as an older Richard appears and shows that not everything is as it seems. There is a great central story that takes some dark twists and turns, while you also get some intriguing continuation of character elements from the first part of the book, especially towards Richard’s past and the events that formed him. Nesbo introduces some key revelations, hints and intriguing differences between the protagonist’s memories of events and what other characters remember, all of which lead up to the big twist revealed in the third part of the book.
I’m not going to dive too deeply into the third and final section of The Night House, as to do so would reveal too many spoilers, but it really ties everything together in an extremely clever way. The overarching secrets, conflicting stories and differing backgrounds are all worked into this short final part of the book, and you get a complete story as the gaps in Richard’s unreliable narration are filled in. This part of the book really brings the story full circle, and you can fully appreciate how clever Nesbo has been in the prior sections of the book, especially with how he was simultaneously telling unique stories while also setting up this finale. There was some brilliant character work involved in building up this finale, especially when it comes to trauma and how it impacts behaviour, and I really enjoyed how the horror elements for the prior parts of The Night House had some great symbolism for the book’s conclusion.
I ended up having a great time with The Night House, and it proves to be a quick and interesting read to get through. Thanks to its excellent character work and the clever way Nesbo sets up the story, The Night House is one of the more unique reads of 2023, and I really appreciated the compelling and heartfelt story that Nesbo told, especially as he managed to work some memorable horror moments into it. A moving and compelling read that proves to be an excellent introduction to Nesbo’s writing.
The Unseen Library 