ebookreview | Entries tagged with author: jo nesbø

The Night House by Jo Nesbø

Series:
N/A

Genre:
Netgalley, Crime, Fiction, Horror, Suspense, Thriller

Publication Date:
May 30, 2023

Pages Numbers:
256

Read Date:
July 23rd, 2023

Date Finished:
July 25th, 2023

Rating:
4/5

Blurb:

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 . . .

Review:

This novel follows fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved, whose parents were killed in a fire and sent to his aunt and his uncle in Ballantyne. Quickly, he finds himself the outcast of the town, but when his classmates start disappearing, the town starts to turn on him. Richard believes the number he called has something to do with the missing students and he is determined to prove himself innocent of the murders. But Richard's narrative may or may not always be reliable.

With pages under 290 pages, this creepy novel is a perfect read for the Autumn season especially during the month of October. The beginning of the book will be a bit confusing plot but as the story goes further into the novel, things start to make sense and it starts pulling you in with its twists and turns until everything you believe changes in the final pages.