Book Review: The Night House by Jo Nesbo

This is the first book by Jo Nesbo that I’ve read, and I have to say I couldn’t have picked one that was more to my taste! The Night House is a crazy, hallucinogenic nightmare which grabs you by the throat right from the beginning and then just when you think you know what’s going on, it throws it all up in the air and leaves you reeling. And then it does it again! Without giving spoilers, the ending is a really great example of when fiction loops around and forms a never-ending cycle. You could finish this book, go back and start it again and it would flow like the story was continuing. I love it!

The story centres around Richard, a disaffected teen with a troubled past who is railing against his boring small-town life and his adoptive parents. When his friends start disappearing, he is the only one who knows what’s happened to them, but no one believes him when he tells them what happened. Before long he’s in serious trouble, and not just from the police.

It sounds like a fairly standard premise for a horror novel, but it really doesn’t carry on like that. This story will take you on a journey and then pull the ground from under your feet. It is well worth your time, and it’s such a page-turner that it won’t take you long to read at all.