Scan barcode
bookishvicky's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.5
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an advanced copy of this book for a fair and honest review.
Rating: ☆4.5 stars
Pub Date: 03 Sep 2024
The Night Guest, despite being a translation from its original Icelandic, is a short thriller with beautiful, biting language. I found myself entranced by the borderline defamiliarization in the prose, in the strange way the narrator describes the world around her. She has almost a childlike innocence, and is treated as such (her parents failing to acknowledge her veganism, her coworkers pitying her for buying a pedometer rather than use her phone, etc.).
I thought the short, repeating chapters made for a wonderfully tense atmosphere. The repeated “where did I go?” chapters cemented Idunn’s innocence in the depth of her odd yet monstrous condition; she is as much a victim as anyone else, her life taken by this unknown force.
This story does a beautiful job of showcasing the struggles of a chronically ill woman, framing it with horror elements, painting a picture that chronic illness doesn’t just hurt the host, but those around them as well.
While I wasn’t a big fan of the ambiguous ending, I found that viewing this book more as a metaphor and less of a true monster story gives it more power and authority. There’s never a clear or true end to chronic illness, and when you’re a woman, it’s just “all in your head” anyway.
To close up this review, I want to applaud Mary Robinette Kowal for her brilliant translation of this work. Definitely a novella to check out if you need a quick scare with some substance!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Chronic illness, and Animal death
Moderate: Blood and Murder
More...