Reviews - The Night Guest | The StoryGraph

2.64k reviews for:

The Night Guest

Hildur Knútsdóttir

3.5 AVERAGE

saltyshroom's review

3.5

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

nuh_thaan's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

What a wild ride!? The concept is fascinating enough, but it went a direction I did not expect. What's real? I surely don't know!

The fact that the main character's sister is allegedly alive!? Like, how!? Is it herself since she's the one walking? But then who is she walking with at the end? And so much rage! So many questions, but I don't think it would've worked as well if we got more answers.

baffledborealis's review against another edition

2.5

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

trailrunner3's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ballison's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

chloe0546's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

readsleeprepeat_pl's review against another edition

3.0

Ugh! This one is hard to rate. I really enjoyed the mystery of it – a woman is sleepwalking and waking up every morning with scrapes, bruises and blood on her body. Where is she going and how is she getting these? I quickly got into the story but just as quickly lost interest. I felt like it was not really going anywhere and it was never explained what was happening. The ending was a little disappointing as well. It just ended and left me with a feeling of “what did I just read”? I don’t think I was the right audience for it but I think many will enjoy it.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

lezreadalot's review against another edition

3.75

fast-paced

I come to the realization that it’s not just twinkling stars ahead of me. There’s also the dark between them.

3.5 stars. Maybe like 3.75? This was really fast paced and propulsive and strange. Just my kind of horror, in terms of the themes and the way things unravelled. It begins with our main character Iðunn consulting a doctor, because every morning she wakes up, exhausted and body aching. Something is happening to her during the night.

Even though it's a very quick book, and even though the reader has an idea of what's going on, I liked that the main character took a while to catch up. Which isn't something I say often! I generally don't like to be way ahead of the main character. But in this instance, it fit. This isn't really a traditional horror, but I liked that about it. I really enjoyed the first few chapters, and the conversations about being a woman trying to navigate the health care system, just trying to find out what's wrong. Even if Iðunn isn't totally relatable all the time, that got me to empathise with her right away. IDK, it's not novel, it's something that's been discussed a lot before, but its inclusion here really worked for me.

This is too short for me to go into details, but I really liked the mounting suspense, the unravelling, the way we slowly start to incorporate bits from Iðunn's daily life and her past. Some parts made me really sad, especially the animal death. One thing I didn't like was the super short chapters. And I mean, SUPER short, like when they would be a couple sentences long. I know it's good for thrillers, for creating a certain atmosphere and making a book very propulsive. But this wasn't a thriller; I went in expecting horror! That tactic is also gimmicky as hell, and sorta annoying when you're listening to the audiobook. Like, "Chapter 54. One sentence. Chapter 55. One sentence. Chapter 56. Oh look! This time! There are three sentences!!" It felt awkward, and almost made me want to stick with the ebook.

But I didn't, because the audiobook as read by Mary Robinette Kowal (also the translator) was so good! It's very interesting that she both translated and narrated this; it felt like she had a lot of familiarity with the text and the characters and their emotions, and that made it a really great listen. So the audiobook was definitely worth it. I really enjoyed this overall. It's creepy and dark, with crisp writing, sometimes really satirical and witty. Would love to check out this author again.

Content warning:

animal torture and death (not on page), murder, drowning