Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø is widely known for his Scandinavian detectives and thrillers. But recently, he decided to play on the field of Stephen King and other authors who create fantastic horror stories. Jo Nesbø wrote «The Night House» — a mystical horror about a teenager set in a small town in the 1980s. I think you have already felt a certain mood and atmosphere of the book, which you want to read in the autumn evenings. However, the novel is not at all what it seems at the beginning, and this is its great advantage and disadvantage at the same time. Wondering what I’m talking about? Then read on.
Pluses:
good quality of the publication and the corresponding cover; atmospheric horror story that gradually transforms into something different but interesting; the author knows how to escalate events and create suspense; unusual and unexpected plot moves that make your brain explode
Minuses:
the novel is not what it seems at the beginning and this brings down the mood of the reader, because nowhere is it warned about it; too realistic teenage hero, who almost does not evoke empathy; each subsequent part of the book is worse than the previous one; the story is too short, it needs a few more pages
«The Night House»
Author Jo Nesbø
Translator Tetiana Veraksych
Publisher KM-Books
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 256
Cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 130×200 mm
Website kmbooks.com.ua
Richard Ellwood is fourteen years old. His parents died in a fire, so he was adopted by his uncle and aunt. They live in the small town of Ballantyne, lost in the forest. Richard goes to the local school, where he does not get along well with other teenagers. He communicates only with his classmate Tom and his girlfriend Karen. While Richard and Tom are walking together, they come across a phone booth by the road. The boys are going to play a prank on someone, but suddenly the phone sucks Tom in front of Richard. Of course, no one believes the guy, except Karen, but the police and the residents are hostile. Even his aunt and uncle are skeptical of his story, so the teenager will prove himself right. The truth is hidden in an abandoned house in the Mirror Forest. It’s time to find out everything, no matter what is hidden there.
I’ve already written above, and now you can see for yourself that here we have King’s vibes and a typical Halloween horror story. And the book really lives up to the reader’s expectations, but only in the first part. We have an atmospheric town, an unusual mystical-fantasy event, teenagers, and something evil in that forest. Yes, I understand that you can’t surprise anyone with this kind of thing anymore, but the main thing here is not to surprise, but to write well, create suspense and scare. And then the reader turns the pages to the end, almost without looking up. And all this is here, but only at the beginning.
«Night House» consists of three parts, and it’s not just for fun. Here we have a plot, in the plot of a plot, so to speak. That is, in each new part, the story is significantly transformed and radically changes its direction, style, and mood. However, it’s always something bizarre and in the thriller genre, but the contexts are different, and this greatly changes the mood of the book and its global idea.
Without spoilers, it’s hard to explain the author’s idea in any other way, but I’ll try again, but I’ll take an example from the movies. If you’ve seen Inception by Christopher Nolan, you probably remember how the characters had dreams in a dream, and it was all in another dream. Jo Nesbø did something similar in his novel. But that’s all I can tell you.
The author’s idea, in my opinion, is wonderful. Because he took the worn-out and recently popular again (for this we should mostly thank the series «Stranger Things») genre of youth horror set in the recent past and turned it into something unusual and bizarre, something original and Scandinavian, if you will.
And this adds not only volume to «Night House», but also transforms the novel into a set of allusions and references, into a platform for experiments and a definitely powerful imagination. It is definitely unusual and surprising, it is fascinating and makes you turn the pages, absorbing them insatiably.
However, in the same idea that I have been praising for the last three paragraphs lies, in my opinion, the book’s biggest drawback. Or rather, there are several of them. The first is that the novel is not what it seems from the beginning, and this is not mentioned anywhere. That’s why when a reader tunes in to a horror story set in a small town with teenagers, gets this at first, and then something else altogether, he or she is disappointed. No matter how cool or not cool it is, if a book, movie, or TV series doesn’t meet our expectations but is still cool, we usually criticize it. This is human nature.
The second important drawback is that the further along the plot, the more the novel transforms into something else, and it’s worse than it was. That is, for me personally, the first part is the best, the second is worse than the first, and the third is the weakest. And this is despite the fact that the story transforms and changes direction in a very cool way. I think this happens because the author was unable to finalize the plot, and also because he simply did not take the time to develop the story as interestingly.
To be fair, I have to say that he gave hints and hints about the quirkiness and the so-called unreliable narrator in the first part, but you realize this later, and this, unfortunately, does not save the reader from disappointment. There are also reviews by various authors and publications on the back of the book, which contain certain hints, but you understand them after reading.
«The Night House» is written with high quality and style. Jo Nesbø knows how to create an atmosphere, and everyone who has read his books knows it. He is a master of suspense and intrigue, and he also knows how to write vivid characters. His characters are always realistic, meaning they have both positive and negative traits.
However, Nesbø overdid it with the main character, Richard Elwood. The fourteen-year-old teenager evokes almost no empathy because the author has made him selfish and sometimes cruel, and most importantly, cynical and rude. And while King can quickly identify with the hero because of his imperfections, but always humanity, Jo Nesbø has played too much with realism. Because of this, the teenage protagonist is mostly disliked because there are plenty of such people in reality, and the reader should be given a book hero, not a real high school student.
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