I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir, Mary Robinette Kowal Published by Tor Nightfire on September 3 2024
Genres: Adult, Psychological horror
Pages: 208
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A perfectly paced page-turner that will keep you guessing, The Night Guest is a small gem of a terrifying story.
The Night Guest is written by Icelandic author Hildur Knútsdóttir and translated by Mary Robinette Kowal, and even though I don’t read a lot of translated fiction, it’s one of the best I’ve read. This is a short, unsettling story where the horror is mostly implied rather than stated, and I think that’s one reason I loved it so much. You have to really know your craft to write something scary without being obvious and beating your reader over the head, and Knútsdóttir did a great job with just that. I read this in a matter of hours, helped by the fact that the chapters are short and punchy, and the no frills writing style makes for a quickly paced story.
The story is narrated by a young woman named Iðunn, who is worried that something terrible is wrong with her. She wakes up each morning exhausted, with sore muscles and even bruises she doesn’t remember getting. Convinced that she might have a disease of some kind, she visits her doctor, only to be told that her bloodwork confirms that everything is normal. Iðunn’s friends tell her to exercise more, and maybe she’ll feel better, so she gets a watch to keep track of her daily steps.
But one night she forgets to take off the watch and wakes up to a shocking surprise: during the night, she walked over 40,000 steps. Where did she go? Is she sleepwalking? And why does she sometimes wake up with blood under her fingernails? Iðunn is determined to get her life back, and so she starts to investigate her strange, nighttime activities.
First, a trigger warning/spoiler that needs to be said: if you’re a cat lover (or anyone who hates animal deaths), there are cats in the story that die, although thankfully these deaths are off the page with very little description. And even though I’m not a cat person, it was hard to read about.
The Night Guest is a tension-filled story that gets weirder and weirder the more you read. The author drops little hints about what might be going on with Iðunn (which I won’t spoil here), so I did have an idea of what to expect, but ultimately I was surprised by the outcome. Knútsdóttir makes some pointed statements about women and healthcare—which appears to be a universal problem!—as Iðunn keeps visiting her doctor with her upsetting symptoms, and yet is told there is nothing wrong with her. We eventually find out that she’s experiencing something otherworldly and isn’t crazy at all, and therein lies the beauty of the author’s point. For every woman who has ever had a doctor say those words to you, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
The story is mostly focused on Iðunn and her nighttime mystery, but there are a couple of side characters who are affected as well. It was chilling to see what happens to Iðunn each morning when she wakes up. First she’s simply tired and achy, but then she finds unexplained bruises, a black eye and even blood on her clothing. She eventually begins to investigate what’s happening to her and uncovers some horrible things.
Some readers might be frustrated by the ambiguous ending. Not everything is fully explained and the author leaves it up to the reader to interpret what’s really happening to Iðunn. Personally, I didn’t mind this style of storytelling, because it made her experiences even scarier. The Night Guest is the perfect story to pick up for a quick, creepy read, and I look forward to Hildur Knútsdóttir’s next book.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
I’m intrigued…
Roberta R. recently posted…Tell Me Something Tuesday: What Day in Your Life Would You Like to Relive?
Sooo good!
Well we both reviewed Icelandic authors today. The question is whether this is too creepy for me or not.
That’s a good question! I think it might be too creepy…
Awesome, thanks for the great review. I just picked up an audiobook copy. It’s short enough I hope to fit it in between other books. Been a while since I read a book based in Iceland.
I’ll be curious to hear how the audio version is, enjoy:-)
I thought this was fantastic as well! I’d love to discuss that ending, though… the ambiguity made me feel a bit crazed, but it was so good! And the overall writing was terrific, and I loved the structure of the short chapters, and how creepy it all is. Very hard to discuss without spoilers though…
It was tough to avoid spoilers!
I am so glad you enjoyed this one so much! It really seems well done, as a book!!
It was so well done, and also very well translated:-)
I’ve got to admit that your warning makes me wary as those kind of scenes always make me flinch. But other than that this sounds fantastic. I know I’m not familiar with this particular ending but I do think that ambiguous endings can work wonders with horror as it tends to make it play on your mind and keep you guessing even more.
The writing was so good that for me, the ending really worked:-)
I have to admit that I’m one of those readers who often gets frustrated by ambiguous endings. This isn’t always the case since it depend on the book but 90% with those kinda endings I do feel a bit irked. Other than that (and the cat deaths) it sounds like a really great read.
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I do too sometimes, I guess it just depends. I think I loved the rest so much I wasn’t bothered by the ending.
Hard agree about the cats! I am the aforementioned reader who dislikes the ambiguity, and I will admit, it frustrated me a LOT. I still really enjoyed the book, I honestly just want someone to… idk, make up an ending for me that I like and I will be all set because honestly I LOOOOVED it aside from that!
Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight recently posted…Reviews in a Minute: Wake Me Up When September Ends
LOL I totally get it. It sort of took a weird turn and you had to figure it out yourself.
This sounds weird and spooky, and I appreciate anything that takes a critical look at medical misogyny! I’m intrigued…
The themes were very well done:-)
This sounds really good, I like unusual and slightly weird and I’m intrigued by the ending.
Lynn 😀
The ending was super weird but I loved it:-)
Well that seems a real page turner Tammy! And I changed of GP years ago because he told me everything was in my head…
It’s amazing how many women that has happened to!
Ooooo – this sounds fascinating! Onto the TBR list it goes!
Yes, lots of fun and worth picking up:-)
I just finished this the other day and really enjoyed it! I also think the ambiguous ending made the whole thing even scarier.
I’m glad we had similar feelings about it:-)
I need a translated book for a challenge I am doing, and this might just fit the bill. Thanks for such a great review.
Oh cool. This would be perfect:-)
I’m definitely going to have to make time for this one! Good thing it’s a quick read!
An ambiguous ending might be an issue for me, but sounds like they did spooky in a subtle way! Great review!
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