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A novel
by Jo Nesbo
From the internationally best-selling author, a chilling fresh spin on the classic horror novel • When the voices call, don't answer.
In the wake of his parents' tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank-called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Mirror Forest. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear ...
She's going to burn. The girl you love is going to burn. There's nothing you can do about it.
When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence—and preserve his sanity—as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.
Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story ...
"Nesbø deftly guides readers on a journey much larger than many will expect from the slim volume ... Expectations of genre, setting, and mood are subverted as a simple horror novel unfolds into a story that encompasses grief, mid-life crises, and more." —Library Journal
"Scary fun that won't cause nightmares—or will it?" —Kirkus Reviews
"Wild and ambitious ... Nesbø shows a sure hand at crafting moments of terror." —Publishers Weekly
"A fast-paced escape of a book ... Nesbø skillfully keeps the reader wondering where the story is going to go next and when, if ever, the main character will reach his happy ending—or if, in fact, he deserves to reach one at all." —Booklist
"Nesbø doesn't spend any time fiddling about, building up, or misdirecting. In The Night House, the horror begins immediately. And it only keeps calling from there. There are lessons to be learned here: who to believe and what to believe in. And how a person can change, when the impossible turns possible and the unimaginable is laid bare. This horror fan loved it." —Josh Malerman, New York Times best-selling author of Bird Box and Spin a Black Yarn
This information about The Night House was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jo Nesbo is a #1 New York Times best-selling author whose books have sold fifty-five million copies worldwide and have been translated into fifty languages. His Harry Hole novels include The Redeemer, The Snowman, The Leopard, Phantom, Knife, and Killing Moon. His other books include The Son, Headhunters, Macbeth, and The Kingdom. He is a recipient of the Raymond Chandler Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lives in Oslo.
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