THE NIGHT GUEST - Hildur Knútsdóttir

Iðunn is trying to find out why she's struggling so much and is constantly feeling fatigued. She rotates through doctors, feeling hopeful when she finds a younger, female doctor who doesn't relate her problem with 'female' troubles. But no matter what she tries, from changing her diet, to getting more exercise, to vitamins and sleeping pills. Nothing seems to be helping her and no one is able to make a diagnosis that makes sense.

One night Iðunn wakes up after having fallen asleep with her smart watch on and discovers that somehow she put on 40,000 steps. She keeps this to herself but tries setting different traps and notes to see if she's actually doing something at night. Nothing she does reveals what's happening at night, but increasingly she wakes up to discover some unsettling things about her - bloodied face, black eyes, her body covered in dirt.

It gets to the point where she fears going to sleep and won't allow herself a social life, until she meet one special guy. After their first night together she quickly heads home, not daring to fall asleep at his place. But to stay in a relationship she can't avoid sleeping over and her worst fears are realized when, after falling asleep in his bed, she wakes up in her own bed, covered in blood.  

What happens to Iðunn at night? What happens to those around her?

I listened to the audio version of this book, read by author/translator Mary Robinette Kowal and I found it highly engaging.

The slowly emerging sense of wonder and horror builds very well. Kowal as narrator definitely has an advantage of really understanding the story as she was the translator and her narration is subtle and helps the listener grow into the fear surrounding Iðunn.

There are a lot of questions around what's happening and not all of them are answered.  I don't have any problem with that (but others may). This isn't a traditional story in any genre, really, though most likely it will be appreciated by fans of dark fantasy and horror.  It's certainly not as 'in-your-face' as Christina Henry or Grady Hendrix and maybe not as dark as Ramsey Campbell.  Though maybe it is.  The darkest parts of this horror are what's left to the reader/listeners imagination - though we're certainly guided to go to a dark place.

This is a short book - a novella at best - but I suspect we'll be hearing and reading a lot more from Hildur Knútsdóttir in the years to come.

Looking for a good book? The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir is a slowly building, dark story that engages and thrills the reader by keeping them on edge and guessing throughout.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

* * * * * *

The Night Guest

author: Hildur Knútsdóttir

translator: Mary Robinette Kowal

publisher: Tor Nightfire

ISBN: 9781250322043

hardcover, 208 pages


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in...
Read more

THE WALLED CITY - Ryan Graudin

Image
  Jin and her sister, Mei Yee, were taken and sold and then sent to the lawless Walled City to serve as prostitutes or slaves to anyone willing to pay. Jin managed to escape her captivity, but not the Walled City and she now lurks about, disguised as a boy and is trying to track down the brothel where her sister is still captive. Jin will work odd delivery jobs to earn a small bit of money and hopefully have a legitimate means of coming in contact with her sister's captors.  This is how she meets up with Dai, a mysterious boy who has somehow managed to avoid running with any of the gangs in the city but he seems to have his own unusual connections, which Jon could desperately use if she has any hope of finding Mei Yee. But Dai has his own desperate needs.  The story is told from the different perspectives of each character and we do bounce around quite a bit as the chapters are generally short. This never bothered me, which is slightly unusual as often I find this techni...
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - ...
Read more