Jo Nesb酶, the Norwegian author best known for his 13-book crime series starring Harry Hole (鈥淭he Snowman鈥� was made into a 2017 movie with Michael Fassbender), is out with something completely different.
鈥淭he Night House鈥� begins like something from the mind of H.P. Lovecraft, as a young, bullying boy in the English countryside dares a classmate to make a prank call from a phone booth. By page eight, the classmate鈥檚 ear is 鈥渟tuck to the bloody, perforated listening end,鈥� and the phone is making slurping sounds as it liquifies Tom and sucks him into oblivion. Suddenly Richard, the young bully, is a chief suspect in Tom鈥檚 disappearance.
When another classmate mysteriously disappears after spending time with Richard, Richard is sent to the Rorrim Correctional Facility for Young People while authorities investigate. We learn bits and pieces of his back story in the next 100 or so pages 鈥� his parents died in a London fire when he was 14 and he鈥檚 now living with relatives in the U.K. 鈥� which end with him breaking out of the facility as he tries to save the life of a third classmate who is possessed by whatever evil lurks on the other side of that phone line.
And then at a little over the halfway mark of this slim horror novel, Nesb酶 begins 鈥淧art Two鈥� and readers are forced to rethink everything they just read. It鈥檚 a remarkable about-face, but not altogether surprising. Narrators aren鈥檛 always reliable, after all, and telephones that eat boys are the stuff of a vivid imagination. How things piece together for the remainder of the book shouldn鈥檛 be spoiled, but suffice it to say 鈥淭he Night House鈥� really isn鈥檛 a classic who-done-it horror novel, but a story of one traumatized young man鈥檚 search for meaning in the wake of a personal tragedy. Or as one of the characters Richard meets in his journey tells him: 鈥淭here鈥檚 hope for you. 鈥� That you鈥檒l find yourself. Your real self. The nice, kind boy you鈥檙e trying to hide.鈥�
After readers turn the final page of the book, it鈥檚 fun going back and picking up all the foreshadowing, some of which seems heavy-handed in hindsight, but goes barely noticed on first read. Nesb酶 inserts some references to Kafka and 鈥淭he Lord of the Flies,鈥� even 鈥淣ight of the Living Dead,鈥� which by the end of the novel function like that final scene in the 1995 film 鈥淭he Usual Suspects,鈥� as Verbal Kint reveals how he created the legend of Keyser S枚ze.
Rob Merrill, The Associated Press
