The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir review

About The Book

Book: The Night Guest
Author: Hildur Knútsdóttir
Standalone or Series: Standalone
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Publication Date (UK): 03/09/2024 (2021 in Icelandic)

🔍Standout Read. Awarded to books I highly recommend.

My Review

Ever since attending Iceland Noir in 2024 and listening to Knútsdóttir speak, I have been meaning to read this book. I’m kicking myself it took me so long as I loved it! It’s under 200 pages and you won’t want to put it down.

Iðunn is always exhausted. She’s at the doctor’s again. This time after insisting to see a female doctor, after her last had: “clearly had enough of women with unexplained symptoms. Hysterical women.”

Sick of feeling shattered. Iðunn has exhausted all the usual avenues: supplements, diet, sleeping pills and even invested in an expensive watch to track her steps.

After neglecting to remove the watch before going to bed, she’s perplexed in the morning when she notices the step counter has over 40,000 steps registered. The only times this has happened for me is when I’ve had a late night dancing, but that’s not the case for Iðunn who was tucked up well before the stroke of midnight. She decides that it must be broken, as the counter should have reset at midnight to create a clean slate for the following day’s goal.

But I mean she is waking up feeling like she’s been at the gym all night. What if the counter is right?

And this is where Knútsdóttir builds the pacing of the story so well, as you reach chapters that’s simply a question: “Where did I go?” This leaves a lot of blankness on the page which works wonderfully to create tension. You’re dying to turn over and progress the story, but also apprehensive about what you may find out! There’s definitely a sense of dread and unease.

I loved the horror aspect of figuring out just where Iðunn was going at night and what was happening to her.

If you’ve been to Iceland, or have been researching it as a destination, then you will also appreciate the local references. The Night Guest is set in Reykjavík and contains mentions of Happy Hours and of course the cats. There are a lot of famous cats in the city and dogs were even actually banned until 1984!

I adored this and would definitely recommend it.