just don't fall asleep
Iðunn has gone to yet another doctor in Reykjavik, just to be told once again that there is nothing wrong with her. It’s a good thing, obviously, that there is nothing wrong with her. But it doesn’t explain why she is so tired all the time. So, so tired. It doesn’t explain how she wakes up with bruises.
She gets asked the same questions everywhere she goes. Everyone has the same unhelpful advice. Is work stressing you out? Is your boyfriend hitting you? Are you depressed? Have you tried exercising? Maybe you should eat some meat (she’s vegetarian).
Since no one else seems able to help her, Iðunn decides to help herself. She buys a high end pedometer to track her steps. She turns off the GPS, because she doesn’t want anyone else to hack in and find out where she is. But she wants to keep track of her steps, see if getting in more steps will help her sleep.
She does fall asleep, but when she wakes up the next morning, she is exhausted again. And she’s logged over 40,000 steps. So that explains why she’s so tired, but it also explains nothing. She tries setting up a camera to watch herself sleep. It doesn’t record anything helpful. She turns the GPS on through her pedometer to try to figure out where she’s going. She tries sleeping pills. She locks herself in her apartment to try to stop whatever is happening to her. She tries to stay awake.
Nothing works.
And when Iðunn finally figures out what it is that’s happening to her, it’s far scarier than anything she could have imagined.
The Night Guest is a novella from Icelandic fantasy and horror author Hildur Knútsdóttir. This is the first of her works that is available here in America. It’s a short book, but beautifully written, eerie and atmospheric. And the mystery of what’s happening to Iðunn just gets odder as she tries to stop it, ramping up the tension and making this a true nail-biter.
The Night Guest was translated by Mary Robinette Kowal, who also narrates the audio book. She does a beautiful job, transporting listeners to nights of terror and mornings of confusion and pain. However, this is not a book for cat lovers. The neighborhood cats start to go missing, and it is most distressing to find out what happens to them. But other than that, I thought this was a good short creepy story, and I do hope that more of Knútsdóttir’s novels make it to the States.
Egalleys for The Night Guest were provided by Tor Nightfire and a copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio, both through NetGalley, with many thanks.
