Literally Dead Book Club discussion

Since we have 3 reads of the month, and they are all short- I didn't think we needed discussion posts throughout the reading process- so just share all of your thoughts on The Night Guest here!

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH THAT I ALMOST THREW IT ACROSS THE ROOM AT THE END. what was that?! there was so much good build up. It felt so interesting and claustrophobic. I was obsessed. I don't think we had quite enough info to make the inferences that they wanted us to reach. stunning cover also btw.

okay so I really enjoyed this one and I have some thoughts on what's going on and would love to discuss. my cat theory I feel is reaching but I feel better about the theory on Mar and Stefan.

So Iðunn may be going through the trauma of losing her sister, potentially to suicide, and she is sleepwalking but with the motive of revenge or avenging wrongdoing. Another theory I have is the possibility that her sister is possessing her at night to right any wrongs she did not get the chance to while alive.
With the cats she loves them and would love to have one but is unfortunately allergic. Maybe because they wander she is righting a wrong of owners not keeping a good eye on them or they inadvertently harm her by coming around when she is allergic (this is stretch imo). In terms of the men, she may have noticed subconsciously that Mar was stalking her sister because of the coincidence of seeing him around (he thought she was Ingunn and was stalking again/thought he found her again) and in the times that Ingunn would tell Iðunn about boys or nights out he was never mentioned. She mentions him as a "prince" so much maybe to show that even the most charming on the outside can have deceit or harmful intentions. Stefan was a creep to her and would definitely have disrespected and hit her if he had the chance and was constantly texting her to meet just to be able to drug her for terrible reasons. They both had reasons to die.
And at the end she goes to be with her sister who was the only one that had let her live or had her back. At one point she alludes to this by saying something like it was nice to have lived for a bit.

Read this one a little while ago, and I liked it! Interesting concept & premise, fun execution. The ending was a little unhinged, but overall an enjoyable read! I gave this 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for Goodreads rating system purposes.

I liked this way more than I thought I would! I got an eARc back in January and I had a good time reading it.

The cat scene was alittle sad but it didn’t take away from the enjoyment and fast paced nature of this novella

At least if it's going to leave you with zero real answers and only more questions, it's under 200 pages 🤷‍♀️
I was really enjoying the narrative voice and tense pacing of this book, but I prefer a few less loose ends in order to leave a story feeling satisfied and like it was worth it

I really enjoyed this one. The writing was fantastic and I usually don't even like first person perspectives that much. The shorter chapter length and breaks really did for me in term of pacing and atmosphere. I think I would have preferred if we got just a tiny bit more explanation, but at the same time it wasn't a significant flaw for me. Overall, a great read.

I read this on my Kindle because my library system did not have it and it was only $5 when I went to purchase it and the physical copy was like $14. I have my Kindle set up to show the page I'm on and the percentage through the book that I've finished. So, when I tell you that I was 92% finished and I tapped the screen for the next page, saw "ACKNOWLEDGMENTS" at the top of the page, and I was shocked, believe me. I almost threw my Kindle across the room.

I was completely into the narrative. Being a cat person, and the person in my neighborhood who feeds the strays and names the strays and sometimes takes in the pregnant ones, I relate to Iðunn. There were so many quotes that I loved. With a translated work, it’s hard to know who to attribute the flow of the prose, but I loved it.

I can agree with Vivi’s theories mostly, although I do think her sister did tell her about Már. At one point, he asked her if her sister ever mentioned him and she kind of shrugs her shoulders and moves the conversation along and says she is glad he “takes the bait” and begins talking about himself again. There is more there.

Is this about Iðunn never being seen? Maybe the cats are the only beings who actually see her and the sister who comes out at night must destroy the cats. There has to have been a trigger to start these events though. She was able to have a relationship with Stefán before and didn’t make him go missing. Obviously, it’s up for our interpretation and debate. What was the trigger? Was it the break up? Did that begin her unraveling?

A taut, effective novella with a sympathetic protagonist - or victim, shall we say. It was even a bit humorous, the parts where her hypochondriac thoughts manifested in paranoid googling of her symptoms (which we're all guilty of at some point). The horror hung on the periphery, in the memories one cannot remember, of not being able to...

full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I wanted to fall in love with this book and I would have if I had not been left with so many unanswered questions. Imagine my surprise when I turned the page and saw I was at the end.
I want to know what happened that night with Már. I want to know why all the cats. How did Ingunn lose her life? And how does her death years later play into the whole storyline?

5 Stars! I loved this so much! I loved the slice of life feel to this and the matter of fact style of writing. It was an effective way to show how the MC was detached from what was happening to her.
I LOVED that open ending and that we will never know what was going on...kind of how she felt through the entire book!

I enjoyed the pacing and short "chapters", I was hesitant about the first person at first but I think the main character was very relatable to me in her approach to what was happening to her which made me like it more (and it wouldn't have been the same book without it) overall the ending was a touch too open for me but I did enjoy the reading experience

Tbh I was just flat out confused…I’m here for an ambiguous ending but the story left me with too many unanswered questions

Enjoyed this one, the sleepwalking was a nice realistic touch, and I like the ending scene. Felt really bad for the cats, but vindicated by the obviously unscrupulous male colleague who tried to take advantage and drugged her. Mar seemed like a nice guy, but I guess he was into her sister and that was the only reason for being with our main character. 4/5

5⭐️

I loved this. It was weird and creepy and kept me intrigued the whole time.

I enjoyed this book a lot and I loved the concept of having mystery steps on your smartwatch in the morning. I was thinking it would be more vampire-y and I didn't love how it ended. It also reminded me A LOT of Sara Grans novel Come Closer which I gave a 5 star. This landed somewhere between a 3 - 3.5 for me.

I loved this one so much until the cats, and the ending just irritated me. All that buildup for not a single answer?! I’m glad if it was going to waste my time it was a fast read at least.

The beginning was so well done, well paced and giving just enough to keep you hooked. I was trying to decide if she was just paranoid, if she was being stalked, if she was possessed, etc, but I can’t answer a single question now that I’ve finished it.

And I just never think an animal needs to be killed for the shock factor of it all, it’s just sad. I think you can add enough shock factor with the people and the mysteries and leave the animals out of it lol.

Overall, I’m disappointed with this one! I loved the cover and I loved the beginning and the way it was spaced out! So wish it had ended better!!

I enjoyed the frenetic winding journey the novel took.I love that you have to draw your own conclusions but was hoping for at least a glimmer of what was going on. I wonder why the broach was significant. Or why were the spirals were everywhere. 4 stars.

i looooved this concept!! first half was a little slow but i really enjoyed the second half when it started to really pick up and get creepy... and the main character was so insufferable most of the time (i loved it, 4ish stars!)

Perfect little creepy package - just enough to keep you guessing without feeling like a lazy writing. Not the first work of a Icelandic author I read and while both were different genres, they both shared the same matter-of-fact tone that can serve you the most wicked sentence out of the blue that leaves you with your jaw on the floor and move on before you have time to process what you’ve just read. 5/5

Like a lot of people here I really enjoyed this one and then wanted to throw it across the room. I flew through this one and loved the story/style of it. The ending frustrated me though. It fit but also left me with so many questions!!

This had great creepy vibes. I liked the straightforward writing and the commentary on how shit it is to be an AFAB patient with any kind of health issues, let alone the chronic and unexplainable. The ending was confusing but I didn’t mind it. 4/5

I absolutely loved the first half of this. The commentary on misogyny in healthcare was very well-done and seamlessly integrated in this creepy tale. And I, too, am constantly exhausted no matter how much sleep I get and a hypochondriac, so the beginning of this was way too relatable for my own comfort. The prose was engaging and carried you quickly through this story. However, as a HUGE cat person, I was upset by all the cat death for what felt like mere shock value. Thankfully, the top reviews had mentioned it, so I knew going in that this was a plot point of the story, which made it easier to prepare for. However, graphic cruelty against cats will always get a star dinged for me.
Like a lot of other people mentioned, the ending was a bit of a letdown. Ambiguous endings only work if there's enough for readers to draw at least a few possible conclusions, but that just...doesn't happen here because it ends way too abruptly. Why kill all those cats? What was the meaning of the spirals? What triggered the sleepwalking? Overall, a solid 3.5 stars.

3 stars. I was able to relate to Idunn's health struggles in the beginning, but it really lost me towards the end. As soon as the sister was brought up the first time it was clear she was involved somehow. Unsure if it was genuinely supernatural or a reflection of the MC's declining mental health - I think the ending was supposed to leave us in the dark though.

Out of the three novellas this was my favorite although still only a 2 or 3 star. While I understand the purpose of an ambiguous ending in horror, I don’t understand an ambiguous EVERYTHING, especially when we’re in 1st person. The author shuts of out of her brain. Did she have no thoughts or questions when she saw the brooch? It means nothing to us the reader because it seems to mean nothing to our narrator character. Does she have no other memories about her sister? I don’t understand their relationship at all-was she violent and moody or was she caring and funny? If the narrator character knows, we should know too.