This reminded me of many other haunted house tales - The Haunting of Hill House and House of Leaves in particular - but still, in 100 pages, managed to feel like something new, using modern sensibilities and technology (Airbnb, video baby monitors) to unsettling effect. It takes the form of a writer's journal, and unlike a lot of other experimental fiction, it felt carefully handled. The panicky stream of consciousness that the narrator devolves into doesn't feel ad-hoc; the story settles into place around you, mirroring the plot, and I think it ends at just the right moment too - any longer and I'd have completely lost my sympathy for the narrator. Definitely hope to read more horror by this author, though (and hats off to the translator - have read quite a few translations recently that have felt stilted, this one was very smooth).

Unfortunately, this book was archived before I got chance to read it.

‘You Should Have Left’ by Daniel Kehlmann is a very short and very creepy novella translated from the German by Ross Benjamin. It is set at a remote house in the mountains rented via Airbnb where the narrator is attempting to finish his second novel following the commercial success of his debut. However, in between arguments with his wife Susanna and the demands of his four-year-old daughter Esther, he realises that there are some sinister forces at work in the house.

Unfortunately, while you can’t accuse Kehlmann of wasting his words here, his latest book fails to make much of an impact, even when considered as a short story. ‘Fever Dream’ by Samanta Schweblin is a similar length but is much more memorable and genuinely nightmarish. Perhaps not the best introduction to Kehlmann for those new to his work.

And you thought your recent Airbnb experience was a nightmare? This is a horror novella about a writing retreat gone bad. The narrator is a screenplay writer who’s overdue delivering the sequel to Besties. As he argues with his partner, tries to take care of his daughter and produces fragments of the screenplay, the haunted house in the mountains starts to close in on him. I’ve loved Kehlmann’s work before (especially F), but he couldn’t convince me of the narrator’s state of mind or the peril of his situation. I actually found the book unintentionally humorous.

Spooky but short...

Our narrator is a screenwriter who had a big success with his last film – a light buddy movie. Now he's under pressure to come up with a script for a follow-up and he's struggling. So he takes his wife and young daughter to an isolated house in the mountains of Germany where he hopes he'll be able to write. But the house seems to have been built on some kind of nexus that distorts space and reality, and people have disappeared from it before...

This is a pretty standard scary story, made fun by the quality of the writing and the elements of humour. Our narrator is not exactly likeable – he likes to think of himself pretentiously as an artist, although his successful screenplay seems to have been nothing more than a bit of fluff, as his wife is kind enough to point out. He might also not be reliable – he's under stress, his marriage is rocky and it's possible these things are causing him to imagine things. But it's also possible that strange things really are happening – he believes they are anyway. And as the book progresses, the strange things becoming increasingly spooky, creating a real spine-tingling atmosphere of mild horror. It's entirely gore and violence free, and largely incomprehensible being loosely based on quantum thingamajigs or something, but there are some lovely moments of real suspense. Kehlmann also plays with many of the clichés of horror – the isolated house, strange villagers giving omens of doom in curious dialects, and so on.

Overall it's a highly entertaining horror story, but no more than that. It's also very short – by my reckoning probably 80 pages or so (I was reading on Kindle). I'd think of it more as a longish short story than even a novella. And yet it's being marketed and priced as if it were a novel. If I read this in an anthology I'd be giving it 5 stars for sure. But if I'd paid full book price for it, I'd be feeling extremely short-changed round about now. I'm not sure what the publisher is thinking of really. So I enjoyed it, but can't recommend it as one to purchase until it's priced as what it is – a single short story. However, if you stumble across it on offer anywhere, then it's well worth a read.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Quercus.

Trippy, creepy, snappy. I kind of want to start again right away to see if I can make any sense of what happened?!

To anyone who says haunted house stories have already been done, I say: give me more! Including this book! It packs so much creep into such a small space, and does clever things with language too. This is read-in-one-sitting horror at its finest.

In the form of a diary, You Should Have Left is a screenwriter's account of a family holiday that's also supposed to function as a creative retreat. Having achieved commercial success by (selling out and) writing a lightweight comedy-drama called Besties, he's under pressure to come up with a sequel. His daughter Esther has just turned four, prompting our narrator to hope he will finally be able to have a little peace and quiet, as well as some conversations with his wife Susanna that aren't about 'who's getting up with [Esther], who's putting her to bed, who's playing blocks or trains or Legos'. They rent a grand house – recently built, modern, minimalist – at the centre of a pine forest, framed by two glaciers. Quickly, the narrator finds his family is a much greater distraction than he'd hoped, and he's lying to his boss about the progress he's made on the screenplay.

So far, so tormented-artist cliche. But what else is going on here? Read between the lines (sometimes literally) and there are hints of something far deeper and darker at work. The terrible dreams; strange illusions the narrator tries to shake off as tricks of the light; the architectural peculiarities of the house (why is it so easy to get lost?); blink-and-you'll-miss-them anomalies, such as the phrase 'get away' appearing at random in the middle of the narrator's sentences. There are tongue-in-cheek allusions to linchpins of the haunted-house plot (an odd encounter in the only shop in town) and clever modernised touches (the narrator found the house on Airbnb).

At barely 100 wide-margined pages, this is one of those novellas that stretches the limits of the term; is it a novelette? A short story? Of course I kind of wish it had been longer. But its genius is that it doesn't outstay its welcome. The restraint Kehlmann exercises is astonishing – the natural inclination, surely, would be to drag it out through different viewpoints, or even whack a five-years-later epilogue on the end. But no, it's just a simple, pared-back, stark and terrifying story. It's kind of like Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves if it'd been subject to ruthless editing and reduced to only the most authentic and menacing elements. Breathtakingly good, ingenious horror, definitely a book to be read in a single sitting on a cold, cloudless night. Just don't check your reflection in the window.

I really enjoyed this thrilling and very creepy story. I did feel it was a bit short for an individual book and would perhaps be better off as a part of a short story collection, but nevertheless I found it fascinating and a great read. Will be perfect for halloween!

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review. I have posted a full review on Goodreads at the following link https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1991176592
I loved this story. Once I started I couldn't put it down. The author takes the reader on a haunted and bone chilling ride that becomes increasingly creepier with each page.. Well written and even made me laugh out loud a couple of times. Kudos to Daniel Kehlmann! I will definitely be reading more of his work.