Therefore, when I found out about this I was rather excited. 800 pages of Lindqvist goodness! Look at the thickness in that second picture. And that cover is so clever. A shipping container drawn from the angle to make it look like a coffin. very apt when you look at the plot.
A shipping container is found on the shore of a Swedish town with a long, complicated name. Inside the container are the bodies of 28 refugees... and something else. Something that gets into the river and pollutes the town with fear and malice.
We follow 6 characters as they try to live their best lives while the town (and their psyches) are sullied by the strange presence in the water.
This being Lindqvist, the people portraits he paints with his words are almost perfect. We know these people, warts and all. With nearly double his usual word length we have plenty of time to get to know them.
There's something missing from the book though.
In all his previous works, there is an abundance of incident. There are set pieces that will disturb and shock you. In 800 pages, he barely does that.
There is a distinct atmosphere of building threats, and sequences in this are very tense indeed. But there doesn't seem to be much payoff at any point. Lots of build up, and no release. It doesn't deliver on the majority of the drama it promises. The vast majority of the violence happening in the town happens off screen and our protagonists learn of it second hand.
There are a couple of cutaways to the interior of the container before it was dumped which are truly horrific, with a graphic depiction of the inhabitants as they turn on each other and hope dies screaming around them.
Other than that, probably the two most shocking scenes happen to a minor character who doesn't appear till nearly 600 pages in,
Even the big finale feels a bit pat and all sorted far too easily.
There are a couple of really strange chapters written in first person that don't seem to add much overall except for pointless surrealism.
That's not to say that it's all bad. I enjoyed reading it throughout. The characters are beautifully drawn. The whole town feels real (even if I did find myself glossing over unpronounceable street names so never quite got a grasp on the geography of the place). I wanted to know what happened next. He never took the plot in quite the direction it seemed to be heading (a good thing sometimes, but in this case, not always). The feeling of dread he creates is palpable. It just didn't go anywhere and it all sort of fizzles out with the very disappointing ending..
It's mostly very good, and occasionally great for 770 pages or so... then he puts that ending on. The crescendo he seemed to be building towards was more of a kazoo squawk that spoilt the whole symphony.
If this was my first Lindqvist, I would think twice about buying another.
I'm not sure if this has just lost something in translation but it was a definite let down by his usual high standards.
Bonus review - Number 78 - the Worst Breakfast- China Mieville and Zak Smith
Probably fun for the age group it's intended for. It raised a wry smile from me a couple of times, but I really didn't like the artwork. Even for a children's book it's messy and a bit incoherent.
Buying books like this is the worst part of being a completist on authors I really like...
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