The thing with any novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist is to remember the stages of reading.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/i-am-behind-you-john-ajvide-lindqvist-0

I’m not 100% sure about how i feel about this book to be honest but I do keep finding myself thinking about it!!

The book is slightly bizarre, thought-provoking, and at times a touch baffling, it tears the heart and twists the soul.

This if the first book in a planned 3 part series and i am not sure how long the wait will be before the second instalment.

It was quite a slow drawn out first part of the book and i was close to giving up at one point, BUT I am pleased i persevered as the book picks up steam and the action starts.
I think it is a more psychological horror than blood bath but the book certainly doesn’t shy away from the intense gruesome scenes that take place in the latter part of the book. They are descriptive without being too disturbing and over the top, some you will see coming and some not until it happens which i really liked.

John Ajvide Lindqvist has been called Sweden’s version of Stephen King but I would put this book on a liking to some of Clive Barker’s earlier work, which is in no way a bad thing!

The story takes place not in our world, or not as we see it. All that there is are 4 caravans where the occupants go to sleep in a busy caravan holiday park but wake up to a what appears to be an empty field. All they can see in all directions is flat green grass and pure blue sky, not even a single cloud.

There occupants are an eclectic bunch that are from different walks of life so why were these four families picked up and removed to this strange place? What’s the connection?
In one caravan are the Sundberg family consisting of Peter, a national football superstar, his wife Isabelle, a model and their 6-year-old daughter Molly.
The next caravan is home to Stefan Larsson, a small town store owner, his wife Carina and their young 9-year-old son Emil.
Next there is Lennart and Olof, two farmers who have been together since their wives ran off and left them and their cat, then finally Donald, his wife Majvor who are both retired and their dog Benny.

The book is in 3 parts, Outside, Inside and Beyond and the story is told in alternating parts by each of the characters, even the dog and cat have their parts to play.
The story follows the groups as they explore their new surroundings and their attempts at trying to understand why they have ended up here.
We also get to learn parts of the characters back stories and find out what inner demons they will have to face in the struggle to survive.

Due to the fact this is only book one it leaves a lot of things unresolved and unexplained, like the how and the why, so it will be very interesting to see where the story will go from here.

It is really well written and the translation is extremely good. There are some mentions of a Swedish singer i haven’t heard of but other than that it works well in English.
So all in all, this book won’t be for everyone but I am pleased i finished the book, its well written, most of the characters are believable even though some you don’t care for, the creepiness sneaks up on you and ramps up the internal tensions to inevitable violence, sweeping you along for the ride.

I will defiantly be waiting for book number 2 to be released!
( )

Definitely not as good as Let the Right One In. It's the first book in a trilogy, and I will read the second because I did get invested in the characters. The creep factor of Let the Right One In isn't there for me in this book. ( )

I'm very underwhelmed. The concept is good (though very Stephen King ... but I guess that isn't a bad thing) and it starts out sort of promising, but then ... idk. Throughout the book I kept mixing up the male characters, Stefan with Peter and Olof and Lennart with each other.

That's one problem I had with it: the characters. I did not find them fleshed out and interesting as many others seem to have, I found them very shallow and stereotypical. Like "hmm, what are kids? OH yeah they're small people that like Star Wars and can't spell, well, everything this kid does will relate to Star Wars and the fact that he can't pronounce anything correctly". "Farmers ... yeah, that's a personality trait in its own, they will relate everything to things that happen on the farm". No one had a particularly distinct voice and I kept mixing them up.

Also, they just seem like the same characters I already saw in Lilla Stjärna. Donald and Majvor seemed pretty much exactly like the couple who found Terese. Like, can two character who have been married for a long time have any other kind of relationship than one that's abusive with the woman being kinda stupid and submissive? I liked where Majvor ended the book, but still, nah.

My other problem: the writing. There's no good word for it in English (tillgjort), but I find it somewhat pretentious I guess. Like this is the way Ajvide Lindqvist thinks writing should be done so he does it like that. He uses the word "ty" way too often for something written this century. I mean, when Åke Ohlmarks used it in his translation of Lord of the Rings it was SOMEWHAT motivated, but just barely, in this book it made me cringe every time I saw it.

The plot had its moments, I'll admit that and had I enjoyed the characters or the writing more I think I would have really loved it, but as it is ... no. Especially not with the lack of explanations by the end, because even if things are explained in a later book I will probably not read anything more by this author.

Also, the fucking dog perspective? Cringe cringe cringe. ( )

It starts off with an interesting enough premise and hook but... just slowly starts to drag on and on to the point where you just want to get it read and over with, unfortunately. The writing was decent enough, save for just about every other paragraph overexplaining things that felt painfully obvious, leaving a sour taste of the lines preceding it. ( )