#himmelstrand

[esevik]

Book review: Himmelstrand by Jon Ajvide Lindqvist

My liveblog.

Short review: It was good, though the ending felt a little rushed.

Long review: First of all I want to say that this is a horror book and has a few trigger warnings to: gore, body horror, self harm/suicide.

There are also some characters with bigoted opinions/thoughts that do appear a few times in the story so some warnings for (casual) homophobia and racism.

With that out of the way the plot of the story is pretty interesting. Four different families who don't know each other are suddenly transported from a camping into some mystical field and now they'll have to figure out how to get out of there. It's simple but effective. However I do find the ending to be a bit lacking. A-

The characters are what drives the majority of the story. And while there are 12 of them (10 humans + 2 animals) they are all developed enough to carry their own stories and different from one another that it's easy to follow along whenever the perspective changes, which it does a lot. Overall the characters feel "real". A+

The worldbuilding is pretty much the mystery the characters are trying to figure out, which means the world and mechanics of it is slowly revealed as they take notice of it. This is both a positive and negative as it means the worldbuilding is an active part of the story but also that some important aspects of the world never gets discussed since the characters themselves focus on other stuff. The world is interesting but I find the lack of some general answers to bring down the ending a bit which is unfortunate. B+

The writing is like with all the other books I've read from John Ajvide Lindqvist great. He does a fantastic job balancing between all the characters and get them all to be relevant to the story. There are quite a few pop culture references in the story but unlike most stories that use them to "feel relatable" he uses it to make the characters feel more real as they all have different tastes and knowledge about media. And whenever a reference is important he makes sure to give basic information about it beyond the reference. Overall I just enjoy the guy's writing. A

Rating: A

[esevik]

Part 3: Bortanför/Beyond

That went from 20 to 100 real quick. After the last part I had almost started to expect all characters to survive only for this final part of the book to come down and doom almost every character. Only three survive and it's the loving family. The other characters' fates are mostly left open to interpration where some seem to become new entities of this weird subspace.

This part also got quite brutal or gory out of pretty much nowhere. While gore and body horror has appeared in the story before I didn't expect to get a detailed description of a child getting run over (thankfully said child ended up surviving but it was a pretty chocking scene).

The ending was fitting but a bit too open-ended for me. I would have liked to get some more explanation for what or why this whole thing was. It feels like a lot of mysteries build up and while some understanding is given most of it is completely unexplained and it irks me.

Lastly I just want to say some things about the older, gay couple (technically they're not gay and should have a "it's complicated" stamp but they are in love). Out of all four family units in this story they feel out of place, not because of their sexuality but because they're "too good". In all other family units there's at least one person carrying trauma that causes conflict within the unit, but they never have that. In fact the two work so well together it's hard to tell the two apart. They also feel like the most underdeveloped unit and the ones who get the least screen time. They are good characters overall but I feel like some more work should have gone into making them fit a bit more into the story.

[esevik]

Part 2: Innanför/Inside

This part is about 200 pages so a LOT happens, but I'm amazed it's all taking place in one day and so far all 12 characters (10 humans + 1 dog + 1 cat) to still be alive. The story makes a good job balancing all the characters' perspectives and despite the quick shifts in perspectives it's never confusing. All characters have a pretty distinct voice so it's easy to tell them apart.

The dog and cat had a rocky start but are now best friends and protect one another. It's great and wholesome and I almost want an entire story based on just this one unlikely friendship. It's a bright spot in this otherwise tense and disturbing tale.

The conservative old guy is uickly going off the rails and is an overall menace. A bigoted menace and the other characters deserve a medal after putting up with his bullshit and atempted murder. If he were to die I would call it karma.

The weird field they're all in gets struck by a strong acidic rain that they just manage to survive. Though it was a close call and if it would have kept going for about ten more minutes there would probably have been at least one death.

Though it seems like maybe being on the brink of death is a way to return to the real world? One character went into the rain (trying to commit suicide) but somehow seems to have ended up back at their old campsite. I guess I here also should mention that the book has some suicide and self harm trigger warnings. There are also some trigger warnings for homophobia (mostly spouted by the old guy at the gay couple) and some racism (one character hung out with neonazis as a teen/young adult and another one blames her carrer never taking off on a specific magazine going for more diverse models).

One thing I thought worth noting is that several characters, both religious and not, concludes that this place they're stuck in is the one place God doesn't exist. However they still don't refer to it as hell. And even if it was some kind of hell it would be weird for all of them to be there. Like yes, there are a few of them that definitly do fit in hell, but most of them do not. So why exactly were they marked with this fate?

Finally, the little girl that's not a little girl. She is the most suspicious and she certainly hasn't done anything easier for anyone, but there's still some of her actions that feel like she's a red herring. And this is after she admitted to being "a fountain of blood in the shape of a little girl". She thinks she's connected to this place but she doesn't act like she's been there before. And at the end of the part she's actually scared of the "blood sucking zomibes" that appeared with the rain. So while she most certainly is some kind of entity I don't think she's the villain.

[esevik]

Part 1: Outside

As soon as a pet bunny was introduced in one character's backstory I knew it would meet a tragic end. I may like Lindqvist as a writer but why does he need to keep killing bunnies in his stories? (I like bunnies so it hurts to read about them coming to harm.)

Anyway, this is a horror story where four seemingly random families are transported into some kind of other dimension and they have to figure out a way out of there. So far there is no direct threat to their lives but tension keeps building by every page.

The first family concists of a dad, mum and young daughter (my guess is that she's about six years old). Appearance-wise they look pretty much perfet but in actuallity they barely stand each other and the daughter may or may not be possessed by a demon/something evil. They're pretty dysfunctional bordering on abuseive.

The second family is like the complete oposite of the first one. It also has a dad, mum and a young son (about five years old) and while they look average(maybe even ugly) they love each other and care deeply about one another.

The third family is a stereotypical older couple with a stern conservative man and a woman who "knows her place". However she's far from meek, it's more a case of her finding comfort in her lot in life. And apparently she once poisoned her husband with rat poison (not a deadly dose) just to let him know that whenever she actually puts her foot down she means it. They also has a dog that's one of the point of view characters.

The last family is two middle aged gay guys who are together. It seems like they both had their own lives and families before discovering that they actually were in love with one another. By that I mean they talk as if they know the other person inside-out but they are pretty awkward with intimacy with each other. They also have a cat who sadly isn't a point of view character.

So far it feels like the cause of it all is pointing towards the first family's daughter. However it wouldn't surprise me if she turned out to be a red herring.

[esevik]

The next book I'll be reading is from the same author as Let the right one in. This one is Himmelstrand (heaven's beach). It's presumably a horror story set in Sweden (since that's what he tends to write).

The book is about 400 pages but there aren't any chapters (why do they dislike chapters?). The book is instead divided into three different sections. So I guess I write an update after every section?

[carroshbokcitat]

Vad spelar det för jävla roll! Sätt på dig en hjälm när du håller på att drunkna, glöm inte flytvästen när huset brinner upp, åk nu din jävla idiot!

John Ajvide Lindqvist, Himmelstrand

[carroshbokcitat]

Nej, det är ingen gardin. Det som finns bakom dörren är ett mörker så kompakt att det borde rinna ut som lös chokladpudding.

John Ajvide Lindqvist, Himmelstrand

[carroshbokcitat]

En vanlig gubbe, bara. Han visar upp det han håller i händerna och Emil ser att det är en stickning. Inte en helt vanlig gubbe. Gubbar brukar inte sticka.

John Ajvide Lindqvist, Himmelstrand