Review - Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Publisher - Quercus Fiction

Pages - 364

Blurb from Goodreads - Something very peculiar is happening in Stockholm. There's a heatwave on and people cannot turn their lights out or switch their appliances off. Then the terrible news breaks. In the city morgue, the dead are waking up...What do they want? What everybody wants: to come home.


My Review

Who can pass up a zombie book, well certainly not me and this one has been eyed up for a while. Based in Stockholm, there is a heatwave, even when trying to pull out appliances you can't turn them off and if things could get any worse or louder, the dead are coming back to life.

This is a zombie book with a difference, not all of the dead come back to life. There are weird little caterpillars involved, plus the whole heat and electric thing. There is a bout of telepathy involved, with the living and some of the dead and one of the dead can communicate, sort of. The dead want to come home, their families are traumatized and the corpses are in various states of decay.

At the start of this book I quite liked the story, it has a different take on it. The "zombies" aren't crazed flesh eating monsters, they are shells of their former selves and the relatives are trying to cope with have their wish granted, their loved ones returned, just not in the way they had quite imagined. The story focuses around three lots of characters and their experience of the undead, their families and some heart wrenching decisions, trying to cope and adapt to the situation.


However, that said the story had a few inconsistences, not all of the undead where as harmless as the others, they seem to act and react differently. The humanity part and the reactions were interesting however, for me, some of it was just flat and didn't work. You either have it written one way or the other, you can't have so many acting in one way and it all about the people trying to cope. Then switching how they, the undead, are behaving and having a ghoulish violent gorey one. That doesn't work for me, it was worth reading though and apparently it is a movie so I may check that out. I do like this author however I preferred the other tale to this one. 2/5 for me this time, I would read this author again.

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Review - Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time Taken To Read - 3 days

Blurb From Goodreads

Let the Right One In Takes Top Honors at Tribeca Film Festival!

It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last---revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day.

But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door---a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night. . . .

Sweeping top honors at film festivals all over the globe, director Tomas Alfredsson’s film of Let the Right One In has received the same kind of spectacular raves that have been lavished on the book. American readers of vampire fiction will be thrilled!

My Review

This book is a bizarre wee read. A teenage boy is found killed, upside down and drained of blood with the authorities speculating the murder is ritualistic. Oskar is our main character and hoping it is revenge for the bullying he has suffered for as long as he can remember.

There is so many parts to this book, the bullying, the budding friendship between Oskar and Eli (the new kid who only comes out at night and is weird in many aspects). The victims and the one who survives and the impact it has upon them and their close (est) friends and what follows from there.

It is hard to do a full review without giving away spoilers. Some of it makes for uncomfortable reading, Eli's "carer" has an unnatural obsession for children and some scenes are quite descriptive and stomach turning. I loved reading about how Eli came to be where and how she is, I would have liked to have known more about their time before she came to live in Oskar's estate and a few other questions answered but overall it was a good read so 3/5 for me. (I need to go find a spoiler discussion now to go over some of the finer details I like and disliked!).

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World Book Night 2012 - Book Giveaway

So I am giving mine away as I listed but I have one or two copies specifically earmarked for here. If you would like to win a copy just leave a comment below and send me a way to contact you (so you aren't getting spammed by putting your email here) - if you have a website you can leave that link if you want. (click the link below to send your email/contact details). Good luck and thanks for taking part!

Form to leave contact details Click here to contact me via my email link

My book is Let The Right One in by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Synopsis
It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last---revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day.

But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door---a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night. . . .

Sweeping top honors at film festivals all over the globe, director Tomas Alfredsson’s film of Let the Right One In has received the same kind of spectacular raves that have been lavished on the book

World Book Night 2012 - Are you participating?

Well this is my first year. I have picked up my books and tonight I am labeling them all for Monday. I had said I will be giving them away to randoms, at work and maybe one or two via my website. My books are John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let The Right One In.

I am really looking forward to this and having a chance to introduce people to reading and a new author/genre. I haven't read the book yet myself (I will) but have seen the movie and with all the vampire hype I am sure this will entice one or more people to pick up a book when normally it would be tv all the way.

Technically as it isn't until Monday I still have all my books but 2 are spoken for and one of which is to someone who never reads but is going to give it a go (the books are fairly thick so I am delighted.)

Are you taking part? If so what are you doing and what is your book?

Happy book night when it comes and I hope you all have a blast