Let the Old Dreams Die, by John Ajvide Lindqvist

(hb; 2013: fiction/horror anthology.  Translated from the Swedish by Ebba Segerberg)


Overall review:

Dreams is a solid anthology - I liked six of the twelve stories a lot, enjoyed bits of four of the other ones, and disliked two, because of their odd writing ("To Put My Arms Around You, to Music" and "Paper Walls").  The stories that I was "meh" about sometimes ran too long ("Tindalos" and "Majken"), or were solid but forgettable trifles from a writer who regularly transcends this sort of tale-telling.

That said, Lindqvist does a solid job of indirectly linking the stories via mood, cultural references (e.g., The Smiths song "Shoplifters of the World Unite"; Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot; etc.) and mining his familiar themes of life and death, in their variable forms.

Worth owning, if you're a die-hard fan of Lindqvist, or if you buy it for a reduced price.  Or do what I did, and check it out from the library (if you're lucky enough to have one nearby).


Standout stories:

1.)  "The Border" - An inspections agent (Tina) discovers a major source of her emotional disconnection from her everyday life, as well as her sense of being "different".  Good, mood-effective read.


2.)   "Itsy Bitsy" - Effective fever dream about a photographer, his subjects and a Twilight Zone-esque mystery.  Interesting, excellent.


3.)   "The Substitute" - A middle-aged man's former classmate from thirty years prior shows up - just as strange he was back then - and unsettles the man anew.  Good, pop culture-referencing read.


4.)   "Eternal/Love" - Intriguing tale about a couple who test the bonds of death - or its lack - and love.  Excellent, dramatic read.


5.)   "Final Processing" -  Satisfactory and tone-consistent dénouement to Lindqvist's novel Handling the Undead, where a young man (Kalle Lilljewall) and his girlfriend (Flora) try to relieve the suffering of the government-kept undead.  Good read that pushes all the right emotional buttons.


6.)   "Let the Old Dreams Die" - This secondary character sequel to Let the Right One In (a.k.a. Let Me In) reveals the fate of Oskar Eriksson and his "kidnapper" Eli.  Solid, well-written (if indirectly told) follow-up to a stellar novel.

Little Star, by John Ajvide Lindqvist

(hb; 2012: translated from Swedish by Marlaine Delargy)


From the inside flap:

"A man finds a baby in the woods, left for dead.  He brings the baby home, and he and his wife raise the girl in their basement.  When a shocking and catastrophic incident occurs, the couple's son, Jerry, whisks the girl away to Stockholm to start a new life.  There, he enters her in a nationwide singing competition.  Another young girl who's never fit in sees the performance on TV, and a spark is struck that will ignite the most terrifying duo in modern fiction."


Review:

Excellent, hard-to-set-down and distinctive thriller from the author of the also-exemplary Let Me In and Handling the Undead (as well as the lesser-but-okay Harbor).

Worth owning, this. 

Fans of Stephen King, particularly top-shelf King (that is, pre-1985 King works), and Joe Hill should check Lindqvist's oeuvre out.

A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones

(pb; 2011: horror anthology)


Overall review:

This is an excellent collection of Old School/classic horror-style stories, intended for non-Twilight readers, who bristle at the idea of defanged "sparkling vampires".  (Editor Stephen Jones states this, in different words, in his Introduction ["Whatever Happened to Horror?"].)

As such, A Book of Horrors is an impressive endeavor, one worth owning.


Standout stories:

1.)  "The Little Green God of Agony" - Stephen King:   Good story about a wealthy man (Andrew Newsom) whose post-accident pain has taken on excruciating proportions.


2.)  "Roots and All" - Brian Hodge:  A war-hardened corrections officer (Dylan) and his cousin (Gina) return to their recently deceased grandmother's backwoods house to pack up her things, only to discover that the surrounding woods, heavy with a legendary monster - the Woodwalker - and troubling memories, has become a "meth haven".

Excellent, perfect work, this: a seamless entertaining fusion of old horror elements and modern realities, charged with a sense of mission.

One of my favorite stories in this anthology.


3.)  "The Music of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer" - John Ajvide Lindqvist [translated by Marlaine Delargy]:  A boy's piano lessons provide the possibility for ghosts to re-enter the natural world.

Creepy and unsettling, with a finish that's at once familiar and refreshing.


4.)  "Getting It Wrong" - Ramsey Campbell:  An asocial, disgruntled  cineaste (Eric Edgeworth) finds himself participating in a dark, strange game show where providing wrong answers can prove agonizing.

Solid, interesting piece.


5.)  "The Man in the Ditch" - Lisa Tuttle:  Linzi, a woman with marital issues and uncomfortable in her new country home, sees a dead man on the side of the road.

Good, mood-effective work.


6.)  "A Child's Problem" - Reggie Oliver:  1811.  Tankerton Abbey, in Suffolk, England.  A boy (George St. Maur), left in the cold-hearted care of his uncle (Sir Augustus St. Maur, Baronet), uncovers a dark, multi-layered mystery surrounding his uncle, his uncle's deceased wife (Lady Circe) and other fatalities.

Wonderful story, replete with classical, philosophical and other elements of particularly human shadiness and light.

One of my favorite entries in this anthology.


7.)  "Sad, Dark Thing" - Michael Marshall Smith:  Miller, an "aimless" man reeling from a divorce, sees an unexpected sign on a backwoods road, and is irrevocably altered by it.

Mood- and theme-efficacious piece, inspired by the author's real-life drive through the Santa Cruz mountains (in California).


8.)  "Near Zennor" - Elizabeth Hand:  A widower (Jeffrey), while sorting through his wife's belongings, discovers some mysterious letters which pull him into even bigger mysteries.

Good, unpredictable, atmospheric read.


9.)  "Last Words" - Richard Christian Matheson:  A serial killer waxes philosophical on the nature of the last moments of one's death.

Creepy, intriguing, vicious, memorable.


Other stories:

"Charcloth, Firesteel and Flint" - Caitlin R. Kiernan;  "Ghost with Teeth" - Peter Crowther; "The Coffin-Maker's Daughter" - Angela Slatter; "Tell Me I'll See You Again" - Dennis Etchison;  "Alice Through the Plastic Sheet" - Robert Shearman

Harbor, by John Ajvide Lindqvist

(hb; 2008, 2011: translated from Swedish by Marlaine Delargy)


From the inside flap:

"One ordinary winter afternoon on a snowy island, Anders and Cecilia take their six-year-old daughter Maja across the ice to visit the lighthouse in the middle of the frozen channel. While they are exploring the lighthouse, Maja disappears - either into thin air or under thin ice - leaving not even a bloody footprint in the snow.

"Two years later, Anders, a broken man, moves back to his family's abandoned house on the island. He soon realizes that Maja's disappearance is only one of the many strange occurences, and that his fellow islanders, including his own grandmother, know a lot more than they're telling. As he digs deeper, Anders begins to unearth a dark and deadly secret at the heart of this small, seemingly placid town."


Review:

Fans of Stephen King will likely appreciate this milieu- (and leisurely-)paced novel that recalls King's pre-It novels, before his propensity for word bloat set in.

Harbor is a good book by an excellent author, one that ably juggles character and larger-element histories, pervasive mood and description, as well as occasional, familiar-with-a-Swedish-flavor horror scenes.

Check Harbor out from the library, no need to own it, if you already own King's pre-It novels and story/novella anthologies.

If you're interested in Lindqvist's better, worth-owning works, check out Let Me In and Handling the Undead.

Handling the Undead, by John Ajvide Lindqvist

(hb; 2005, 2010. Translated into English by Ebba Segerberg.)

From the inside flap:

"Something peculiar is happening. While the city is enduring a heat wave, people are finding out that their electric appliances won't stay switched off. And everyone has a blinding headache. Then the terrible news breaks - in the city morgue, the newly dead are waking.

"David always knew his wife was far too good for him. But he never knew how lost he'd be without her until the night she died. Now she's gone and he's alone. But when he goes to identify her body, she opens her eye. . .

"Across the city, grieving families find themselves able to see their loved ones one last time. But are these creatures really them? How long can this last? And what deadly price will they have to pay for the chance to see their spouses and children just one more time?"

Review:

This is a sublime, dread-intensive, hard-to-set-down work, one of the best horror novels I've read this year.

Handling the Undead adopts a fresh narrative tack in terms of how society and individuals process their shock at the returning dead, who are less Night of the Living Dead than one might expect.

Lindqvist doesn't spoonfeed the novel's whys, hows and whos to readers, and that, for this reader, lent an "anything could happen" feel to Handling. Readers who are looking for action and gore should probably avoid this book -- Handling is not about that: it's about us, as people, collective and individually.

Worth owning, this, even if you're like me (tired of the overripe zombie genre, whose filmmakers and writers too often fail to establish their own unique voices, and who, instead, rest lazily on the storylines/violent tones established by George A. Romero's earlier work).

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The film version is scheduled for a 2013 stateside release. I'll update the (concrete) information on this as soon as I become aware of it.

Let Me In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist

(hb; 2004, 2007: translated by Ebba Segerberg)

From the inside flap:

"It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackberg, 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. . ."

Review:

Excellent, landmark vampire-horror novel, with sympathetic characters (even Håkan Bengtsson, Eli's aging pedophilic human keeper, initially comes off a somewhat relatable creation) and an impressive narrative scope: it reads like something Stephen King might've written in his prime -- i.e., most of his published work prior to It.

Lindqvist has conceived and delivered a warm, original work that should appeal to fans of King, Clive Barker and Anne Rice. (I realize I'm actually echoing one of the blurbs that graced the cover of the book, but its story, tones and characters constantly reminded me of these writers when I read this fast-paced, character-rich story.)

If you're into vampire fiction, you should read this.

This novel was originally published under the title Let the Right One In (its title references a line from a Morrissey song, "Let The Right One Slip In").

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As of October 1, 2010, two film versions will have resulted from this novel.

The first film version was released in Sweden on January 26, 2008. The film graced stateside screens on October 24, 2008.

Kåre Hedebrant played Oskar. Lina Leandersson played Eli. Per Ragnar played Håkan. Henrik Dahl played Erik. Karin Bergquist played Yvonne. Peter Carlberg played Lacke. Ika Nord played Virginia. Mikael Rahm played Jocke. Karl-Robert Lindgren played Gösta.

An uncredited Lena Nilsson, who also appeared in Murder at the Savoy and Roseanna, played a "Nurse" (or: "Håkans sjuksköterska").

Tomas Alfredson directed the film, from a script by the book's author, John Ajvide Lindqvist.

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An American remake, retitled Let Me In, is scheduled for stateside release on October 1, 2010.

Kodi Smit-McPhee played Owen (the Americanized equivalent of Oskar). Chloë Grace Moretz played Abby (the Americanized equivalent of Eli). Richard Jenkins played The Father. Elias Koteas played The Policeman. Cara Buono played Owen's Mother.

Matt Reeves directed and scripted the film.