Nov 23 - Nov 30, 2010
Handling the Undead
John Ajvide Lindqvist
Horror
Published October 2010
364 pages
7/10
In Sweden, the dead are coming back to life. Not eating people. Not hungering for juicy, delicious brains. Generally, they're just hanging out. Living people, predictably, aren't taking it too well.
I had high expectations for this book, and I wanted to like it (who purposely chooses to read a book they think they're going to hate?) but this just fell flat for me. First off, it was uber monotonous - besides the lifeless (ha!) zombies, the rest of the characters were just your average people struggling with average obstacles. If I wanted a book about EMOTIONS and STRUGGLE I'd ask Oprah for a recommendation. Which, if I'm in the mood for that kind of thing, I might.
But I wanted ZOMBIES. The Undead. Not the apathetic Reliving. Maybe the Swedes are just like that.
The only character I really liked was Mahler, but I grew to find him less appealing the more I read. He went from Shabbily-Heroic to kind of... Whiny-Wiener. I thought characters were supposed to Evolve, not DEvolve. Sad-Dad just got Sadder. Old Biddy and Emo Girl faded out. And the Reliving just laid there. It wasn't exactly riveting stuff.
However, there were a few notable scenes; there was gore in the form of accidents and stowaways, a few heart-string tugging scenes both sad and sweet, and it was written reasonably well (though I caught a few editing errors).
It just had too many plot lines for me to focus properly; really, I could have done without Flora and Elvy altogether (sorry ladies). And the biggest problem for me - it was way too ambiguous. Maybe I'm just a dolt who slept through the last 50 pages (guilty as charged, actually) but I didn't really get a) why it all happened in the first place, b) what it all meant, and c) where it could possibly go from there. I'm sure it was a grand postulation of life and death and what it all means, but, like I said, Oprah will hook a sista' up when I'm in that kind of mood.
But, whatever. I can still appreciate a good book, even if I don't personally like it.
Handling the Undead
John Ajvide Lindqvist
Horror
Published October 2010
364 pages
7/10
In Sweden, the dead are coming back to life. Not eating people. Not hungering for juicy, delicious brains. Generally, they're just hanging out. Living people, predictably, aren't taking it too well.
I had high expectations for this book, and I wanted to like it (who purposely chooses to read a book they think they're going to hate?) but this just fell flat for me. First off, it was uber monotonous - besides the lifeless (ha!) zombies, the rest of the characters were just your average people struggling with average obstacles. If I wanted a book about EMOTIONS and STRUGGLE I'd ask Oprah for a recommendation. Which, if I'm in the mood for that kind of thing, I might.
But I wanted ZOMBIES. The Undead. Not the apathetic Reliving. Maybe the Swedes are just like that.
The only character I really liked was Mahler, but I grew to find him less appealing the more I read. He went from Shabbily-Heroic to kind of... Whiny-Wiener. I thought characters were supposed to Evolve, not DEvolve. Sad-Dad just got Sadder. Old Biddy and Emo Girl faded out. And the Reliving just laid there. It wasn't exactly riveting stuff.
However, there were a few notable scenes; there was gore in the form of accidents and stowaways, a few heart-string tugging scenes both sad and sweet, and it was written reasonably well (though I caught a few editing errors).
It just had too many plot lines for me to focus properly; really, I could have done without Flora and Elvy altogether (sorry ladies). And the biggest problem for me - it was way too ambiguous. Maybe I'm just a dolt who slept through the last 50 pages (guilty as charged, actually) but I didn't really get a) why it all happened in the first place, b) what it all meant, and c) where it could possibly go from there. I'm sure it was a grand postulation of life and death and what it all means, but, like I said, Oprah will hook a sista' up when I'm in that kind of mood.
But, whatever. I can still appreciate a good book, even if I don't personally like it.
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