TJÄRVEN: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM TURNING ZOMBIE MASSACRE

SPOILER ALERT!

Last night I downloaded John Ajvide Lindqvist's latest book Tjärven from Stockholm Public Library. Normally I hate reading PDF's or listening to audio books (since it makes me feel like I have a learning disorder) but since the book will not be released as a physical book, I had no other choice. Thankfully it's only a 123 pages of screen staring. 

As seven old high school classmates are reunited to celebrate Midsummer's Eve together, they set out into Stockholm's outer archipelago, heading for the island Tjärven. What should be a nostalgic revisit to their youth in the idyllic settings of the small island and its lighthouse, turns into a nightmare of unsuspected events. 

This is a straight on flesh eating zombie massacre with skillful details and Lindqvist's usual realism, accompanied by an 80's boom box with Modern Talking blasting over the 6000 square rocky island whilst the stranded characters get their brains chewed up, one by one. This is the night when those who are forever freezing awaken. The drowned come onto land, and they're hungry.

When I started reading I had the survival-feeling that I usually get when I watch zombie- and apocalyptic movies. It wasn't until halfway in I realized that it was only 6 weeks ago that I was in that same part of the archipelago, camping on a remote island not far from Tjärven. This is where I started to get creeped out.

Usually zombie reading gives me an uncanny but entertaining feeling. Tjärven felt, apart from that, also somewhat doleful. The sad feeling that permeates the story is mostly based on the classical set of lonely characters (like Oscar, Lacke and Håkan in Let the Right One In, Gustav, David, Elvy and Flora in Handling the Undead). They're plagued by personality issues from the past and subjected to the trials of the present, each set with a reoccurring inner monologue that hardly boosts their self-esteem. And despite them being a somewhat bigger group, the fact is that they really don't know each other anymore. It's been 25 years since they last saw each other. Being estranged is what makes them unable to rely on one another. And they know it. Also, reading about a group of people getting slaughtered on an island with no escape, might not be the best reading after the recent event on Utöya.

And even though the characters appear a bit thin and to be somewhat predictable stereotypes, Lindqvist always hits spot on with the very simple but rapid and concise dialogs, and the philosophical inner monologues. The thin appearance might be due to the fact that he only gave himself 35 days to plot, write and finish the story, which ended up being only 123 pages long. The stereotype, hackneyed characters might be deliberate since this in fact is a high school reunion during which people usually have a tendency to revert to their old roles. Or feel the need to demonstratively prove that they've changed, when they in fact are just the same as 25 years ago. This makes them all appear diluted. Perhaps it's just what the opportunity had to present.

This book does not deserve to be compared to Lindqvist's previous, as it will appear unfinished. Too short and underdeveloped. Simply because you know that he has so much more to give to the story. Ignoring the rest; Tjärven itself, is an eminent short-story.

John Ajvide Lindqvist talks about Tjärven (in Swedish):

FO(U)R FUTURE READINGS

The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco
No, this is definitely not in the horror section. It might be squeezed into the thriller genre, but my blog my rules. This one's a must simply because it has created such a controversy in Italy, especially in the Vatican. It's not the first time I'm intrigued with reading examinations of conspiracy theories, and it's not the first time Umberto Eco examines them. His latest takes on freemasonry, antisemitism and the forgery of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The last conspiracy theory based novel I read was Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, which I loved. A lot of people found it overrated, irrational or even a blasphemy. I found it immensely interesting.

1. Because since I studied physics in high school I've always been fascinated with Sir Isaac Newton.
2. Because I've always believed that Jesus did have a woman, just like any other normal guy.
3. I love reading about secret societies.
4. I generally love conspiracy theories (Nope, I don't believe Armstrong walked the moon in 1969).

And even though I've read numerous contradictions, amongst them The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple, which I bought from the writer, Robin Griffith-Jones, who's the Master of the Temple at the Temple Church in London, I was never thrown off. It's too damn interesting.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion documents the late 19th-century meeting between Jewish leaders discussing their plan to control the press and the world's economies. The Prague Cemetery presents the main character Simone Simonini who's fueled by antisemitism and concocts the ultimate conspiracy theory; a mythic meeting of the Elders of Zion taking place in Prague's Jewish cemetery to plan the rule of the world. And it's supposed to be downwards from that.

Critics have said that Eco describes the Jews as so disgusting, plotting and ill-natured that they fear that the book will raise more antisemitism. That readers will forget that this is a novel, and look at it as a scientific book where the characters seem certain of this crime.

It can't be other than brilliant!

Människohamn (Harbour) by John Ajvide Lindkvist
”It was a beautiful winter's day. Anders, his wife and their feisty six-year-old, Maja, set out across the ice of the Swedish archipelago to visit the lighthouse on Gavasten. There was no one around, so they let her go on ahead. And she disappeared, seemingly into thin air, and was never found. Two years later, Anders is a broken alcoholic, his life ruined. He returns to the archipelago, the home of his childhood and his family. But all he finds are Maja's toys and through the haze of memory, loss and alcohol, he realizes that someone - or something - is trying to communicate with him. Soon enough, his return sets in motion a series of horrifying events which exposes a mysterious and troubling relationship between the inhabitants of the remote island and the sea.”

 

This one’s not new, I just haven’t come around to read it yet. Based on the fact that I've loved everything I've read from Lindqvist so far, this sure won't be an exception. I'm mostly interested in seeing how he incorporates the very distinct and characteristic feeling of the Swedish archipelago. If you haven’t been there (to either west or east coast) you can’t really imagine how very tranquil and, at the same time, terrifying it can be. I’m betting the scenery will go perfectly hand in hand with the subject of loss and grief that Lindqvist so gallantly masters. That, and the fact that he always seems to be able to personify the subject of horror, and make it an everyday and familiar acquaintance.

Lilla Stjärna (Little Star) by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Little Star is John Ajvide Lindqvist’s latest physically published novel (Tjärven is newer, but have only been released as audio book and e-book), that has not yet been released in English. The story reflects the failure of adults and the fragility of the young, in a story that reintroduces horror in everyday Sweden. Readers have said that this is by far his darkest (and best!) book so far so I’m excited to read it! 

As mentioned above, I love finding an author who interprets local and familiar places or events that you, as a reader, have a personal relation to. When I lived in Oregon I loved reading Chelsea Cain’s Heart-trilogy, ‘cause it takes place in Portland and along the I-84, where I lived and worked. (Also the book series stars a female serial killer, which is awesome!!) Lilla Stjärna (Little Star) supposedly has a terrifying twist of the very much loved (and by me visited) summer event of “community singing” at Skansen in Stockholm. 

“A scream, a perfectly pitched E is heard in the woods.
Whilst out mushrooming, has-been Swedish pop singer, Lennart, makes an unpleasant discovery. He finds a lifeless infant in a plastic bag. The baby is resuscitated and turns out to have a beautiful and rare voice. Lennart takes her home and decides that she must remain untouched, undisturbed. Locked up in the basement, the girl Teres, must represent pure music and the purpose of his life.

At the same time another young girl grows up in a small village in another part of Sweden. Teresa finds it difficult to make friends and her only way to escape loneliness is via the internet. One day she sees a girl who calls herself Tora Larsson on the Swedish version of pop-idol and is immediately transfixed by her. Teresa tries to get in touch and it turns out to be Teres who has performed under a false name. The girls become inseparable and start making music together. They get a MySpace hit and slowly their relationship changes. Teres starts seeing other girls who have seen her in the video.
Soon the girls gather outside the fence at Skansen, the local stage. Teres is the focal point, the girl they all worship, their idol. The group starts seeing themselves as a pack of wolves and display wolf like behavior."

The Bride of Frankenstein: Pandora’s Bride by Elizabeth Hand
“Attempting to create life through dreadful experiments, Henry Frankenstein and Dr. Pretorius instead created unspeakable horror: two misshapen monsters, a brutish male and his female mate, stitched together from the bodies of cadavers. Crafted to be the monster's bride - an undead Eve to an equally accursed Adam - the female creature was destroyed mere minutes after taking its first breath - or was it?” 

We all know the story plot. And usually it’s the other way around – you take a really good book (preferably older and almost forgotten) and turn it into a movie. In this case we have Mary Shelley's Frankenstein published in 1818 inspiring the first movie Frankenstein's Monster from 1931, with its sequel Bride of Frankenstein from 1935, which is also inspired (but not based on) the novel. Instead we have a reinterpretation (Dark Horse Comics, 2007) of  Universal Picture’s classic 1935 film by detailing the bride of Frankenstein’s secret story. This could be just a novelization of the film or something that actually renews, reinterprets and retells in a challenging and surprising way.

TOP 3 BOOKS THAT WOULD MAKE AMAZING ZOMBIE- & HORROR MOVIES

3. Heart-shaped box by Joe Hill
I loved this book mostly because it surprised me right from the first page and kept me on this nerve wrecking leash throughout the story. First, everything I had read and heard about the book made me assume it was some Valentine’s Day psycho version. Totally wrong there. 

The story is basically about an old musician who decides to add to his home collection of snuff movies, human skulls and bones and occult artifacts, by online ordering a woman’s stepfather’s ghost. The supposedly ghost arrives in the old man’s suit and with that the nightmare starts. 

It could be a predictable story with two very stereotype characters; the old rock star with his leather pants, his ignorant behavior and his love for his dogs who he treat way better than his twenty somewhat year younger girlfriend slash fan slash ex stripper. 

Hill is a master of suspense and of character building making the douche rock star and his slutty girlfriend into a desperate and heart breaking couple in search for answers, bordering onto the world of the dead. 

2. Hanteringen av Odöda (Handling the Undead) by John Ajvide Lindqvist
The filming rights for both movie and tv-show were bought by the Swedish movie production company Tre Vänner AB back in 2005. Rumor has it that they’ve actually been filming the tv-show this summer and have asked to do some zombie extras during the Stockholm Zombie Walk on August 20^th. My only concern is that people tend to go for the traditional Romero zombie with the whole flesh-eating and blood dripping charisma. 

However, knowing the character of the undead in the original book they are nowhere similar to be found in a classical zombie walk. I hope the director and the production team have chosen to stay true to the original story because this could be even better than Låt den rätta komma in (Let the Right One In).

 1. Vampire Darcy’s Desire: A Pride and Prejudice Adaption by Regina Jeffers
OK, so I’m a huge sucker for Jane Austen novels and I loved the remake Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I’m as annoyed as I am intrigued with the classics that’ve gone horror. And some with better results than others. So when I was combing the shelves at Powell’s Books in Portland, OR last November I stumbled across Vampire Darcy’s Desire. The cover is just awful, like a British version of a Harlequin cover and the story plot sounds really cheesy, even for a Romantic and Victorian fantast as myself: 

“This is the greatest literary love story of all time, transformed into a heart-pounding vampire tale of romance, lust, and danger. This inventive, action-packed novel tells of a tormented Darcy, dispirited by his family's 200-year curse and his fate as a half-human/half-vampire damper. Darcy meets Elizabeth and finds himself yearning for her as a man and driven to possess her as a vampire. Uncontrollably drawn to each other, their complex relationship forces them to wrestle with the seductive power of forbidden love. Meanwhile, dark forces are at work all around them, with the threat from George Wickham, the purveyor of the curse, a demon who vows to destroy each generation of Darcys and currently has evil intentions for the vulnerable Georgiana.”

 

But after having read a couple of chapters there was no denying that I loved it! It has all the elements that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies only touches on the surface; the unspoken passion between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet that grows into a hands on erotic passages. The beast versus the lover within Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s struggles between morals and passion alongside with full on zombie battles when the demon and necromancer George Wickham decided to return to his childhood village and raise the dead from their graves. 

I’m confident that Vampire Darcy’s Desire would make a far better movie than Pride and Prejudice and Zombie, though I look forward to whichever zombie adaption of the classic novel that’ll be displayed first.