I Am Behind You
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3.8 • 22 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A compelling, eerie new novel from the internationally bestselling author of Let the Right One In.
"At the top of his game, Lindqvist gives Stephen King and John Saul at their best a run for the money." —Library Journal (starred)
"Dubbed the Stephen King of Sweden, Lindqvist lives up to the billing." —New York Post
Four families wake up one morning in their trailer on an ordinary campsite. However, during the night something strange has happened. Everything outside the camping grounds has disappeared, and the world has been transformed into an endless expanse of grass. The sky is blue, but there is no sign of the sun; there are no trees, no flowers, no birds. And every radio plays nothing but the songs of sixties pop icon Peter Himmelstrand.
As the holiday-makers try to come to terms with what has happened, they are forced to confront their deepest fears and secret desires. Past events that each of them has tried to bury rise to the surface and take on terrifying physical forms. Can any of them find a way back to reality?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Four families and their vacation caravans are somehow transported into a seemingly endless grassy meadow in Lindqvist's ambitious and frustrating novel of cosmic horror, the first of a projected trilogy. Their world now includes a bright sky, no sun, a lot of grass, three married couples of various degrees of happiness, two friends who are inching toward romance, two children, one cat, one dog, and whatever was in the caravans when they arrived. GPS maps show them in places they cannot possibly be, such as on roads that ceased to exist years ago. The radio works, but plays only songs written by Peter Himmelstrand, a real-life 1960s Swedish pop star. (In Sweden, the title of the novel is Himmelstrand.) Unsurprisingly, tensions in the group are high, especially since unpleasant, elderly Donald has a gun, and Molly, one of the children, is a budding psychopath. The characters, the group dynamics, and the unfolding mystery of what's going on and why are well-depicted and engrossing, but the ending peters out in a futile attempt to remain emotionally satisfying while still leaving most events unexplained. A future book may shed more light, but the first installment makes it difficult to maintain enough investment in the story to want more of it.
Customer Reviews
Blows my mind
The concept is very unique and the entire story is just strange. I’m reading each chapter just waiting to see what happens in the next one. The ending is even more confusing so it may not be for everyone