Honestly, what the hell did I just read? That was weird, and off the wall, and I can see why other reviewers have said it's a bit Stephen King in style. What a trip!

I thoroughly enjoyed this macabre novel from John Ajvide Lindqvist. Completely unlike anything I have read before, I was both disturbed and intrigued by the twists and turns the plot takes and the fantastic character development throughout each chapter. Alternating between viewpoints kept the story fast-paced and fresh, allowing the reader to be gripped in the horror as if it were their own.

I will definitely be reading more books from this author!

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

This was a very intriguing and ambiguous first instalment in a supernatural trilogy. One morning, four families wake up in their respective caravans, only to find that the campsite has disappeared, as have all of the campers. Firstly, by design, all of the characters are intrinsically unpleasant in some way and I felt that there was a thread of misogyny linking some of the male characters that was particularly distasteful. Lindqvist masterfully peels back the layers of each character's backstory revealing their past indiscretions and adding depth to each one, ensuring that no one is entirely detestable or entirely good. As anyone who has read Let the Right One In will know, he writes creepy kids really well, and there is an absolute corker in this narrative - incredibly sinister. The narrative is very ambiguous and open-ended, which I quite enjoyed, but it may be a problem for some people who prefer more closure. Overall, I really liked this and will definitely continue on in the series.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

My apologies for the late feedback. Health issues, now resolved, prevented my reading for some months.

This is a very unusual, almost surreal novel. My feelings about it shifted a fair amount during the time I was reading it as sometimes I felt lost and other times totally gripped by the narrative.

The way in which the backgrounds of the characters were revealed was highly engaging and made them feel very real. I loved Benny and Maud. Emil was a delight while Molly ... a truly haunting creation. However, the final pages left me confused.

It is certainly not a conventional horror story though its elements of each person’s individual horror was very effective. The translation was flawless. In terms of ratings 3.5 stars.

I am a massive fan of his previous book; Let the Right One In. This is very different but is no less creepy or unsettling! The main plot is that four caravans suddenly move during the night to a whole different place. It's vast and seemingly empty and no one has a clue where they are. The reactions from the four different families to this very unusual situation is very believable and make me wonder what my own reaction would be. It's a very unique book and really very creepy and eerie, would recommend!

Four caravans, four families inside waking up to a horrifying new reality. They, their cars and caravans, even their pets, are no longer where they were located when everyone went to bed the night before. It seems that their world has somehow moved on, taking them away from their Swedish holiday camping ground to a new place that only superficially resembles where it is that they came from. Acres and acres of grass that is yet not grass. An endless sky, and the frustration of having no landmarks in a sterile and unpopulated landscape. But is it truly empty?

Rather than banding together for the common goal, it seems at first that the families are in denial. Not everyone, but then there are small children to consider. Life of a form will go on. Escape seems impossible from an environment where not even their navigation systems can detect their true location. When the dead begin to seek them out and someone in their own group seems set on sabotage, it is hard for the holiday makers to decide who or what might be the bigger threat.

The central premise in I AM BEHIND YOU is simply delicious. The environment is both alien and familiar and so are the reactions of the characters to their new altered reality. It is impossible not to project yourself into this novel and wonder what your own behaviour and thinking would be like – would you accept, would you challenge, would you seek and be capable of escape? Would you throw everybody else under the bus in order to keep yourself alive or would you stoically band together with your new comrades to fight the common evil that threatens you all?

A small or restricted setting will always sharpen the focus on the interactions of the cast (also small here) and this does present its own challenges. There needs to be a good balance of the present day conflict as to what each character will carry as baggage into their shared encounters. Lindqvist’s talent in exposing the truer nature of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances is evident once again in I AM BEHIND YOU. The horror lays in how quickly in this apocalyptic situation that people will show their true colours, acting selfishly in order to protect themselves and their own. Societal norms go out the window in a shockingly short period of time. Suppressed thoughts, emotions, traits are all given freedom to rise to the surface and ride over the veneer of civility we all struggle to maintain.

The “woo-woo” inclusion in this novel did tend to be a bit aimless and certainly wasn’t its strength – the work put into character development was. Not knowing what was memory and what the characters were seeing was annoying more than a few times. The ethereal slippage between the worlds was interesting, though more resolution or explanation would have been greatly welcomed.
Dive in and question it yourself!

Very creepy - not quite as gripping as Let the Right One In, but worth reading if you were a fan of that one. Also shares some similarities with Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, for the upside-down-ness of its world.

Weird, wacky anf wonderful, Lindqvist is certainly a reader that continues to surprise. A constant treat in the lierary world.

I am behind you by john Ajvide Lindqvist.
Isabelle and peter are on a caravan holiday. But when they wake up there is something different. They are not where they were when they went to sleep. Stefan is with his wife Carina and emil. Nothing is working In his caravan. So he goes outside and sees the other couple. Something is not right? What is going on? Where are they?
Omg. An eerie read. absolutely fantastic read loved it and couldn't put it down. 5*.

A brilliant crafted strange and fearful horror. An incredibly bizarre rollercoaster ride full dread!

I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. The creeping dread was uncomfortable but the ending was not what I expected, and I thought about it for quite a while after I had finished.

I'm in two minds as I write this review because I really enjoyed the first half of the book. Like, really enjoyed it. Despite being one of the more bizarre novels I've read in a while, it was definitely the most intriguing. The whole premise is weird, but SO chilling. I can't even begin to explain it. I normally don't enjoy such a detached narration style but it just worked for this novel – it was good to be able to explore the plot from the view point of each of the characters. My issue with this novel is with its length. I feel like it's too long, and didn't manage to keep my attention until the end, which was a shame. I think this is partly because it's a bit rambling, but also partly because the 'reveals' (IE, what was actually happening to the characters) was hard to grasp and understand. All in all an enjoyable read at first, but not my cup of tea by the end!

I read a few reviews of the book before I started reading it myself and all I can say is that I agree. While I did enjoy the book, it felt like it could have a fraction shorter. I really enjoyed the gory parts and some of the character's arcs but I found myself just not caring about others (and rather ashamedly skipping chapters).
It was also just a really odd read. It was never quite clear what was happening which I'm sure was the intention but just left me a bit in the dark.

Fantastically strange, wonderfully absorbing & brilliantly written. Like nothing I’ve ever read before.

This was a bizarre book. Simultaneously bleak, brutal and beautiful but, above all, weird. It won’t be for everyone, but I enjoyed how different it was.

We meet four families from vastly different backgrounds, from a footballer and his wife to a same sex couple of farmers, who gradually found solace in each other when they lost their wives. What the group has in common is that they’ve all got secrets, and they all wake up one day to discover all signs of life have disappeared from their campsite.

It’s not just the other campers that have gone. It’s the reception area, the toilet blocks, the stream, the trees, even the sun. The author gradually unveils the eerie atmosphere through his characters’ eyes capturing the sense of trapped isolation which comes from losing all signs of humanity. As far as the eye can see, there is only grass and fields, and a world with no sun is unsettlingly explored.

In a way, little happens; this tale actually feels very internal as each character deals with their own inner turmoils and has to face their fears. As the claustrophobic atmosphere intensifies, the characters begin to turn on eachother, but things get worse when they realise they’re not alone - there’s something darker out there, and it wants their blood.

The writing felt a little reminiscent of Stephen King - the author has a knack of getting under the skin of his characters, and creating a horror which reflects their individual fears. This book almost feels like a character study for the first half or so, as we follow each characters’ slow descent into madness. There’s some really strong, complex characters here and they kept me reading, including dog's perspective, one of my personal favourites.

This book is difficult to describe - it’s one that it’s best you just experience for yourself, if you can handle a little oddness. The ending was somewhat bizarre and could be unsatisfying to some, but I felt it suited the tone of the novel.

I've had a hit and miss (but mostly miss), relationship with Lindqvist so far to be honest, but I loved the sound of this book. And I'm pleased to report that this has been my favourite of his so far!

I Am Behind You, is hands down one of the weirdest books I've ever read, and thus a perfect read for a dark October evening.

It's about a myriad of different families who wake up in their holiday caravans to find that the caravan park is gone. They've been moved, or have they? There is nothing around, and when they drive, they don't get anywhere. The ground is strange and smells like blood.

Not only that, but there are these white human-like creatures stalking around. Before long, the families realise that they all see these creatures as different things; a tiger, a salesman, John Wayne characters... what does it all mean?

And then it starts to rain acid.

Out of all of the Lindqvist books I've read, I Am Behind You was definitely the most readable. I don't know whether the translation was just better this time, but the pages flew by. I was totally submerged in this strange, creepy place and had to keep reading to get to the bottom of it.

But here lies the problem. We don't get to the bottom of it, of anything really. Which was really frustrating. There's only so many crazy things that can happen without even an iota of an explanation before you stop caring. But read on I did!

Apparently this is the first in a series, so maybe it will be addressed in the next book, but I wish he would have given us something more concrete as to what the hell was going on, you know!?

The star of the show were the characters for me. Each of the families bring something different, and alarming to the story. A few of them are loveable, but mainly they're all troubled in some way, especially Molly, the token creepy child who was once left in a tunnel and has never been the same since.

I hate to liken every horror writer to Stephen King, but parts of this really did remind me of him and his great characterisation. If you liked Under the Dome, I think you'd enjoy this too.

I was immediately sucked into the nowhere land with 4 caravans, 10 people, a cat and a dog.
I enjoyed and was horrified in equal measure as I experienced this strange place through their eyes. I would be hopeful one minute and disgusted the next, sympathetic to angry. This author knows how to get into your head.
I did not get any idea of time passing which meant I just kept reading and reading. Very clever!
I am still as confused as when I started and I really don't mind. I enjoyed this twisted and surreal story and can't wait to read more from this author.

Last night four families went to sleep in their caravans and wake to a world vastly changed from the one they know and expected to be there the next day. Never ending grass, a clear blue sky without a sun, a GPS indicating they are still in the same location, missing the usual sounds of the outdoors and a radio playing the same songs on every station add to the creepiness of the whole setting. This motley and interesting group all have secrets and banding together for survival does not bring out their best qualities or work very well in their case.
The curious beginning certainly captured my interest. I had a compelling urge to discover an explanation for what happened as much as they did including the dog! Just imagining a situation where I could lose everything still gives me the shivers.
All the characters started out as normal people and gradually their personality and behavior changes almost as if they are possessed. One thing I find fascinating and curious about people is whether they are already like that or the situation makes them that way. I do not think someone who gives their partner rat poison to teach them a lesson is going to improve under pressure.
I felt sorry for Benny the little dog and had my fingers crossed nothing would happen to him. How ironic that he finds a friend in Cat. The little girl was my least favorite character, as she seemed to have a very nasty way for someone so young.
I have to confess to sneaking a look at the end of this book and feel guilty, as I never do that sort of thing. In a strange way, I felt relieved and released me from the book’s spell after doing this. There seemed to be a quiet message woven through the storyline and working as a team might have been part of it. It certainly highlights how selfish some people can become under adversity.
This is the first in a planned trilogy and if the next is as good as this one was I know I would enjoy it. The author has worked as a conjurer and stand up comedian and perhaps those experiences helped create a compelling story with a scary, fascinating and sad theme. I think this would make into an excellent movie. The style reminded me a little of novels written by Clive Barker.
Call me odd but I found parts were also appealing and humorous in an odd sort of way eg the scene with the guy sitting at a table with his disloyal wife and two gay dairy farmers just before he is about to be killed by acid raining down from the sky.
If you enjoy horror with a twist and a message then I highly recommend read this book. Ps I don’t think I want to go camping in a caravan after reading this.

This is a magnificent original horror story. Disturbing, creepy and just amazing.