Even for a Scandinavian novel this felt dark - but the language was evocative and stunning even at its most disturbing... it's not an easy read, and not one I'd race to pick up again, but it was moving and lyrically written.

This is incredibly melancholy. Kristina has been murdered at the age of 24 and she's looking back at her life, which has had an amazing number of downs and few ups. It's also about the people in her life - her mother, her son, her daughter. If there's ever been a Swedish noir novel that isn't a murder mystery, this is it. The writing, and translation, is gorgeous but it's just depressing. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This is the story of Inni, a woman who lived on the margins and then was brutally murdered. The writing was unique in capturing the before, during, and after and I found this utterly engaging. If you like the description of this book I think they hit the nail on the head. Outstanding and heartfelt I would definitely recommend for fans of literary fiction. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this drc available through netgalley.

This novel was a great read! I really enjoyed the characters, the plot, and the all around world building. Definitely worth picking up!

"𝑰 𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒅 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒍 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆. 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒍."

Sara Stridsberg is one of my favorite writers, bringing to life those in society who have been discarded and in this novel, the murdered and disposed. It’s horrific, Inni’s last moments spent with evil, how did she end up there? The victim has their say, to the reader at least. This isn’t a novel about justice. Is there ever justice? There isn’t much left of Inni, except for a deep wound that crawls with insects, not unlike her remains now, which don’t resemble the recognizable human form. What happened is monstrous and yet… did she chose the shadows?

There was Inni’s brother Eskil, her partner Shane, parents Raksha and Ivan and her own sweet babies. Where are they now? Were they ever really hers? Are they marked? Can children inherit their mother’s dark fate? When Inni was a child herself, she reached for her mother Raksha and now reaches for her beyond the grave. Raksha, who never could settle into the miracle of her children, sure the dream would dissolve. Raksha’s love for Ivan, an impossible dream in its own right. The reader moves through her past, witness to the tragedy in childhood that ruptures her soul forever. The brutality of the hungry world, ‘the crack opens’ and nothing can close it. Decay is nothing new, as she reflects on her choices- the drugs, the sex work and Shane, who she promised to love better but never could. Doomed when together, who was the depraved one? Which one was dragging the other through the gutter? It was as if she was hunting the shadows all her life for just this ending. As punishment? It is too late for her, either way. Horror was always inevitable, wasn’t it? Was it? She has reached the end.

Just a street girl, like any other, waiting to be plucked for experiments any twisted mind can imagine. Interchangeable, women no one cares about or looks for; prostitutes, drug addicts, non-entities. We, the readers, are safe in our bubble from the predators of their existence. We can close our eyes, and remain untouched. Much like her mother Raksha once closed her own, when the pain was too great to bear. Inni’s own eyes, however, cannot be shut, she has no eyes. Trapped in her own type of hell, because what is worse than watching your children grow up and unable to effect their journey, Inni prays… yes, prays for her children and for her parents. Sends her wishes into the great void. Her life was a disaster, her death an abomination. It hurts so much to love, why couldn’t she walk in the light, move past her trauma? Be the sort of partner Shane needed, stay clean and raise her babies? What was broken inside of her? Was she really irreparable? What caused the vacancy she tried so hard to fill with more darkness? Sara Stridsberg explores human weakness, loss, violence, victim and predator. Her writing is always haunting, unapologetically obscene. You can’t dismiss her characters, you’re gripped by a need to look in on their world no matter how disturbing it is, regardless of the stink of death surrounding them. It’s harder to dismiss a person when you witness their full existence, are privy to their innermost confessions. Maybe that’s why it’s easier to turn away or, like the murderer, extinguish the light- you don’t have to humanize a stranger, especially society’s outcasts.

Brutal, painful read. It is dark, violence isn’t clean, it is merciless, godless. Horrors like this happen, Stridsberg takes reality and honors the victim with a story. It’s a painful read, to say the least. It’s not meant to guide you through right or wrong, is life ever that simplistic? It’s not about what Inni deserved or didn’t deserve, it’s an account of her end. Read it, but don’t expect a moral lesson, I don’t think that is the author’s intent.

Publication Date: January 18th, 2022

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

I received and Advanced Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

A dark tale, Stridsberg beautifully explores what happens to life after death. The novel begins with a grewsome murder of women, whom due to the difficulties of life found herself as drug addict and sex worker. Her son taken away from her and placed into protective custody, and her daughter, whom after attempting to better her life, ended up giving away before she was even born. Written in the perspective of our anti-hero, we follow her from her childhood to her death, through the maturation of her children, and until the last moment her name is uttered on earth.

As a reader, I often found that the purpose of this novel isn't so much of to make us feel sorry for our anti-hero; but to make us question the social services our society currently provides and the cracks within them. I am also grateful with Stridsberg's writing ability as I do not believe I would have finished the novel if it was written by anyone else. This story is not for those that are light of heart.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. Set in Sweden, our nameless narrator, a sex worker and drug user, gets killed at the beginning of this book in a most gruesome manner. We keep returning to the act of her murder, but she is now a spirit released into the world and she goes backwards in time to see the drowning of her little brother when she was young, we see her married and using drugs. Because of the drugs her son is taken from her. She gets another chance by being pregnant with a daughter, but can’t clean up her life and gives up her daughter before she’s even born. Then she sees after her death and watches her parents try to deal with this loss. And then we go even further to see her children as adults. They left her so early, but still she loves them and sees herself and her family in them. This is a tough book at times, but the narrator’s voice and her very openness make it great.

Absolutely exquisite writing. Sara Stridsberg is special and so is this book. It enveloped me by the first chapter. I am enamored of the story..

The book is a young woman describing her death throughout the story. Each time she describes her death you learn a little bit more about her, and her experience being killed and her very short life. This is not a happy tale but wondrous in its honesty. Not everyone has a great life and not everyone gets good parents.

It was like Sara interviewed a deceased homicide victim. Just an incredibly good book that puts you in another realm.

Dang. The prose here slays. As heart wrenching as the subject is, each sentence sings beautifully. A surprisingly beautiful novel dealing with a violent and brutal life.