Great idea for a book and really well executed. A thoroughly good read. Highly recommended. .

This is not a book that I could recommend. The first quarter was interesting, but then my attention began to wane as the narrator went on incessantly. The middle part, I skimmed and feel that I missed nothing and then the ending was somewhat interesting but I had lost patience with the whole thing and was just glad that it was over.

Told from the perspective of 18-year-old Maria “Maja” Norberg, currently on trial for her involvement in a school shooting that was carried out by her boyfriend Sebastian. Until the very end, the reader is not completely sure of her participation. Was she part of the initial strategy that Sebastian, the son of Sweden’s richest man, had planned or was she just caught up in events that she was unaware of until the final defining moments.

Told in a teenage voice full of condescension and a story that unfolds too slowly for my tastes, I had a hard time with this book. Maja just seems to drone on in an unfiltered diatribe of those around her and her trying to come to terms with what happened and her part in it. Was there deeper meaning and societal innuendo that I miss – probably, but at the same time, the author should do their part in keeping my attention.

ARC for review - EPD - March 7, 2017.

I read it almost six months ago and it's exactly the sort of book I would like.....but I remember thinking that it was just average, and while I have a vague recollection of the ending, it was just nothing earth-shattering or new. Good, but not great.

School shootings have become a sickening reality, and in Quicksand, Swedish author Malin Persson Giolito explores such an incident through the eyes of Maya, an 18-year-old girl who’s accused of aiding and abetting her boyfriend murder several people. The novel opens in the aftermath of the crime with Maya cradling the dead body of boyfriend, Sebastian Fagerman amidst the corpses of her friends. Then the story moves to the trial.

At issue here is the subject of complicity. Did Maya plot with Sebastian? How much did she know of his intentions? Maya admits shooting her boyfriend Sebastian and her best friend, Amanda. How could Maya have murdered her best friend,and yet did she really like Amanda?

Amanda was spoiled, of course, she was–by her mom, her dad, her therapist, and the person who took care of her horse. But it wasn’t just about clothes and gadgets. It was something else. She had the same attitude towards her parents, her teacher–all authorities, including god–that she did toward people in the service industry, like they were all concierges at a luxury hotel.

As the trial opens and Maya is prepped by her lawyers, we see the events unfold in the courtroom through Maya’s eyes. This is a teenage girl who is largely disaffected and who views the adult world with disdain. Maya’s affluent parents have hired the best defense lawyer money can buy, and Maya has nothing but scorn for the two “helper attorney[s],” secretly mocking them in her head.


While the trial unfolds, Maya goes back in time to the beginnings of her relationship with Sebastian Fagerman, the son of “the richest man in Sweden.” Sebastian held wild parties with limitless drugs at his home, and indeed Sebastian’s life, complete with yachts and private jets is not enviable but a gilded nightmare of instability–a fact that Maya inevitably struggles with.

Quicksand effectively shows how a teenage girl got into a situation that she was unable to deal with. Maya’s parents are too awed by the Fagerman reputation to be other than delighted that Sebastian is dating their daughter. When things turn sour, Maya is so isolated and immature, she is unable to connect with anyone outside of her nightmare situation. Her disaffectedness makes her seem tough, but breakthrough that, and she’s actually quite brittle. In Maya, author Mallin Persson Giolito creates a not-particularly-likable teenage girl who thinks she knows all the answers and who feels superior to all adults. While most of her thoughts seemed to fit with those of an arrogant 18 year old privileged girl, occasionally, very occasionally, some of her thoughts did not. Maya has the habit of latching onto the words of adults as an inauthentic, meaningless ‘speak.’ Everyone, according to Maya, “has such a difficult time saying what they mean in plain language,” and yet isn’t she guilty of the same thing?

What a typical teacher answer: “that’s an excellent question …” “I hear what you’re saying…” “It’s not black and white…” “It’s not that simple …” Those kinds of answers all mean the same thing: they have no idea what they’re talking about.

But fine, If it’s difficult to know what’s true and who’s lying, if you can’t be sure, then what do you do?

While the setting, mood and atmosphere are excellent here, the details of the past bog down the narrative–say for example when Maya presents (in her head) 4 alternative ‘after the party’ scenarios. I went back and forth feeling sympathy and dislike for Maya. At times, it’s easy to see how this teenager was forced to cope with scenarios that were way beyond her maturity level, but at other times I was out of patience with her. Underlying the plot there’s a strong undercurrent of privilege. How do parents who raise their children to think they’re ‘special’ and above the herd, manage to eradicate arrogance and superficiality? How do you teach the children of the cossetted ultra-rich? How to teach the degradation of poverty? The humiliation of need?

Review copy

Translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles

This is a fascinating look at a tragic school shooting - from the perspective of one of the accused shooters. The book begins in a rather confusing fashion but rather than a turnoff, it serves to draw the reader in - wanting to know more. The timeline goes back and forth from the trial in the present to the events in the past that led up to the shooting.

Maja isn't particularly likeable, but she's vulnerable and confused. In some ways, she's a typical teenager. The narratives of the past show she is drawn into Sebastian's world - a world of privilege and loneliness. She's excited to be chosen by him - and her parents are impressed because of Sebastian's rich father.

There was some political babble regarding immigration midway through the book which actually seemed out of place and unnecessary to me. I thought it actually detracted from the story.

The mystery of what the court decided in Maja's case remained unknown until the final pages. It could have gone either way. The one thing for sure - - this was a tragic story for Maja as well as those who were killed.

If you are only going to read one courtroom novel this year let it be this one!

Also perfect for people who are just beginning to dip their toes into the genre because the courtoom scenes don't overwhelm the book at all, the focus is entrirely on the events that led there.

Maria 'Maja' Norberg, an upper class Norwegian teenager is accused of committing a mass murder in their upper secondary school with her boyfriend, Sebastian who died during the shooting. People are outraged, some demand answers but most people just want someone who is responsible for the terrible things that happened.

But nothing ever is that simple, that is one thing this book teaches everyone.

The narrating voice is Maja's; it seamlessly alternates between the present and the past starting from the first day of trial and the beginning of their relationship with Sebastian and the circle of their friends. As the events unfold we get a multilayered,realistic and very alive portrait of everyone who had part in how things turned out. There are many people, good student Samir, drug dealing Dennis, the parents of the couple, the best friend Amanda, her boyfriend Sebastian and Maja herself and of course their complex motivations and the dynamics between them.

This book is about what people do and more importantly didn't do and how it ultimately leads to catastrophe.

From the very first page it grips the attention and doesn't let go till the very end.Though it's more of a courtroom drama than thriller with its 400+ pages, well crafted character development and insightful criticism of society.

Giolito is a wonderful new voice, I can recommend Quicksand to everyone who is truly interested in a complex, psychologically accurate and compelling story.

*I'd like to thank Netgally for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest rewiew.*

Maja is on trial for the mass murder at her school that involved her killing her boyfriend and her best friend. She has become the most hated teenager in the country but no one really knows what happened and she hasn't exactly been talking. Is she really a cold blooded killer or a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with a self defense tactic gone wrong?

While I am usually a fan of courtroom crime thrillers, this one just didn't quite hit home for me. I felt there was a lot of repetition and read extremely slow in some places. This goes back and forth, starting at the point where she has been in jail for 9 months awaiting trial. We see her relationships with her family, her best friend and her boyfriend - all of whom have their own issues. The book kept me engaged enough to want to see what the final verdict will be... but when the ending came, it left me wanting. This is where I wish books wouldn't say "if you like this, you'll love that"... this says it's The Secret History meets We Need To Talk About Kevin... I kinnnnnd of see that, but ultimately, I think I expected much more because of this statement. If you like courtroom crime and a layered story of teen angst gone wrong, this could be a book better suited for you. Would love to get other's views on this one, so if you pick it up, please get back with me to discuss!

This is set in modern Sweden which in and of itself was of interest. The story revolves around a teenage girl who is accused of inciting her boyfriend to kill his father and several schoolmates before she shoots and kills the boyfriend. Think of “We need to talk about Kevin” maybe from the viewpoint of Kevin’s girlfriend. It was the equivalent of a literary page turner, and although glimpses into the Swedish justice system was interesting. It could at times become a little meandering, and, as I am probably more a fan of the ambiguous outcome, the ending was tucked in a little too neatly for me. But generally, I thought it was pretty well written, probably closer to three and ½ stars than to three.

An amazing book that hooked me and DEMANDED my attention from the beginning. As in, don't answer the phone, check Twitter, etc because the story is that interesting. The coming of age/society expectations were spot on and I couldn't put it down. Very well done!!

Quicksand is a courtroom drama centered on the trial of an eighteen year old girl charged with murder during a school shooting. The story opens in the classroom, which is a classic gambit to hook the reader because it's unclear who all did the shooting and who all died (it's a brief opening interlude). A good chunk of the beginning is a courtroom procedural, and I think it was the strongest part of the book. The book slowed down for me as Maja, the narrator, went into the long background story about her relationship with Sebastian, the boyfriend she allegedly incited to murder.

I thought this book would take a more unreliable narrator turn than it did: it really is a story about a senseless crime spree instead, and in that way it reminded me of Laura Lippman. Ultimately, it's a book about a hugely unsympathetic group of characters, teenagers and adults, and Maja still remained a mystery to me, which I think is the point. The book is also smart about race and class, which was a welcome part of the story.

“No one asked if I wanted to save Sebastian, but you all blame me for failing…”

I was truly excited to read and review this novel, Quicksand, by Swedish author Malin Persson Giolito. I first heard about it when it was just a deal to be translated—just another deal that happens every week in the publishing world. Yet, already I was intrigued by the premise and kept an eye out for it. So, you can imagine that when it happened across my path as an advance-read copy, wrapped in an unobtrusive (and probably at the time, incomplete) front cover, I leapt at it.

Maja Norberg is an eighteen-year-old last-year student at an expensive prep school in the center of a wealthy Swedish suburb. When she meets Sebastian, the son of billionaire Claes Fagerman, she’s immediately swept up in the ultra-cool image he’s always exuded, the weeks spent on his father’s luxurious boats and in all of the perks and toys, drugs and sex, emotional angst and obsession that their relationship evolves into. During this last year in school, the unthinkable happens, and Maja is left holding the smoking gun, literally, tearing her away from her comfy existence in the ‘burbs and placing her right in the middle of the media sensation court case of the century.

This novel started slowly, and in a tone that irritated me at first. Rather, Maja irritated me at first. But I pressed on, and I was very soon rewarded for it. For, all of the pieces of this narrative (this novel is told in interchanging sections) that seemed scattered at first, all moved together to complete the picture as a whole at a brilliant pace, pulling me in with it. This was a superb modern-day characterization of rich teens. Not a single character came off as a caricature or stereotype; they all filled the page, as if they were real people—flaws and all. Imagine Steig Larsson meets The Most Dangerous Place on Earth, and you’ve got a great idea of the sharp insight and cunningly skilled writing that you’re in for here, for this novel was everything that Dangerous Place was trying to be.

One of my favorite goodie takeaways from this novel was those thoughtful yet significant nuggets of truth and awareness here, which I so welcomed and respected. I love a sharp narrator, one who can pick apart the people around them. And that’s who Giolito gave her reader in Maja Norberg. Because, what you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find within these pages is that Quicksand features class tensions, the privilege of wealth and what happens when those taut lines cross one time too many.

“…you are wrong if you think a good story isn’t necessary. All you have to do is watch Idol or X Factor…to understand that the backstory is half the point. You all want to be surprised when the fatty sings like a star, you want to feel gratified when he made it ‘despite the odds,’ and you want to believe that it’s just bad luck that my parents don’t also live in Djursholm and work as doctors and lawyers, that it’s an injustice you are definitely not complicit in, but you can say it’s wrong and feel bad that we don’t take better care of our immigrants, if they would only be a little more Swedish, learn their new language faster, study a little harder, then the American dream would be just within reach. You love the American dream…”

In Quicksand, Malin Persson Giolito not only weaves an incredibly incisive and pulsating story, but she also manages to tackle serious social and economic issues with stunning clarity that made me sit up and re-read her passages. And, her socioeconomic commentary was presented in all of the best ways, so integrated into the actual story line that the latter would have seemed incomplete without the former, so dramatically illustrated by the sharp angles and trajectories at which these teenage lives crossed that it becomes a major undertone of the novel—a foundation of the plot rather than an accessory. Lines like, “Our problem isn’t immigrants, it’s this one percent with too much money,” cut deeply within the narrative and provoke thought all the more, because their brilliant placement within the narrative makes the reader feel that they’ve stumbled across a rare, half-hidden jewel, so that they long to find and pick up another.

I became so fully engrossed in Maja’s story, that I, too, gasped at turns of events in the courtroom and I, too, along with the judge and jury, weighed the evidence against her, trying to decide if I felt that she was guilty or not. Giolito was very skilled with the way that she handled this novel, because all parts of it—the courtroom, the jail/solitary confinement, and the backstory leading up to it—were all truly gripping, once the novel fully took off. Even the small annoyances at the beginning came together and re-presented themselves in a new light in the end, which I could only stand back and appreciate.

Giolito made me question my own instincts as to whether Maja was guilty or innocent, and I loved every minute of it. I was compelled to turn each and every page, to live these characters’ lives out with them until the very end, and for that I award the rarely given and always coveted 5 stars. *****

Quicksand, the upcoming courtroom thriller, by Malin Persson Giolito follows Maja Norberg; eighteen years old and on trial for her involvement in a mass shooting at a prep school where her best friend and boyfriend were killed. I, for one, am a fan of any courtroom style thriller. I also really loved Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult and the synopsis of this title seemed similar. Needless to say, I was very eager to read this one.

The novel opens with Maja entering the courtroom after spending nine months in jail awaiting her trial. The story develops slowly and, through flashbacks and testimonies during the trial, the reader puts together the story of what happened the day of the massacre. By the time Maja takes the stand, the plot was laced with tension and I was on the edge of my seat to hear her versions of events.

As mentioned, the novel unfolds in pieces from present day (Maja in jail) backward to the day of the massacre; bits from the past come together as Maja remembers, reflects on her time spent in prison and the prosecution and defense teams lay out the evidence. Although his narrative style was different, I also found it to be a very disjointing. The novel didn’t feel like it flowed as the flashbacks were not sequential and didn’t follow any particular timeline. Also, some of the flashbacks seemed irrelevant and didn’t really align with the story of the school shooting, instead, they set the stage to develop Maja’s character. I didn’t mind this; I just felt like the shooting became a secondary plot and the main events circled around the development of Maja and her teenage angst/love triangle.

My main complaint with this title was the fact that it read like a YA novel. As far as I know, this one was not YA. Maybe it should have been expected since an eighteen-year-old girl did narrate the plot; I just felt like it wasn’t nearly as developed, as I wanted it to be.

Nonetheless, I did enjoy this novel overall and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a YA courtroom thriller or something a little lighter; although the subject matter seems very dark, it is actually a much lighter read than expected. I gave it a 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

Quicksand is a courtroom thriller about an eighteen year old girl named Maja who is on trial for a shooting at her high school that was completed by her boyfriend. Throughout the book, we'll learn what Maja's role in the shooting was. Did she know about it? Was she part of it? Guilty to innocent, you'll find out before the end of the book!

I was immediately intrigued by this book because of how similar it sounded to Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas, whichI LOVED. Unfortunately, Quicksand fell flat for me.

I will start out by saying that I loved the premise. Given how much I loved Dangerous Girls, I was really excited about the plot. What I found was that hardly any of the book actually took place in the courtroom. Most of it was spent doing flashbacks of times that were before the shooting. While I can appreciate the author's attempt at giving us some insight into the characters who are eventually wrapped up in this major crime, it often felt unnecessary to me. It felt like it wasn't adding anything to what I already knew about the characters, and I found myself wanting to skim those flashbacks because they weren't holding my attention. There are some flashbacks to the time of the shooting, or right before, which I did really enjoy. I think those were perfect for the story, and I loved being able to see the shooting in the past and then fast forward to the future and hear about it again during the trial. That said, there was a ton of talk about the trial but hardly any actual trial happening. I kept waiting for it to happen, but what I kept getting were flashbacks to long before the shooting took place. It left me wanting, but not in a good way.

The other thing I really struggled with was the writing. The sentences felt very choppy, and it felt like the author was trying TOO hard to write the way people talk, using lots of sarcastic words in quotations and run on sentences, but to me it was distracting. I'm trying to be lenient because this book has been translated from its original Swedish, so I'm not sure what was lost in translation and what was the author's writing style.

Last, Quicksand was marketed as a thriller, however I felt like the suspense was lacking for me. Almost all of the characters were really unlikeable, which is okay in some circumstances, but honestly I wasn't on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happened.

I'm sorry to say that this wasn't a winner for me, and I can't say I'd recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley, Malin Persson Giolito, and Other Press for an ARC of Quicksand in exchange for an honest review. Quicksand will be published on March 7th, 2017.