December 24, 2010

Harbour - John Ajvide Lindquist

I have The First Tuesday Book Club Show on ABC to thank for my latest reading success. The host of the show, Jennifer Byrne, mentioned the book on the final show for the year stating it was one of the books she was looking forward to reading over the Christmas holidays and the way she described it made it sound intriguing.
Harbour is set in a small Swedish Island community called Domaro. The book starts with a day trip across the snow to the lighthouse at Gavasten by Anders, his wife Cecilia and their 6 year old daughter, Maja. While the family is visiting the lighthouse Maja disappears completely - one moment she is there and the next there is absolutely no sign on her.

The rest of the book focuses on Anders search for Maja and in the process the unravelling and discovery of the secrets of Domaro and the people who live there.

It is difficult to place this book in one hard and fast genre - there are certainly elements of mystery within it, it is dramatic and contains many scenes highlighting the impact of relationships on our lives and yet there is also a sense of the paranormal about it as well.

I was hooked by this story - it is not a book I would normally choose to read but I loved it and became completely absorbed in it, so much so that even when events occurred that would normally require me to suspend my beliefs about certain things I was able to run with it easily.

At times I did feel that the author was trying to possibly tell too many stories and introduce too many different characters but to his credit he did seem to bring them all together by the end.

I loved this one so much I am now going to start on the author's earlier book, Let The Right One In, although I have heard it is a lot scarier...

5 comments:

Anbolyn said...

Just the cover of this book makes me want to read it!

Tamara said...

Karen, what I love about your reading habits is that you do take on a wide range of genres and styles. You're brave like that. Enjoy your holiday reading and Merry Christmas!!

Karen said...

Hi Anbolyn - It is a lovely cover - it draws you in!

Hi T - Merry Christmas to you too! I haven't always been so adventurous in terms of my reading but I am trying to branch out a little more!

Unknown said...

I'll look for this one. I loved Let the Right One In. It was very scary.

Merry Chirstmas to you, but the way. I hope you enjoy P&P.

Sean Wright said...

I just got this for xmas. I found Let the Right One In to feature too many stories as well.