Here There Be Monsters: Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo [2004] is speculative fiction, but also has a feel of literary fiction. I would probably call it dark fantasy because of tone, themes, a killing, and some domestic abuse. It’s the first novel by this Finnish author who also writes comics and scripts. The U.S. edition I read was edited from the British edition, Not Before Sundown [2003]; the original title was Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi.

I found that the short sections make it a quick...