Havsmannen

by Carl-Johan Vallgren

Falkenberg i början av 1980-talet. Den unga Nella har vuxit upp i samhällets utkant. Hennes yngre bror Robert är mobbad i skolan, och Nella gör allt för att skydda honom. På så sätt hamnar hon i ekonomisk skuld till broderns värsta plågoande, som verkar vara i stånd till vad som helst. Hennes tidsfrist rinner snabbt ut. Men snart inträffar något överraskande, något som ändrar förutsättningarna för allt. En spännande, intensiv och vacker bok om syskonkärlek och svek - och om vardagens möte med det främmande och fantastiska.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Mermaids, Sweden, Swedish Literature, Contemporary

275 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2012

About the author

He is the author of eight novels, of which The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-reading Monster Hercules Barefoot is the first novel to be translated into English. His novels have been translated into twenty-five languages. He lives in Stockholm.

Reviews

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just didn't enjoy this one as much as I'd hoped. I've seen this shelved as magical realism, but despite the story having a merman, I didn't feel it was magical at all.

I didn't like the way every character was connected in some meaningful way to the others. For example: Gerard and Nella's dad. Nella's dad and Tommy's brothers. Why? What was the point of this? Besides Nella and Robert, none of the characters were particular fleshed out. I didn't feel the friendship between Nella and Tommy at all.

There were graphic descriptions of violence, such as a cat being burned alive in a bag and descriptions of injuries done to the merman. There were several odd moments that stood out from the story and didn't appear to have a point. In one scene a "junkie guy" is undressing Nella, a fourteen-year-old girl, with his eyes. A few sentences later, he's doing the same to Nella's mom. This was just such a strange addition to the scene, especially since this guy barely appears in the story at all. Another time, Nella's dad tells several racist jokes in a row. I just didn't see why this had to be included.

Lastly, the merman. I didn't think it actually added anything to the story, except as a convenient way to dispatch of Nella's bully at the end.

This could have been quite interesting with just a few tweaks. Overall, it was a disappointment.

[Pinar Celebi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okurken içimi acıtan, canımı yakan, sinirlendiren, üzen bir kitaptı. Bu kadar çok hissi bir anda ayağa kaldıran bir kitap nasıl kötü olabilir ki zaten? İki oturuşta bitirdim bu kitabı ve sözde ağırdan aldım. Sırf bitmesin diye. Azıcık fantastik öğeler barındırsa da içinde büyülü gerçekçiliğe kıyısından yaklaşan ama gerçekten büyülü bir kitaptı Denizadamı. Son yıllarda okuduğum en iyi kitaplardan.

[Maxine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nella and her brother Robert live a hard life. Their mother is a drunk and their father is in and out of prison. Robert is bullied mercilessly at school and Nella has become his protector. She commits petty crimes to buy off his tormentors. She has become an expert on dealing with bad situations on her own but when she witnesses the school psychopath torture and kill a kitten, he accuses her of tattling on him and demands more money than she can steal. She asks her friend, Tommy for help. His brothers have always got some scheme on the go but they have been more secretive than usual lately. Tommy shows her the secret, a real live creature that looks like a Merman. Suddenly it seems that, if she can save the creature she can save herself and Robert.

The Merman by Swedish author Carl-Johan Vallgren is a bleak dark tale with very few bright spots and if you asked me why I like it I would have to say I’m not sure but I did – a lot.

There’s not much that’s been written about mermaids, you see. Mainly fairy tales with tragic endings.

And there is a definite fairy tale quality to this tale although more Hans Christian Anderson than Charles Perrault. Don’t look for a happy ending here although it is a realistic one. Nella and her brother might survive and the bad guys might be vanquished but there will be no perfect ‘happily ever after’ for anyone. The story combines the fantastic with the painfully real and somehow Vallgren not only makes it work, he makes it seem right.

The Merman is a story about family and friendship and what we will do for both. It is a fast read and a deceptively simple tale with memorable characters but it packs a wallop. It is the kind of story you can read in an afternoon but will stay with you long after you finish the last page.

Trigger Warning: the killing of the kitten is particularly graphic and disturbing

[Rebecka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reads a bit like a children's book, yet it's far too sinister to be just that. I think. A bit heavy on the mental and physical torture, I'd say. For children.

And what's the lesson learnt from this? Kill sadistic boys straight away. Don't let them grow up.

And just how shitty are the authorities in this book?

If you want to read something frustrating and sad, this is a brilliant choice.

[Hulyacln · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Bir başlangıç yok, son da. Bunu biliyorum artık. Başkalarının öyküleri belki bir yerlere çıkıyordur, benimkiler çıkmıyor. Bir daire çiziyor, bazen bunu bile yapmıyor, durduğu yerde duruyor. Ve ben şunu merak ediyorum: Kendini durmadan aynı yerde tekrarlayan bir öykü neye yarar?’
.
İsveçli yazar Carl Johan Vallgren iki kardeşi anlatıyor. Ailesi tarafından unutulmuş, akran zorbalığı ile boğuşan iki kardeşi. Abla Nella ve erkek kardeş Robert zor günlerde birbirine tutunuyor, birbirinden başka kimseleri yok aslında.
Belki öyküler vardır.. Ya da denizin göremediğimiz diplerinde yaşayan varlıklar, eğer onlar varsa bir şeyler değişir mi? Değişmesini umuyorlar.
.
Vallgren sözünü esirgemiyor, anlattıklarını görmezden gelmek isteyebilirsiniz- bakıp başınızı çevirebilirsiniz. Ama orada olduklarını bilirsiniz. Çok etkilenerek okuduğum bir kitap oldu Denizadamı. Fazlasıyla canımı yaktı, düşündürdü.
Yazarın dilimize çevrilen diğer eseri (Bir Garip Aşk Öyküsü) de hemen listeme eklendi.
.
İsveççeden çeviride Ali Arda yer alırken; kapak fotoğrafı Emine Bora’ya ait~

[Leylak Dalı · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hüzünlü bir öykü, yer yer fantastik ögeler katılarak büyülü bir dille anlatılmış. Yazarın okuduğum ikinci kitabı, birinciyi çok sevmiştim, bunu daha da çok sevdim...

[Cee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark and bleak story of abuse, love between siblings, and the dark side of human nature.

The Merman is the story of Nella, a fifteen year-old girl, whose parents are drunks. Her father is in prison, and her mother drinks every single penny they have away. She has to care for her younger brother who gets bullied severely in school.

The beginning of The Merman is extremely heavy. There is severe bullying, and absolutely disgusting animal abuse (which is witnessed by the main character, she's not the one doing it). Especially the animal abuse was too much for me. They put a kitten on fire in very graphic detail. It went on for pages, and I skipped several of them, disgusted. After this I put the book down for weeks, not having the stomach to read on. Luckily it gets better after that, and there are barely any scenes as dark as that one.

This book manages to pull off being a book about abuse and bullying and being an outsider on the one hand, and having a supernatural on the other. I won't say much about the creature that lends this book its title as not to spoil anything, but I think the combination of the ordinary and the other worked very well in The Merman. It's a strange book, but a good one.

Mr Vallgren has a clean, to the point writing style that I enjoyed. After reading hundreds of books I've come to the point where I'm realising that I don't like my prose to have endless detours skirting around the goal, I want it to say what it means. It was barely noticeable that this is a translation from Swedish, except for some words that stuck out for me. Especially the continuous use of the word "lad" seemed a bit strange.

The Merman is painfully honest and open about crazy people, and therefore I wouldn't recommend it to young teens. It displays, yet never judges or preaches. It doesn't get wrapped up in a neat little bow, but has a realistic yet satisfying ending.

[Levent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Başlar başlamaz üzdü, canımı yaktı ve boğazımda düğüm oluşturarak da bitti. Aynı zamanda iki kardeşin karşısına çıkan kötü insanlardan da nefret ettim.Bütün duyguları aynı anda yaşattı, özellikle hüzün duygusundan bir süre daha kurtulabileceğimi sanmıyorum. Şahane bir kitaptı. Herkes okumalı.

[Krissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of really messed up events. I could not put it down, even though I really wanted to. There was a lot that made me very uncomfortable in a really bad way and i feel scarred by a lot of what i read. It was an interesting read, but I am glad it is over

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very bleak right from the get go and I almost gave up on it half way through. I thought it would be more about the merman but it was like he was a minor character in his own story. It was really about Nella's conflicts, both internally and with pretty much everyone else in her life, including her brother. I felt like the merman was more of a convenient way to push the story along and then wrap things up at the end than anything else.

[mad mags · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Fairy tales with tragic endings."

(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through Edelweiss. Trigger warning for violence, including bullying, sexual violence, and animal abuse, as well as offensive language.)

"There is no beginning, and no ending. I know that now. For others, perhaps, there are stories that lead somewhere, but not for me. It's like they go round in circles, and sometimes not even that: they just stand still in one place. And I wonder: what are you supposed to do with a story that repeats itself?"

"There's not much that's been written about mermaids, you see. Mainly fairy tales with tragic endings."

Petronella's life is a lot like a fairy tale. Not the ending, when the lowly peasant girl has found her prince, the heroine has slayed the dragon, and everyone is free to live happily ever after for the rest of their days. Rather, Nella is the beginning; the nightmare that comes before the daydream. The raw truth that lurks under the Disneyfied facade, fangs and claws bared.

Nella's is a family of three, occasionally four. She and her younger brother Robert live with their mother Marika in a maisonette (apartment) on Liljevägen in Falkenberg, Sweden; her housing is largely regarded as "a sort of slum where social service cases live." An unemployed alcoholic, Marika is a neglectful mother at best. Her mom is more likely to spend the family's public assistance funds on booze than food, forcing Nella into shoplifting to make up the difference. Sometimes the free lunch at school is the only meal Nella and Robert will see in a day; oftentimes it's the one and only reason they bother to show up at all. That, and to get out of the house: no matter how much Nella tidies up, it's not long before hurricane Marika sweeps through, leaving mess of dishes and vomit in her wake.

Dad's even worse, with an erratic disposition, sketchy friends, criminal endeavors, and his own addictions. Lucky for Nella and Robert, Jonas has been away for most of the past year, serving time for possession of narcotics. The bad news: he's set to be released in a matter of weeks.

As if Nella doesn't have her hands full with managing the household, there's also Robert to worry about. Whereas the kids at school mostly just shun Nella, pretending that the stick-thin girl with dirty clothes and unwashed hair doesn't exist, Robert is the target of vicious and unrelenting bullying. Robert has a learning disorder that was only exacerbated by problems with his vision, which long went undiagnosed. Now he wears coke-bottle glasses (that have been broken and taped back together who knows how many times), and tends to wet his pants when scared. Which is often: the kids call him names, break his few possessions, spit on him, and nail him with snowballs.

Yet as cruel as his own peers can be, their bullying is downright quaint next to the treatment Robert receives from Nella's classmates. When the Ninth Year psychopath Gerard becomes convinced that Nella snitched on him for dousing a kitten in petrol and lighting her on fire, he decides to make her pay - through Robert. Gerard and his "trailers" drag Robert into the woods behind school, shoving grass into his mouth and pine needles down his pants. When Nella tries to intervene, they sexually assault her with a pine cone. She attempts to pay Gerard off with a thousand kronar, but all attempts at buying peace predictably backfire: he's simply having too much fun tormenting Nella to stop.

Already suspicious of adults - one of Nella and Robert's greatest fears is being separated by social services - going to the authorities is out of the question: even some of the adults are terrified of Gerard.

Nella turns to her friend Tommy for help, but he's got his own secrets. Lately he's been preoccupied, guarded, and mysteriously absent from school. When Nella decides to tail him and find out why, she stumbles upon a creature that shouldn't exist: a merman, kept drugged and chained in Tommy's family's fishing hut. He's in a bad way, and not just because of the initial trauma of being caught in a trawling net and hauled onto the boat with a fishing hook; his injuries are extensive and varied. Clearly someone - many someones - have been abusing him, repeatedly. The two teenagers must race against the clock - and the baser instincts of humankind - to save him.

The Merman is not an easy read. It's grim, violent, and depressing, with an ending that's neither happy nor satisfying. While I didn't expect everything to come up roses - how can it when your mom's an alcoholic and your dad's an abusive drug trafficker? - I was hoping for a marginally better outcome. For all the violence the audience is forced to witness, I feel like we deserve a bigger payoff. What we get is perhaps realistic, but unbearably bleak.

The narrative is confused and jumbled in places. Several times I had to go back and reread certain passages, though this didn't always help me sort things out. It's difficult to tell if this is an issue inherent in the original text, or if it arose in the English translation. Either way, the book could definitely use another round of editing, especially copyediting. The text is rife with missing and incorrect punctuation; missing periods, or commas where there should be periods, resulting in a mess on run-on sentences. Quotation marks are single, not double, and not all of the pairs are complete, making it especially difficult to follow conversations between characters. Even names seem to change: the Professor is alternately referred to as Lazlo and Lazio. (I checked Wikipedia, but the latter doesn't seem to a derivative of the former.) To be fair, I read an ARC; hopefully most (if not all) of these issues will be fixed in the finished copy.

I deducted a star each for the ending and many errors - which I normally disregard in ARCs, but were so extensive here that they couldn't be ignored.

That said, I did enjoy the story overall. I read it in one day, which is unusual for me. Despite the frustrations, I was captivated by the intertwined plights of Nella and the merman. For Nella, the merman offered a chance to redeem herself: while she was unable to do anything to help the poor kitten - she even tried to turn her back on the whole scene ("I did not want to become a witness to something I would be sorry for.") - she might have a shot at rescuing the merman from his abusers and releasing him back into the sea. And though it may cost Nella her life - the men holding the merman captive are not people to be trifled with - she's unwilling to stand by and watch as another act of violence unfolds. Like her classmates did, when Gerard and his cronies kidnapped Robert into the darkness of the forest.

In The Merman, we see how various forms of violence are intertwined, how they feed into and influence one another. When Robert - her sweet little brother - declares that he'd like to toss Gerard down a well and subject him to all the indignities Gerard visited upon him, Nella is shocked: she'd never before seen her brother lust for revenge. Gerard's murder of the kitten wasn't the first time he harmed an animal (of the human or nonhuman variety), nor would it be his last; his violence simply continues to escalate, unchecked.

Jonas's father beat him, and he went on to mistreat his own children, his wife - and the merman. Nella recounts one of her father's old jobs, down at the mink farm, and how employment kept him sober...mostly. On skinning day, everyone got shit-faced: "to endure the blood and the smell of flayed animal carcasses." And fear, which Nella senses as she crosses the killing room floor, littered with hundreds of mink paws.

I found it especially poignant that the merman's suffering takes place against the backdrop of so much animal exploitation and abuse: first in the brothers' fishing hut, and later at the mink farm. "I couldn't comprehend where all that hate came from, the desire to harm him. He was totally defenceless. But maybe that's exactly what attracted them. The knowledge that there wouldn't be any consequences." Violence begets violence begets violence.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2015/12/07/...

[Kim andrea Brofeldt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Havde potentiale til at være bedre, end den var.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Merman by Carl-Johan Vallgren is by no means a gentle story. It is wonderfully written, yet brutal and stark, leaving you simultaneously attempting to avert your eyes and continue reading at the same time. There are some disturbing events, brilliantly executed, that will have you wishing you could put the book down, yet finding yourself powerless to do so.

This is a well written story of deep love, selflessness and perseverance n the face of great adversity. Young Petronella and her very dependent brother, Robert, are brutalized at school by bullies and have no safe place to rest. Home is a chaotic mess with a drunken mother and absent father. They are their only refuge, carefully keeping their own council out of necessity and fear.

To say they are brutalized is putting it mildly. These bullies are a negative force in the extreme, abusing animals, assaulting authority figures and the weak alike. They have no regard or respect for anyone or anything. After reading of their heinous acts, I found that even I was intimidated by them, through the pages of this gripping tale.

Enter, the Merman, another victim of this harsh and cruel world. Caught up in a net and hauled aboard a ship he fights against his captors but is unsuccessful and finds himself kept prisoner by these same men who pulled him from the icy depths. These men spend their time fishing, engaging in illegal activities and abusing this odd creature. They are as brutal as the bullies Petronella encounters in school and these groups actually overlap into each other although they are of vastly differing ages. (Water finds its own level, as Grandpa used to say) These scenes of brutality were extremely difficult for me to read, yet I cannot say they were unnecessary in the telling of the tale. There was no gratuitous violence to be found, although I have to say again, it was not easy to take. Personally I abhor violence and avoid it in film mostly, as it’s hard to watch. The descriptions presented by the author were all too easy to imagine in my mind and normally it would force me to put a book aside, but in this case it did not. I was fascinated by the plight of these two young people and desperately hoped that they would survive to find a better life for themselves.

Eventually Petronella finds the Merman and sets out to save him. Perhaps it is her inability to save herself and her brother that prompts her to attempt this all but impossible task. This fact is striking. This poor girl has no ability to do anything to control her own life, but despite her own trials, she feels such empathy with this creature that she risks everything to save him. Their lives run in a parallel and because of that she finds she cannot turn away.

The story of Petronella, Robert and the Merman are one in the same. With an oddly fairytale like quality, this story will transport you into a dark and dangerous world. Despite my difficulty with this level of despair, I was able to enjoy this story and find hope in the love, caring and bravery displayed by these three main characters. They retained their dignity despite all they had endured. Through it all, that made me smile.

*I received a complimentary copy by the publisher for my unbiased review.

[Damla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kitaba ilk başladığımda hiçbir şekilde elimden bırakamadım. O kadar trajik bir giriş vardı ki zihnimden bu imgelerin silinmesini istediğim için kitabı okumaya devam ettim. Aslında çok akıcı ve sürükleyici bir kitaptı. Çok farklı iletişim olgularının var olabileceğini, sözün üstünde konuşabileceğimizi çok güzel ifade ediyordu. Ama aynı zamanda gerçekten çok da sinirlendim, karakterle konuşmaya çalışırken buldum kendimi resmen. Çünkü karakter kurban psikolojisinden çıkamayıp hiç kimseyle konuşmayarak bir sürü zarara sebep oldu ve görünürde sonuç hiç değişmedi. Üzüldüğüm bir hikaye oldu gerçekten.

[tripswithbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ne garip, ne acı bir hikayeydi.
İçimizdeki şeytanlar değil onlara benliğimiz beni korkutuyor. İrademizi kötüden yana kullanma ihtimalimiz…
Sözcüklere ihtiyaç duymadan anlaşan iki karakter vardı yine kitabın odağında. Yazar, herkesin içindeki iyiyi ve kötüyü, seçimlerimizin sonuçlarını, iletişim kurabilmenin dil ile değil kalple mümkün olduğunu gösteriyor okurlarına.
Sevdiğim yazarlar listesine ekledim.

[John Hatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable - and surprising - book. To those of you who don't read Swedish, I recommend waiting until it has been translated into a language you do read. The wait will be worth it.

[Emre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vallgren'in okuduğum ikinci romanıydı ve yine .ok beğendim. Yalnız üst üste merkezinde, ailesizlik ya da sorunlu aile bulunan kitaplar okuduğum için bu son halka biraz fazla gelmiş olabilir. Özellikle kitabın son bölümlerini okurken göğsüme biri oturmuşçasına içim daraldı. Son olarak, bir örneğini daha gördükten sonra, yazarın gerçek ile büyülüyü karıştırma tazrını ve bunu sunmadaki üslubunu da çok beğendiğimi belitmeliyim.

[Helena Kvarnsell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jaha, jag gillar ju inte böcker med övernaturliga inslag...men jag kan ju inte låta bli att älska Vallgrens.
Invaggad i en otäck historia som utspelar sig i en mycket välkänd tid (slutet av 1980-talets grundskola) är jag fast när plötsligt det övernaturliga dyker upp.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Misery porn.

[Nelly Bergström · Rating 4 out of 5]

Det var en bra bok. Men jag hatade slutet. Ville så himla gärna att havsmannen skulle överleva och få komma tillbaka till havet och bli fri!

[Lilli · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5! väldigt mörk, men bra

[pelinneokur · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Bir başlangıç yok son da. Bunu biliyorum artık. Başkalarının öyküleri belki bir yerlere çıkıyordur, benimkiler çıkmıyor. Bir daire çiziyor, bazen bunu bile yapmıyor, durduğu yerde duruyor. Ve ben şunu merak ediyorum: Kendini durmadan aynı yerde tekrarlayan bir öykü neye yarar?”

“… yaptıklarından dolayı nefret etmem gerekirdi. Ama böyle bir duygu yoktu. Yalnızca bir tevekkül, kaderimize doğduğumuz ve başka hiçbir seçim şansımızın olmadığı duygusu.”

İsveçli yazarı bilenler belki August Strindberg ödülü aldığı Bir Garip Aşk Öyküsü kitabı ile tanıyorlardır. Benim yazarla tanışma kitabım Denizadamı oldu.

Alkolik bir anne ve sürekli cezaevine girip çıkan bir babanın çocukları olan Nella ve Robert’ın hayatlarının bir yılını okuyoruz. Denize yakın çok sakin bir İsveç köyünde yaşayan kardeşlerin hem anne babalarından gördükleri kötü muameleyi hem de akran zorbalığına uğramalarını yani aslında oldukça bilindik bir hikayeyi okuyoruz başta. Ancak bir anda Nella’nın karşılaştığı olağanüstü olaylarla kitap hiç beklemediğim bir şekilde başka bir tarafa gitti. Ama ne yazık ki sonunu tahmin ettim. Bu olduğunda da kitaptan aldığım keyif azalıyor benim ancak baş döndürücü bir hızla başka tarafa aktığı zamanlarda çok keyif alarak okudum. Bu kısımları uzun bir süre unutmayacağıma eminim. Kitapta birkaç tane akılalmaz şiddet sahnesi var. İsveçliler harika hayatlarından sıkılınca şiddete mi başvuruyorlar diye düşünmeden edemedim çünkü bu şiddet sahneleri de unutulacak gibi değil.

[Gürkan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the author tells the brutal details of life, as in the cold of Sweden, and when he wraps the novel with fantasy elements, a novel that is confusing to read emerges. Sometimes the "merman" whose fiction exhausts us leads us from the dusty pink image of Scandinavia to the dark images. Because of what has been written about the book so far, my expectations were high. But I think it deserves 3 stars. By the way, I like translation of this novel.

[Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kitabı bitirdiğim an derince bir nefes aldığımda, kitabı okurken kendimi ne kadar kastığımı anladım. Anlamsız bir öfkenin perdelediği devamlı bir hüzün ve en önemlisi rahatsızlık hissi, evet nefes aldırtmayan rahatsızlık hissi. Kuzeylilere özgü bir şey bu,hüzünleri, öfkeleri mizahları bile buzun altından izleniyormuş hissi veriyor, belli belirsiz ama soğuğun keskinliğini barındıran.

[Kippy Gascoigne · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read. A pleasant jolly story for the family to enjoy. wot

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, compelling, and led by a brilliant heroine, but also among the most depressing books I've ever read, particularly given the deeply unsatisfying ending.

[Angello Adrien · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was such a good book.

[Jeremy · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's a strong fairytale vibe here - the original, fucked up, everything ends in tragedy sort of fairytale. Think Hansel and Gretel meets The Shape of Water. And, like, how sold are you? Amazing, right?

Eeeennnhh.

I don't know. Maybe something was lost in translation? I want to give it the benefit of the doubt, but I really, really did not like this book.

gra·tu·i·tous
ɡrəˈt(y)o͞oədəs/Submit
adjective
1.
uncalled for; lacking good reason; unwarranted.
"gratuitous violence"
synonyms: unjustified, uncalled for, unwarranted, unprovoked, undue;

This word gets thrown around a lot, but I think it really fits in this case.

The Merman is bleak bleak bleak - and I am no stranger to bleak. I love bleak. The bleaker the better. Bleak me, baby.

It doesn't work here. Literally everyone in this story is out to antagonize the brother and sister, for no reason I can decipher beyond to antagonize. The main bully is constantly - and predictably - demanding a money tribute from this girl that has no money, only to raise the stakes every time she achieves it. "OHOHO *twirls mustache* but now you owe me INTEREST" "OHOHO *twirls mustache* I've decided I don't want that any more! I want something ELSE!"

I could never wrap my head around why she played into it, or why he was even doing it. The half-formed characters and lack of clear motivations made me rather apathetic toward all of it, because they felt more like puppets on strings than living people.

Attention to detail in character development is instead diverted to gruesome depictions of animal violence, pages and pages about a kitten burning in a bag and nothing about why this girl continues to make money for her bully. Why their parents behave the way they do, why the authorities do nothing, why even the teachers at school are just background props as these children are tormented.

It's torture for the sake of it, characters shoehorned into realizing some kind of sadistic child and animal hating fantasy.

No thanks. Scratch this one off your TBR list.

[cobwebbing]

YIKES!!!!!!!!!

DNF after only a couple dozen pages and skimming bits and pieces of the rest of the book. Was not at all prepared for how incredibly brutal this is in terms of graphic, disturbing violence done to children and animals (plus however you want to qualify the titular merman).

Literally read a Stephen King novel the other day that managed to be less shocking. At least with that I knew what I was signing up for. Whoever wrote the description for the dust jacket downplays that this is a story primarily about children who are victims of abuse and neglect. The occasional horror novels I tend to enjoy really pale in comparison to realism about kids suffering.

This feels like reading The Pisces all over again where I’m lured (ha, fish jokes) into reading a magical realism book with the promise of a merman only for him not to show up until halfway through and having to deal with upsetting, realistic contemporary issues in the meantime. But worse. Even Teeth, despite how gross and upsetting it could get with its content, gave some sense of balance. By contrast, by the looks of my skim this was just miserable the whole way through.

I’m sure that there’s some literary merit to this story to warrant it being translated from Swedish for English audiences so long after the fact. For whatever it’s worth, the descriptions of the merman himself were interesting and the brutality of the characters’ situation is unfortunately doubtless relatable to some readers.

I’m all for dark fiction aimed at young adults but I genuinely think this would have scarred me if I was the target demographic. Maybe if I wasn’t so absolutely blindsided by its content I would enjoy it more (a candidate for attempting to read again?) but as it is I’m wondering how I’m going to sleep after this.

[Linda Söderlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jag läste Sommaren 1985 av Ajvide Lindqvist för ett tag sedan. Blev helt glad och förvånad över att jag gillade sjöjungfrun i den, så otippat! Nu känns det liiiite som att Ajvide kanske varit väldigt inspirerad av den här?
Hur som helst. Jag gillade den här, men jag kanske hade gillat den ännu mer om det var den här jag hade läst först. Mer svärta i den här, mer vanligt liv. Jag gillar att läsa böcker som utspelar sig på 80-talet (och 90´), det är roligt att känna igen sig i tidsmarkörer o.s.v.
Vallgrens bok Den vidunderliga kärlekens historia hamnade nu på min TBR.

"Det finns alltid platser på en skola dit blickarna inte når."

"Så var det med orden, tänkte jag, de var ständigt på väg någonstans som osynliga små missiler; de kunde träffa vem som helst och skadorna var omöjliga att beräkna."

""Jag tro att du måste dela upp allting i mindre bitar", sa han. "Problem för problem. Tillsammans verkar dom stora, men inte var för sig. Och så försöker du lösa dom ett i taget. Det är så jag brukar göra.""