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Dark Branches
Author Jo Uddermann has published an autobiographical novel about certain dark events in his past. Expectations run high both in the publishing house and the media, but after an appearance on television sinister things begin to happen: anonymous letters, Barbie dolls with their heads cut off, dead squirrels on the stairs in front of his house. His life with his wife and daughter in Oslo no longer feels secure. Someone is out to get them. Understanding that a seemingly untamable desire has been brought back to life while Jo researched his novel, his wife accuses him of infidelity. Georg, whom Jo believed to be dead, shows up in the present. When their friend, Katinka is found dead, in an old rose painted coffin in a bog, suddenly there is no knowing who to believe or who to fear. Finally, Jo finds his daughter sitting on a stump in the forest, having seen something that neither child nor adult should see.
201 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
64 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 16, 2022
Jo Udderman publishes an autobiographical novel about his childhood. The book makes ripples in the media and Jo is even interviewed on TV. Soon after that he starts noticing strange things, like severed Barbie doll heads and dead animals left on his property. Is Jo being targeted, and if so is it because of this book?
I can't think of many positive things about Dark Branches. I got to the end, only because its simplistic language makes it very easy to follow and it totals up at barely over 200 pages. For a book narrated by an author, the words sure do stumble over themselves. There's a lot of telling and no showing. It's ok for a character to declare that they are an author, but surely wouldn't it make more sense for the reader to be more convinced by great storytelling instead?
The characterisation in this novel is also pretty poor, and Frobenius doesn't go that much further than describing his characters' appearances, and because of this it was hard for me to be truly emotionally invested in developments in the plot. Jo and Katinka's affair didn't come as a shock, but merely made me wonder how any lovemaking could occur between two people so devoid of personality. The author had an opportunity to really delve into the psyche of George, the 'villain', and examine what happens to make a child so damaged, but no, he would rather up his word-count by remarking irrelevantly how his daughter's best friend is called Vera Linn, like the actress. As it happens Frobenius actually writes about women even worse than he writes about men, especially Katinka who is nasty and full of lust and nothing more, his daughter the caricature of a child and his wife just the scorned woman.
Froenius is a screenwriter and has written a film that Al Pacino starred in. Impressive. But the dialogue in this book is average at best, but it's better than Jo's inner thoughts. There is a part in the book where Joe runs into someone who used to attend school with him, and this character snarls at him 'damn author!' If he is so angry with Jo, why doesn't he just snarl a swear word at him instead of shouting at him his profession?
Finally, I have to say this book is crying out for a good editor. Early on in the book narrator Jo talks about the editing and proofreading processes of his work and the importance of getting rid of any issues with the text. It's a shame Jo's words were lost on the people involved with the publishing of this book. There's a lot of sloppiness with the formatting, with mildly infuriating text alignments, rogue quotation marks on almost every page and Jo even becomes Joe at some point in the book. I know I'm not the best writer or editor, but I think I could do as good a job as the people at Sandstone in this instance.
Overall, Dark Branches is an unsatisfying and sometimes frustrating read. I'd expect this quality from a self-published ebook, but not one from a respected publishing house and a famous screenwriter.
I can't think of many positive things about Dark Branches. I got to the end, only because its simplistic language makes it very easy to follow and it totals up at barely over 200 pages. For a book narrated by an author, the words sure do stumble over themselves. There's a lot of telling and no showing. It's ok for a character to declare that they are an author, but surely wouldn't it make more sense for the reader to be more convinced by great storytelling instead?
The characterisation in this novel is also pretty poor, and Frobenius doesn't go that much further than describing his characters' appearances, and because of this it was hard for me to be truly emotionally invested in developments in the plot. Jo and Katinka's affair didn't come as a shock, but merely made me wonder how any lovemaking could occur between two people so devoid of personality. The author had an opportunity to really delve into the psyche of George, the 'villain', and examine what happens to make a child so damaged, but no, he would rather up his word-count by remarking irrelevantly how his daughter's best friend is called Vera Linn, like the actress. As it happens Frobenius actually writes about women even worse than he writes about men, especially Katinka who is nasty and full of lust and nothing more, his daughter the caricature of a child and his wife just the scorned woman.
Froenius is a screenwriter and has written a film that Al Pacino starred in. Impressive. But the dialogue in this book is average at best, but it's better than Jo's inner thoughts. There is a part in the book where Joe runs into someone who used to attend school with him, and this character snarls at him 'damn author!' If he is so angry with Jo, why doesn't he just snarl a swear word at him instead of shouting at him his profession?
Finally, I have to say this book is crying out for a good editor. Early on in the book narrator Jo talks about the editing and proofreading processes of his work and the importance of getting rid of any issues with the text. It's a shame Jo's words were lost on the people involved with the publishing of this book. There's a lot of sloppiness with the formatting, with mildly infuriating text alignments, rogue quotation marks on almost every page and Jo even becomes Joe at some point in the book. I know I'm not the best writer or editor, but I think I could do as good a job as the people at Sandstone in this instance.
Overall, Dark Branches is an unsatisfying and sometimes frustrating read. I'd expect this quality from a self-published ebook, but not one from a respected publishing house and a famous screenwriter.
April 27, 2015
Odličan početak, traljava završnica. Bez obzira na mane, ovaj norveški triler vredi pročitati. Ekonomičan je i osvežavajuće konkretan.
January 19, 2014
Tjah.. Hva kan jeg si om denne. Helt ok krim uten at den beveget meg særlig. Veldig lettlest på en kveld, og greit plott. Satt igrunnen ganske så skuffet tilbake, for jeg ønsket at det skulle være noe mer til historien enn en så altfor enkel slutt. Mest interessant var igrunnen utviklingen av den mentale helsen til forfatteren av "Krittet".
May 29, 2017
Absolutely brilliant! I don't know what it is about Scandanavian crime noir writers but they are masters! The novel starts off a little slow with the first person narrator on holidays waiting for his next book to come out. It's only when he returns home a series of strange events begin to take on an omimous turn! I love his blunt description of his imperfect world including his wife Agnes. The plot gets darker and more sinister, all along the way the story enriched by the author's excellent description of places, of atmosphere, of imaginings that make the reader question what is real. There are several twists but you won't see the few coming at the end.
May 23, 2018
A favourite
April 15, 2021
Do samog kraja nisam znala šta da mislim. Da li je glavni protagonista ubica ili žrtva? Da li je lud?
I nakon što sam završila roman ostala sam u nedoumici :D
I nakon što sam završila roman ostala sam u nedoumici :D
December 1, 2017
Boken har ikke den slutten jeg hadde ventet meg og det dro litt ned for meg, men den skapte en kontrast til hvordan historien var fortalt så langt som var uventet og som tilførte boken en «edge». Hele boken er spennende og dypdykket ned i Jos psyke er skremmende og interessant. Men som sagt, den traff meg ikke helt.
Hele min omtale finner du på bloggen min Betraktninger
Hele min omtale finner du på bloggen min Betraktninger
March 24, 2016
Un roman troublant, prenant et très plaisant à lire ! On essaie de démêler le vrai du faux aux côtés d'un narrateur que l'on pense être tantôt en danger ou tantôt paranoïaque... Très sympathique lecture !
May 16, 2016
This was intense and scary. Minus one star because of the ending. Still very good.
January 18, 2017
Uvod je korektan, kao i monolog. Zakljucak nedorecen i prekratak. Korice knjige su mnogo vise obecavale.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews