7 A

by Bjarne Reuter, Mona Eriksson (Translator)

En laddad och sällsam historia om klass 7A som åker på lägerskola. Ingen har lyckats förklara vad som egentligen hände, varför det hände och hur det egentligen gick till. Berättelsen är ett slags rekonstruktion av det som hände. Med hjälp av ett pennskrin, en kompass, en trettio centimeter lång kniv av svenskt fabrikat samt de sorgliga resterna av ett chokladägg som innehöll ett ankare av plast. Och så Betty Matsons blå poesibok förstås...

Genres: Danish, Fiction, Horror, School, Young Adult, Read For School, Scandinavian Literature

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Bjarne Reuter, born 1950 in Brønshøj, a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark and the setting of many of his books.
His first book was published in 1975, the same year he graduated from teacher’s college.
In 1980, Bjarne Reuter left teaching to devote full time to writing.
He is the author of some 60 books for children and young adults (see complete bibliography).
He has written several novels for adults as well. In addition, he is the author of plays, musicals,
radio and television series for children. Eight of his books have been made into films for children, a number have been serialized on television and many of them have been dramatized on the stage in Denmark, Finland and Germany as well as in countries as far from home as Japan and Argentina.

Publications:
1975 Kidnapning (children's book)
1975 Rent guld i posen (children's book)
1976 En dag i Hector Hansens liv
1976 Ridder af skraldespanden (children's book)
1976 Rottefængeren fra Hameln (children's book)
1977 Den største nar i verden (children's book)
1977 Det skøre land (children's book)
1977 Eventyret om Hu (children's book)
1977 Skønheden og uhyret (children's book)
1977 Tre engle og fem løver (children's book)
1977 Zappa, en kaldblodig hore
1978 De seks tjenere (children's book)
1978 Den utilfredse prins (children's book)
1978 Drengen der ikke kunne blive bange (children's book)
1978 Slusernes kejser
1979 Busters verden (children's book)
1979 Børnenes julekalender (children's book)
1979 Den fredag Osvald blev usynlig (children's book)
1979 Rejsen til morgenrødens hav (children's book)
1979 Støvet på en sommerfugls vinge
1980 Før det lysner (short stories)
1980 Kolumbine & Harlekin (children's book)
1980 Kys stjernerne (children's book)
1980 Suzanne & Leonard
1981 Knud, Otto og Carmen Rosita
1981 Skibene i skovene
1982 Abdulahs juveler (children's book)
1982 Det forkerte barn (short stories)
1982 Hvor regnbuen ender (children's book)
1982 Østen for solen og vesten for månen (children's book)
1983 Casanova
1983 Når snerlen blomstrer
1984 Malte-Pøs i Den Store Vide Verden (children's book)
1984 Tre skuespil (drama)
1984 Tropicana
1985 Bundhu
1985 Da solen skulle sælges (children's book)
1985 Shamran - den som kommer
1986 De andre historier (short stories)
1986 En tro kopi
1986 Natten i Safarihulen (children's book)
1987 Den dobbelte mand
1987 Drømmenes bro (children's book)
1987 Os to, Oskar... for evigt (children's book)
1987 Vendetta
1988 Den cubanske kabale
1988 Månen over Bella Bio
1989 Den skæggede dame (children's book)
1989 Peter Pan (children's book)
1989 Vi der valgte mælkevejen
1990 3 til Bermudos
1990 Mig og Albinoni
1991 Drengene fra Sankt Petri
1991 Lola
1992 7.A.
1992 En rem af huden
1992 Kaptajn Bimse & Goggeletten (children's book)
1993 Den korsikanske bisp
1993 Johnny & The Hurricanes
1994 Anna Havanna (children's book)
1995 Langebro med løbende figurer
1996 Anna Havanna, Kaptajn Bimse og alle de andre (children's book)
1996 Ved profetens skæg
1997 Fakiren fra Bilbao
1998 En som Hodder (children's book)
1998 Mikado
1999 Mordet på Leon Culman
1999 Under kometens hale
1999 Willys fars bil (children's book)
2000 Prins Faisals ring; "The Ring of the Slave Prince", English translation by Tiina Nunnally (2004)
2002 Barolo Kvartetten
2002 Kaptajn Bimse i Saltimbocca (children's book)
2003 Kaptajn Bimses jul (children's book)
2004 Løgnhalsen fra Umbrien
2006 Halvvejen til Rafael(Novel)
2007 Skyggernes hus
2008 [Fem]
2008 Den iranske gartner
2010 Den egyptiske tenor

Reviews

[Berthe😝😝 · Rating 3 out of 5]

DISCLAIMER I READ IT FOR SCHOOL IT WAS JOT OUT OF FREE WILL😟😟 I Think it was a good story but I couldn’t get over the writing and how many times this book said the N-word I swear to god😭😭

[Trine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I borrowed this book before I realized it was a thriller, but after a few pages I could see where it was heading and decided that life is too short for books like that.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the book i HAD to read at publiv school and i stille remember it today. This book scared me a lot when i was younger.Everytime i smell cloves i think of this story. Good read

[Iris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spændende bog. Dog uhyggelig. Men for mig skal der heller ikke ret meget til.

[Gísli Gunnar · Rating 1 out of 5]

awful book fucking danish

[Peter Ellermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Denne her huskede jeg som mere uhyggelig, end den egentlig var.
Der var de mærkelige blackouts og angstanfald fra den mystiske mandlige lærer, på en gang fortællerperson og sort eksistens. Hans lange enetale om vand, der bare ligger der, ventende, oversvømmende, vand der aldrig forsvinder men altid venter på at trænge ind fik det til at løbe koldt ned af ryggen på mig da jeg læste den som dreng.
Her i genlæsningen synes jeg, det meste af bogen går med gruppepsykologi, med de indbyrdes dynamikker i klassen og med den lidt uhyggelige "Klanen", en voldsparat drengegruppe anført af lærer Finn.
Bogen vil på den ene side være både gotisk gyser og Fluernes Herre-agtigt isolationsdrama. Og det er meget.
Observation 1: Lamslået over brug af N-ordet - selvom det er en beskrivelse af en karikeret figur, er det alligevel vildt for en bog fra 1990'erne
Observation 2: "Det mest overnaturlige i denne bog, set med nutidens øjne, er forestillingen om en folkeskoleklasse med kun 11 elever i!"

[zack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Den var väl ok.

[Cecilie Jøhnk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly sharp take on toxic masculinity for a Danish 1992 book. The first couple of chapters seem like a comment on the current (2020) development in violent MRA culture and conspiracy theories. And to some extend "intellectual snobbery", as is mentioned at some point, as some of the characters are mainly using their quick wit to be mean towards others at every chance they get.
The gothic plot itself seems more ... superfluous, unrounded. I guess the book might need it to be "about" something, aimed at interesting the 13-14-year-olds of 7th grade in Denmark, but the ghostly plot is to my mind the least interesting part of the book. If a parallel to the more interesting psychological groupings of the main characters (macho, snobbery, etc) had been recognizable in the ghosts psyche, then maybe ...
Maybe I just didn't see it? But maybe it wasn't there.
Maybe the "Is there something beyond what science can comprehend"-part just doesn't interest me, and so I lose some kind of a hidden gem. But ghosts caught in the patriarchy and also caught in disrespect for less intellectual people would have been more chilling, to my mind.
Like "Flight to Canada" and it's goth parody.

[Anastasia Beldie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not scary at all. I am very disappointed.

[Frederik Olsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chock-full of atmosphere and mystery, but don't expect any easy answers or neat wrap-ups.

[Gustav R · Rating 1 out of 5]

Racis

[Book lover · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok. School book.

[Anna svop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lidt forvirrende, men ellers god

[𝐍𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚 ꧁꧂ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was actually okay since read it in School but it was fine:)

[Alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this for a Danish course. Not exactly an enjoyable read. Maybe it's because I struggled to understand Danish? But I'm not sure. Nonetheless, the characters felt meh and the plot did too.

[Denise Abrahamsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️

[Fuglsang · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very much a mixed blessing for me, I will say. I started out thinking: Right, this is actually good, then as it progressed I was waiting for a true climax and in the end I feel like I didn't really get one.

At first, I liked it well enough - the writing was more mature than I expected and that's always a thumbs up in litterature meant for younger audiences. Why just assume that all teenagers are stupid and give them something that's way too easy? Also, the book tries to be less trivial than most litterature for young people. Those are the upsides.

I didn't care much for the writing. He favours a lot of short sentences, a lot of sentence breaks and often in places where the break didn't feel natural to me. The dialogue seemed a bit stiff to me as well - I can't imagine anyone speaking the way they do in this book and especially not children in the seventh grade. All the way through they seemed like tiny adults or high school students to me.

Character wise it's not boring but not amazing either - I liked them well enough and even if the characters by themselves weren't very convincing, the group dynamics of the children in the class was very believable. You wonder why he made some of the choices that he did, though: Why is a male teacher that's kind of like a big child and too full of himself necessary? Neither he nor the other characters seemed to be especially fit for this particular story.

The plot had a lot of potential and yet I still felt let down. There was a certain chill factor to the beginning but it just started to ebb out and with the ending I really wondered why one reviewer on the back of the book calls it a psychological thriller. I also really disliked how he used more subtle hints to suggest a link between the teachers plus the children and an older story - it's beautifully suggested and then he has to go mess it up by stating openly that this connection exists - with all the subtlety of a hammer to the face. This is not necessary! I figured it out and so can a younger reader. Let them draw their own conclusions - it'll only benefit them in the end. Once again: Young people aren't stupid.

In the end, I don't love this but I don't hate it either. I'm obviously not in the target demographic and he does some things well. I still respect Bjarne Reuter as a writer - he's unavoidable when speaking of Danish litterature and I grew up with some of his stories. Even then, I don't have to adore everything he's ever made and while this is an easy and somewhat enjoyable read, it's not really my thing.

A better, edited version of this review is available on my website: Gnaslbooks

[Axel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this might be the book that Bjarne Reuter will go down in history for.
Not just because of the Swedish adaption (House of Shadows 1998) but the decent portrayal of a school setting in breakdown.

Compared to his other elementary school stories this one stands out.

[Ida Skovhus · Rating 4 out of 5]

En god men underlig klassiker indenfor bog med forsvunde personager.

[Lind0463 · Rating 4 out of 5]

dobbelt univers - som det er oplagt at læse sammen med en klasse, særligt hvis det er 7.a. og før en lejrtur

[Pauline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is suppose to be scary.....let's be serious, Elmo is more scary than this book!

[Line Wulff · Rating 3 out of 5]

i can't remember... i'm sorry.
I think it was good, but... i can't remember..

[Melanie Muntz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Startede ud kedelig, men var god til sidst. Gav en meget at tænke over.

[Sara Brandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Læste i skolen, da jeg gik i 7.a;)