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lpdx's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Confinement, Death, Dementia, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Bullying, Child death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Violence
Minor: Body shaming, Vomit, Alcoholism, and Cancer
edgwareviabank's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
4.5
After She's Gone is, hands down, one of the best thrillers I've read in years. There are at least three main dimensions it handles particularly well.
1) Characters are complex and very interesting to follow.
I loved the choice to set the action in Ormberg, a remote village everyone but the unemployed and completely disenfranchised has fled. As someone who left a dreary small town in the middle of the country, I relate to both detective Malin's "character returns to the hometown they vowed never to set foot in again" premise, and teenager Jake's "outcast in a place there's no hope to escape" situation.
Malin was not a loveable character to me, but she's written with a strong set of beliefs that drive conflict in her life and throughout the plot. The book has her question everything she thinks she loves or knows, and shows her trying to resist it with all her might, consistent with her values until the end. Her complexity comes from being a cop who took up police work in order to help others, and yet, holding views she's not afraid to express about who exactly she thinks is worth helping. Very believable and ambiguous, both in the context of the book, and society at large.
The people I most warmed up to are Jake and Hanne, and even they behave in ways that are not necessarily logical, or that I'd appreciate a friend or loved one putting me through. But they, too, always stay true to themselves, and the book gives plenty of cues for readers to understand the place of insecurity and pain they come from, so that it's possible to forgive their shortcomings.
2) It's a slow-burning mystery that doesn't give much away until the end.
I would consider After She's Gone a predominantly character-driven book. While many crime authors keep readers interested by throwing in clues for them to detect or crafting red herrings to send them down the wrong path, Camilla Grebe has created a story where the main point seems to be getting to know the characters intimately, and putting the pieces together at the same speed as they do, with the same exact tools they have. I hardly ever found myself trying to guess who committed any of the crimes, and, at one point, realised I wouldn't have known where to start. If the book had been twice as long, and the mystery twice as tough to crack, I wouldn't have minded it, because how and why they connect the dots they've collected ended up mattering more to me than getting there first and having them prove me right.
3) There's none of the gory violence that can make Nordic Noir hard to digest.
Much as I love Nordic Noir, the twisted and graphic violence some authors seem to thrive on is something that has put me off picking up books a few times. I've taken to checking content warnings carefully, as what I look for is more an interesting and well-built mystery, than a detailed view of the excruciating suffering humans can inflict each other. That is, for example, why Soren Sveistrup's The Chestnut Man (which is really well constructed) unexpectedly kept me up at night; and why I'll never read Erik Axl Sund's The Crow Girl, despite the rave reviews that have made me consider it a few times.
After She's Gone handles tough themes in a way I found more careful and sensitive than the average Scandinavian thriller. Even though there are crimes at the heart of the book, the author treats characters with care, and death and violence never descend into gratuitous gore. That's very consistent with one of the book's points: tragedy as an everyday occurrence, driven by people who see themselves as righteous and honest while pursuing dubious interests. When this book suggests it could happen to any of us, it's because it shows how loss and grief transform the characters' perfectly ordinary lives over time, rather than because of page-turner events engineered for shock value.
I have to say that the plots of the other books in this series that have been translated into English don't attract me as much as the premise of After She's Gone, but because of how much I loved this one, I'm now tempted to give them a read. Always exciting to find myself becoming a fan of a Nordic Noir author that was new to me!
1) Characters are complex and very interesting to follow.
I loved the choice to set the action in Ormberg, a remote village everyone but the unemployed and completely disenfranchised has fled. As someone who left a dreary small town in the middle of the country, I relate to both detective Malin's "character returns to the hometown they vowed never to set foot in again" premise, and teenager Jake's "outcast in a place there's no hope to escape" situation.
Malin was not a loveable character to me, but she's written with a strong set of beliefs that drive conflict in her life and throughout the plot. The book has her question everything she thinks she loves or knows, and shows her trying to resist it with all her might, consistent with her values until the end. Her complexity comes from being a cop who took up police work in order to help others, and yet, holding views she's not afraid to express about who exactly she thinks is worth helping. Very believable and ambiguous, both in the context of the book, and society at large.
The people I most warmed up to are Jake and Hanne, and even they behave in ways that are not necessarily logical, or that I'd appreciate a friend or loved one putting me through. But they, too, always stay true to themselves, and the book gives plenty of cues for readers to understand the place of insecurity and pain they come from, so that it's possible to forgive their shortcomings.
2) It's a slow-burning mystery that doesn't give much away until the end.
I would consider After She's Gone a predominantly character-driven book. While many crime authors keep readers interested by throwing in clues for them to detect or crafting red herrings to send them down the wrong path, Camilla Grebe has created a story where the main point seems to be getting to know the characters intimately, and putting the pieces together at the same speed as they do, with the same exact tools they have. I hardly ever found myself trying to guess who committed any of the crimes, and, at one point, realised I wouldn't have known where to start. If the book had been twice as long, and the mystery twice as tough to crack, I wouldn't have minded it, because how and why they connect the dots they've collected ended up mattering more to me than getting there first and having them prove me right.
3) There's none of the gory violence that can make Nordic Noir hard to digest.
Much as I love Nordic Noir, the twisted and graphic violence some authors seem to thrive on is something that has put me off picking up books a few times. I've taken to checking content warnings carefully, as what I look for is more an interesting and well-built mystery, than a detailed view of the excruciating suffering humans can inflict each other. That is, for example, why Soren Sveistrup's The Chestnut Man (which is really well constructed) unexpectedly kept me up at night; and why I'll never read Erik Axl Sund's The Crow Girl, despite the rave reviews that have made me consider it a few times.
After She's Gone handles tough themes in a way I found more careful and sensitive than the average Scandinavian thriller. Even though there are crimes at the heart of the book, the author treats characters with care, and death and violence never descend into gratuitous gore. That's very consistent with one of the book's points: tragedy as an everyday occurrence, driven by people who see themselves as righteous and honest while pursuing dubious interests. When this book suggests it could happen to any of us, it's because it shows how loss and grief transform the characters' perfectly ordinary lives over time, rather than because of page-turner events engineered for shock value.
I have to say that the plots of the other books in this series that have been translated into English don't attract me as much as the premise of After She's Gone, but because of how much I loved this one, I'm now tempted to give them a read. Always exciting to find myself becoming a fan of a Nordic Noir author that was new to me!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia
Moderate: Homophobia, Kidnapping, Bullying, Transphobia, and Islamophobia
Minor: Child death, Car accident, Grief, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
sinilukee's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Dementia, Islamophobia, and Bullying
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Blood, Kidnapping, Child death, and Death
Minor: Death of parent, Gun violence, Car accident, and War
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