A review by littlemiao
Nattkorpen by Johan Rundberg

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

This isn’t a criticism, but I found it to be a little gruesome for a middle grade novel. Then again, I haven’t read many in Swedish yet. Also, there was fairly realistic treatment of living in constant near-starvation. The tension in the story is more with the poverty and powerlessness of the characters, rather than the murder mystery itself.

This is probably a genre characteristic but the resolution just wasn’t compelling, with too much deus ex machina type interventions ensuring the characters got to the end in one piece. Still, nothing bad happened to the cat (Lucifer), which you can never take for granted when reading Swedish fiction.

Also, “rat king” should get its own content warning category.