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A review by pineconek
Let the Old Dreams Die: Stories by John Ajvide Lindqvist
5.0
A+ marketing for pitching this as "a sequel to let the right one in and other stories" and putting said sequel at the end of the collection. The journey made me feel like I was indeed living deliciously.
Lindqvist is phenomenal at writing about love and human relationships, and chooses unleash that power in horror which makes me very happy.
A lot of the stories were not really my thing: a shoplifters union, a troll, a Lovecraftian demon, a sea creature seeking revenge... Are all backdrops that I typically sidestep as I prefer having my horror grounded in reality. But gosh did I like these. The prose is so beautiful and paints a vivid picture of Swedish life. My favorite stories were the border (the one with airport security and neighbor's baby), let the old dreams die (Stefan and Karin tho), tindalos (our main characters marriage wrecked me tbh), and the one with the leaning apartments as well as the one with the unborn baby and husband who almost drowns.... oh, and the one with the corpse who covered.himself with a blanket (what the hell!!), oh and..
You see where I'm going with this. The only skips in this collection were stories that were only a few pages long and read like a writing exercise. Everything substantial was damn weird and damn good. 4.5 stars rounded up.
Recommended if you loved let the right one In (and if you haven't read it, go change that) and want more paradoxically gentle Swedish horror in your life.
Lindqvist is phenomenal at writing about love and human relationships, and chooses unleash that power in horror which makes me very happy.
A lot of the stories were not really my thing: a shoplifters union, a troll, a Lovecraftian demon, a sea creature seeking revenge... Are all backdrops that I typically sidestep as I prefer having my horror grounded in reality. But gosh did I like these. The prose is so beautiful and paints a vivid picture of Swedish life. My favorite stories were the border (the one with airport security and neighbor's baby), let the old dreams die (Stefan and Karin tho), tindalos (our main characters marriage wrecked me tbh), and the one with the leaning apartments as well as the one with the unborn baby and husband who almost drowns.... oh, and the one with the corpse who covered.himself with a blanket (what the hell!!), oh and..
You see where I'm going with this. The only skips in this collection were stories that were only a few pages long and read like a writing exercise. Everything substantial was damn weird and damn good. 4.5 stars rounded up.
Recommended if you loved let the right one In (and if you haven't read it, go change that) and want more paradoxically gentle Swedish horror in your life.