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A review by yahelavelsnik
The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin
1.0
I really don't understand why this book got so many good reviews here and on other sites. Maybe the translator did a bad job and spoiled the effect of the book (I read it in Russian)though I seriously doubt it.
First of all, this book is devoid of any features of a literary style. By this I mean - no metaphors, no stylistic devices, just a mere sequence of events given in the most trivial manner ever. And it's not Hemingway or Kafka, of course. OK, stylistic devices are not so important nowadays. But the whole plot is just...I can't find any other word than trivial: everybody has a dark story in their past, cold desolate islands are scary and full of ghosts, etc. You have seen it in a thousand of 'scary' movies where happens nothing but whispers and strange object movements until the character finds out that his or her house is an ancient grave or altar of some weird cult.
The ending was just hilarious - "I know, you killed Katrin" says Joakim to a character the least likely to kill her. It seems the author analyzed the list of the characters and chose the most insignificant and unmotivated to kill character. Speaking about Joakim - there must be something wrong with him. There is a term - 'hypothymia' - when a person can't experience any emotions. His grief is described in such a cliche manner! The author didn't even bother to give us any details about the characters - that is probably why Joakim thinks about his wife as a woman that doesn't have any specific features. She was an art teacher and used to wind a clock in their bedroom. That's all we know about her. The same is with the other characters - no details, no features of appearance, no hobbies, no particular likes or dislikes or specific manners. Only in memories of Katrin's mother (the only one character who has something specific about her) some former Oland inhabitants were peculiar.
It also seemed to me that Theorin wrote this book in a week or less and the only problem for him was not to make any fact mistakes. He always gives some proves for a goof-looking reader that he didn't forget anything. Well, he didn't but when he writes things like - 'She felt as if an ax was in her bag: other person's happiness depend on her'-it doesn't feel right.
What is also disappointing is the fact that the author could have done something better of the plot: such a great setting, two lighthouses, some references to the ancient Scandinavian religious traditions, weird nature: dense fog, peat-lands, storms, gales, etc. He might have used it properly and make a nice and scary (at least a bit scary) book. But - alas! - he failed at it.
First of all, this book is devoid of any features of a literary style. By this I mean - no metaphors, no stylistic devices, just a mere sequence of events given in the most trivial manner ever. And it's not Hemingway or Kafka, of course. OK, stylistic devices are not so important nowadays. But the whole plot is just...I can't find any other word than trivial: everybody has a dark story in their past, cold desolate islands are scary and full of ghosts, etc. You have seen it in a thousand of 'scary' movies where happens nothing but whispers and strange object movements until the character finds out that his or her house is an ancient grave or altar of some weird cult.
The ending was just hilarious - "I know, you killed Katrin" says Joakim to a character the least likely to kill her. It seems the author analyzed the list of the characters and chose the most insignificant and unmotivated to kill character. Speaking about Joakim - there must be something wrong with him. There is a term - 'hypothymia' - when a person can't experience any emotions. His grief is described in such a cliche manner! The author didn't even bother to give us any details about the characters - that is probably why Joakim thinks about his wife as a woman that doesn't have any specific features. She was an art teacher and used to wind a clock in their bedroom. That's all we know about her. The same is with the other characters - no details, no features of appearance, no hobbies, no particular likes or dislikes or specific manners. Only in memories of Katrin's mother (the only one character who has something specific about her) some former Oland inhabitants were peculiar.
It also seemed to me that Theorin wrote this book in a week or less and the only problem for him was not to make any fact mistakes. He always gives some proves for a goof-looking reader that he didn't forget anything. Well, he didn't but when he writes things like - 'She felt as if an ax was in her bag: other person's happiness depend on her'-it doesn't feel right.
What is also disappointing is the fact that the author could have done something better of the plot: such a great setting, two lighthouses, some references to the ancient Scandinavian religious traditions, weird nature: dense fog, peat-lands, storms, gales, etc. He might have used it properly and make a nice and scary (at least a bit scary) book. But - alas! - he failed at it.