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Jan 22, 2011

RandomAnthony rated it:

Ok, I'm giving up on page 146 of Handling the Undead and giving the book two stars. Sure, I only read about half the novel. I don't care. I feel like I can make the call. Why, you ask?

I picked up this book off the “new fiction” library shelf when a woman was checking out about 14,000 DVDs and I didn't want to stand behind her and wait. Last year I read and loved Let the Right One In, for which this is author is best known, and I was hoping Handling the Undead was just as moving More...

21 comments like (22 people liked it)

Nov 04, 2010

Tatiana rated it:

2.5 stars

As a huge fan of Let the Right One In, I can confidently tell you Handling the Undead is not nearly as good as John Ajvide Lindqvist's debut novel. This book is lifeless and barely kicking, just like the zombies it is about.

Now, of course I have to give the author credit for the fresh premise. Lindqvist's zombies are not violent and are not monsters. The story is not about them going after people to chomp on their flesh. Rather, the author raises questions: if the un More...

12 comments like (11 people liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Kemper rated it:

In this book, the corpses of the recently dead in Sweden become reanimated which leads to numerous legal, political and ethical issues when it comes to dealing with folks who aren’t technically alive. What kind of dilemmas would this cause society? For example, if this actually happened in Stockholm, I’m sure that that the publishers of Stieg Larsson’s books would chain his zombified ass to a desk and let him bang on the keys of a laptop until they got enough to put out a new bestseller, The More...

21 comments like (24 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2009

Christina Stind rated it:

A butterfly beats its wings somewhere in the universe - and an electrical field lowers itself over Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and causes a piercing headache in everyone as well as making it impossible to turn of any electrical appliances or machines. When the field lifts, something has changed - the recently deceased have come back to life... - and they want to come home.

That's the premise in John Ajvide Lindqvist's book. This wouldn't normally be a book I would read - much le More...

2 comments like (12 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2011

Ragnheiður rated it:

The Swedish nation really is exceptionally open minded when it comes to the dead rising.

"THE DEAD ARE RISING!"
"ok"

This book sucks.
I have the same basic problem with it as I did Let the Right one In -Lindqvist simply isn't that good as a writer, or they are badly translated. Most likely both. The text doesn't flow as naturally as it could and the storyline is avarage (stupid more like). Maybe my standard of Horror is too high after More...

6 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2011

Paula rated it:

‘Let the right one in’ also by John Ajvide Lindqvist is one of my favourite reads of this year, a remarkable story, not just a vampire story but so much more. ‘Handling the Undead’ is just as good, another amazing story from John Ajvide Lindqvist.

‘Handling the Undead’ begins in Stockholm on a night when the weather is heavy and everyone can feel that something is about to happen and it does, in the worse way imaginable, people who have been dead for two months are returning from the d More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 27, 2010

David rated it:

Although many people consider this novel non-horror I would suggest that this reaction has more to do with a narrow definition as opposed to Lindqvists writing and supernatural enquiry.
The landscape of the mind is described more often than the physical world in this novel and, as readers, we are sometimes left in the claustrophobic confines of the characters thoughts too long for comfort, particularly in the cases of Flora and Elvy; the closeness and unwanted mental assaults of friends and More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2011

Jo rated it:

It took me a long time to get into this. I was expecting murderous zombies and plenty of action, but this book was more about the emotions of loss than the flesh hungry, risen dead. Once I came to terms with that fact I started to enjoy it more. Around the half way point I considered giving up but I decided to carry on and take it for what it is. This book is nothing life changing or spectacular but it's ok. I thought he did a good job of capturing grief and the speculation about why it was happ More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2012

Stephen rated it:

This novel is by the author of Let The Right One In, which I have not read (though I've seen both film versions). It is extremely well written and super creepy, though perhaps not scary to a bone-chilling degree.

Less a horror novel and more an existential contemplation on death, this book succeeds - in my opinion - because it exercises great subtlety in confronting the reader with a harrowing idea: how would society deal with the dead if they ever came back? (NOTE: This idea is similar More...

1 comment like

Dec 19, 2011

Särah rated it:

After his captivating debut with the vampire novel, Let the Right One In, I was eager to get my hands on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s next novel, despite generally not being drawn to the horror genre—least of all anything involving zombies. Yet Handling the Undead is not a generic zombie story; it’s an emotionally affecting and humanistic look at grief, loss, mortality and the relationships between parents and children.

The story talks place in Stockholm, Sweden, where strange occurrences More...

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Nov 25, 2011

Ritz rated it:

¿Qué pasaría si, aquellos a quienes hemos perdido, a quienes les rendimos luto, de quienes nos despedimos para siempre, vamos nuestros muertos, se levantaran? No con afán de devorar nuestros sesos, sino sencillamente 'reanimados' y nada más.

Esta es la premisa de novela, y una incógnita que jamás sabré si despeja, porque he abandonado el libro con el grito: hay muchos libros que leer y muy poca vida para perderla en uno malo.

Lo único rescatable es precisamente el ar More...

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Nov 23, 2011

Zoe rated it:

Lindqvist is the guy who did Let the Right One In, which was pretty awesome. I find his books rather compulsively readable, so this one didn't take me long. There's also something similar in the voice to the Stieg Larsson books; I don't think this is just because they're both Swedish and thus make references to similar events/cultural things. They have different translators, too, so it's particularly odd. Maybe it's the Swedish psyche? Not sure. Anyhow, the stories they tell are vastly different More...

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Oct 24, 2011

Colleen rated it:

I had very very high hopes for this book.

And I kept on reading to the bitter end, hoping my hopes would be realized.

Still not sure what the hell I was reading.

It's like if Virginia Woolf set out to write a zombie book, except I think Virginia Woolf could have done amazing things with that. Let's say a subpar zombie Virginia Woolf was dug up and resurrected and tasked to write this book in exchange for brains. Maybe then.

So basically this isn't h More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 21, 2011

Jason rated it:

I'm not really too into reading zombie stuff as much as watching the movies, but this book is a zombie tale like no other. It felt penned by a student from the school of David Lynch more than George Romero in that you get a bunch of dreamy moments that leave you wondering what just really happened more so than gross out brain eating with a thinly veiled commentary on social topics. This book had me rereading pretty decent sized sections to absorb what actually just took place in a few occasion More...

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Oct 01, 2011

Stormcrow rated it:

In Stockholm gehen merkwürdige Dinge vor sich: Es ist ein heisser Sommer, der Luftdruck ist nahezu unerträglich und zu allem Übel lassen sich auch noch die elektrischen Geräte plötzlich nicht mehr ausschalten. Auf dem Höhepunkt dieser Anspannung wird plötzlich alles still, etwas hat sich verändert. Bald stellt man fest, dass die kürzlich Verstorbenen in Leichenschauhäusern und auf Friedhöfen beginnen, sich zu regen..

An diesem tragenden Erzählstrang hängt ein geniales Buch. Ja, ich würd More...

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Aug 21, 2011

Debbie rated it:

This is a book that encourages deep thinking; it's impossible to not put yourself in the position of the main characters.

The book's set in modern day Stockholm when madly oppressive weather is broken by a huge electrical storm after which the recently dead come back to life again. As horrific as this sounds it's not a zombie book, the re-animated dead don't want brains, they just shuffle back to where their lives left off. And it's dealing with this that gives the book its title; ima More...

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Aug 04, 2011

Amanda rated it:

Handling the Undead is not your typical zombie book. When I first picked it up, however, I thought it would be -you know, something possibly serious (due to the cover art) like 28 Days later or possibly something humorous like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland or World War Z. What I got however, was completely different and unexpected. Instead of some kind of humorous zombie-fighting or horrifying zombie apocalypse story where characters are running for their lives, Handling the Undead focuses on a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 25, 2011

Ryandake rated it:

it seems such a shame to take such an interesting premise and do so little with it.

the undead (or reliving, which is inaccurate but sounds perfectly bureaucratic) aren't zombies per se. they don't necessarily want to eat your brains, or even gnaw on your toes. the cause of their zombie-ness isn't some eViL plot by a government agency/mad virologist/terrorist whackjob group/meteor from outer space. there are no scenes of zombie mobs plodding after the hero/heroine. so, don't expect the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 18, 2011

Gloria rated it:

I have always been a fan of the Zombie horror genre. As monsters I agree with many that they aren't terribly interesting. Zombies for the most part are one-trick ponies with their moaning and shambling, and need to consume human flesh. Where the true horror lies is in the human response to problem of ambulating corpses. Typically Zombies are a good canvas to display the fralities of human beings when push comes to shove.

Handling the Undead is no exception, except that unlike other More...

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Mar 12, 2011

Craig rated it:

This book is hard to review, as it was hard to finish. It seemed to take me forever because I really couldn't get into the story. Nothing much seemed to happen and none of the characters were really that likeable. At the same time, every once in a while there would be a fun scene or something neat/gory would occur to keep my interest just enough-plus I hate quitting a book. This one was a very different take on a "zombie book" and these aren't your normal zombies. It's a take on what More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2011

Weldon rated it:

Across Stockholm, the power grid goes crazy and everyone in the city develops a blinding headache. When it all abruptly ends, the recently deceased--in hospitals, morgues and graveyards--suddenly awaken. So begins John Lindqvist's superb, horror novel, Handling the Undead.

The story follows three different families that must learn to "handle" their now "reliving" loved ones.

* David Zetterberg's adoring wife, Eva, is killed in a horrendous accident and More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 13, 2011

Bill rated it:

This novel, by John Alvide Lundqvist, does have "undead" (or "zombies") in it. But, don't let that fool you that this is just another run-of-the-mill "zombie" novel. The best example I can use would be akin to saying that Lindqvist's previous novel, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, is just another "vampire" novel. As astounding as that book was in its wholly original take on both the vampire legend and human (and inhuman) lonliness and the need to forge a bond or More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 02, 2011

Deanna rated it:

A strange, hard-to-describe book.

It started slowly; it has multiple POVs (which I normally am less than enthusiastic about); it's not about zombies (vs. the undead) until the very end of the book; I wasn't quite sure what the book was about, although it was definitely about something; it should have felt like a pretentious literary interpretation of a pop subject but didn't.

Suddenly, for no reason, there's a heat wave in Sweden, electrical appliances don't work the way they s More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2010

Nigie rated it:

This is the follow-up to the flawless 'Let The Right One In', which as many know spawned a Swedish film masterpiece, also remade as a US film, not too badly I hear. The impeccably concocted mystique of childhood is missing from this book: instead it focuses on the unglamorous aging process, and Lindqvist relishes the opportunities for horror wrapped up in physical decay, as did this reader when he went there. It's got enough laughs to leaven this at times delicious ghastliness -- make no bones More...

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Nov 28, 2010

Tanabrus rated it:

Tutto comincia con una situazione anomala che incombe su Stoccolma. Un’atmosfera di attesa, come quando sta per scoppiare un temporale, solo che non ci sono nuvole in vista. C’è solo sole, un caldo assurdo. Ed elettricità. Un campo elettrico inaudito ricopre la città, mantiene accesi ed attivi gli strumenti elettrici, colpisce le persone con fortissime emicranie.

E all’apice di questo campo elettrico, accade. I morti -o almeno, i morti recenti, deceduti da meno di due mesi- tornano in v More...

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Nov 25, 2010

Chibineko rated it:

As a fan of the zombie genre, I immediately snapped this book up the moment it showed up on my vine listing. Then I worried- would it be as interesting as my anticipation was telling me it would be? Well, the answer is yes & no. Yes because it brings a very interesting spin to the zombie genre & no because it was slower than I'd anticipated & as such, it took me a little longer to finish it.

Handling the Dead focuses around the idea of how people would react to their loved ones coming More...

1 comment like

Nov 03, 2010

christa rated it:

A very important lesson was learned while reading "Handling the Undead" by John Ajvide Lindqvist: Just because a Swedish zombie novel is not the Swedish zombie novel I wanted to read, nor the one I thought I was reading, does not mean it isn't a decent Swedish zombie novel.

This probably applies to even things that are not Swedish zombie novels. Consider what it is and is, instead of what it isn't and isn't meant to be. I think I heard that on "Top Chef," which seems More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 28, 2010

Fredrik rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 23, 2010

Chris rated it:

Fantastic study on how people deal with death and dying. Not a typical zombie apocalypse story. A strange electrical current occurs and about 2000 of the recently departed are returning home. According to a character Flora when asked by her brother about what the dead are like, she replies "They're nice." In the end, it's not that simple.

Difficult to read, weighty themes and topics. Not a light hearted read at all.

Ultimately a human story about loss and how to More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2010

Juushika rated it:

In Stockholm, Sweden, a freak electrical storm is plaguing the populace—and bringing the dead back to life. A grieving grandfather, loving husband, pair of female psychics, and the entire Stockholm population struggle to cope with their loved ones, returned from the grave as the strange, incomprehensible reliving. As with Let the Right One In, Lindqvist approaches a horror staple from a new angle: Handling the Undead is as much about the emotional impact on the living as it is the circumstances More...

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