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Hemmet
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Välkommen till Hemmet. En kuslig berättelse om kärlek, vänskap och den största skräcken av alla: att förlora kontrollen över sig själv.
Joel är tillbaka i småstaden där han växte upp. Han har tvingats bli förälder till sin mamma Monika, som nu ska flytta in på demensboendet Tallskuggan.
På hemmet jobbar Joels barndomsvän Nina. De har inte pratat med varandra sedan tonårens s ...more
Joel är tillbaka i småstaden där han växte upp. Han har tvingats bli förälder till sin mamma Monika, som nu ska flytta in på demensboendet Tallskuggan.
På hemmet jobbar Joels barndomsvän Nina. De har inte pratat med varandra sedan tonårens s ...more
Hardcover, 342 pages
Published
May 11th 2017
by Norstedts
(first published 2017)
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Joel and Nina haven't spoken in twenty years. They had once been inseparable.
Joel's mother has dementia and he had to return to his hometown to care for her. Monika needs specialist care which means Joel will have to take her to Pineshade Nursing Home where Nina works. Monica's health quickly deteriorated. She has terrifying outbursts, she's violent and she shouts out things she couldn't possibly know. Nina and Joel know Monika well ento see the signs; only by working together they can try and ...more
Joel's mother has dementia and he had to return to his hometown to care for her. Monika needs specialist care which means Joel will have to take her to Pineshade Nursing Home where Nina works. Monica's health quickly deteriorated. She has terrifying outbursts, she's violent and she shouts out things she couldn't possibly know. Nina and Joel know Monika well ento see the signs; only by working together they can try and ...more

Twenty years ago an eighteen-years-old Joel left the small village of Lyckered to try and make it as a musician in Stockholm, now aged thirty-eight he has returned. A few years ago his mother, Monika suffered a heart attack where she died and had to be resuscitated. The heart attack brought on dementia that now plagues her, orchestrating Joel’s return to his childhood home where he moved back to become her guardian.
Joel has an older brother, Bjorn who is largely absent with his own family, job a ...more
Joel has an older brother, Bjorn who is largely absent with his own family, job a ...more

The Home is a spectacular tale of mistakes, families and forgiveness. Nina and Joel haven’t seen each other in twenty years. Mistakes were made, and both blame the other for both their approach to life and what it become. This is a story that will have your heart aching and palpitating in equal measure. At points, it’s not healthy for the readers continuation of life – my favourite type of read!
This one hit home especially hard after having a career in nursing the elderly specialising in neurol ...more
This one hit home especially hard after having a career in nursing the elderly specialising in neurol ...more

Aug 11, 2020
Rachel Bridgeman
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
august-20
This is a novel of horror and suspense which is very much rooted in reality and the way we, as a society, treat our elders.
The source of the creeping dead is centred in a residential/nursing home for older people, where the narration is split between Joel-a failed singer who missed his big chance to get out of his home town-Nina-one of the nurses who works in the care home he places his mother in-and the residents.
As Joel faces the reality that his mother is no longer safe to be left to live alo ...more
The source of the creeping dead is centred in a residential/nursing home for older people, where the narration is split between Joel-a failed singer who missed his big chance to get out of his home town-Nina-one of the nurses who works in the care home he places his mother in-and the residents.
As Joel faces the reality that his mother is no longer safe to be left to live alo ...more

This is my first time reading Mats Strandberg, and wow! What an introduction!
The protagonist, Joel, returns to his home town after many years away to help his Mother, Monika move into a care home as her dementia worsens.
Monika’s health quickly deteriorates once in her new home - Pineshade, but is it her illness natural course or is something more sinister afoot?!
If you enjoy stories of family heartbreak, friendship, love and loss with a whole heap of eerie - this is the book for you.
I loved it! ...more
The protagonist, Joel, returns to his home town after many years away to help his Mother, Monika move into a care home as her dementia worsens.
Monika’s health quickly deteriorates once in her new home - Pineshade, but is it her illness natural course or is something more sinister afoot?!
If you enjoy stories of family heartbreak, friendship, love and loss with a whole heap of eerie - this is the book for you.
I loved it! ...more

Really good horror fiction. It reminds me of the japanese style of building an earie story with a lot of atmosphere and a sense of creeping horror. You can also see that the author have done a very thorough research on how it is to work at a hospice/elderly home and how demented patients behave and that made the book feel authentic and...well...creepy.
Anyone who would like to read a great horror story without much jump scares, this is the book for you.
Anyone who would like to read a great horror story without much jump scares, this is the book for you.

If this book were corporeal I'd be writing it poetry & proposing in Highgate cemetery.
I challenge you to read this in more than 2 sittings because I guarantee it will be impossible. An absolute blinder of a thriller. Dark, juicy, menacing with a poetic narrative that is unusual in commercial books. Strandberg details the heartbreak of a retirement home but uniquely manages to humanise dementia & the experiences of family and the sufferer. I think the author must have some experience with this s ...more
I challenge you to read this in more than 2 sittings because I guarantee it will be impossible. An absolute blinder of a thriller. Dark, juicy, menacing with a poetic narrative that is unusual in commercial books. Strandberg details the heartbreak of a retirement home but uniquely manages to humanise dementia & the experiences of family and the sufferer. I think the author must have some experience with this s ...more

The first book I have read by this author and it literally blew me away. Atmospheric, gripping and heartbraking all in equal measures. The story is mostly set in a Nursing Home and shows the real human side of the devastating and debilitating disease that is Dementia. How the patients deal with it. How it affects their families and loved ones and the care givers who care for them. If that isn't enough you also have something dark and malevolent lurking just out of reach. This book was not what I
...more

If you know me at all, then you'll know that alongside my love of cosy, romantic fiction, I also hold a special place in my heart for horror. Anything to do with spirits, hauntings, demons, poltergeists, possessions... I am there for it. That's not to say that I'm not a massive wimp though, because believe me when I say that I absolutely am, yet I still delight in scaring myself witless and reading books like this well into the early hours of the morning, in the darkness of my room. I'll push my
...more

Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus Books for providing a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!!!
"The tiniest loose end could unravel the whole world. The tiniest crack could grow into a chasm."
Joel's mother, Monika, has developed dementia, and must be admitted to Pineshade, an aged care facility for dementia sufferers. When she arrives, it becomes clear to Joel and Nina, his one time best friend, who works there, that something isn't right, and perhaps there is something more t ...more
"The tiniest loose end could unravel the whole world. The tiniest crack could grow into a chasm."
Joel's mother, Monika, has developed dementia, and must be admitted to Pineshade, an aged care facility for dementia sufferers. When she arrives, it becomes clear to Joel and Nina, his one time best friend, who works there, that something isn't right, and perhaps there is something more t ...more

The second horror book by the author hailed as a Swedish Stephen King... This time the nature of the threat was left ambiguous way longer, which was better in a way, but it was also left ambiguous and unknown to the characters for most of the book which made it seem like they either didn't care or were chasing question marks. While his other book was extremely obvious this one was just flat. I'm just happy it was short. The only thing I really enjoyed with this book was the subtle hint that this
...more

Dementia has never been an easy topic for me. I hate the thought at how a person loses everything that once defined their identity.
Even though that is not the main point of the story, the disease itself sets the platform for a sad and horrific tale.
The story is a bit slow in its first half’ slow; mind you, not at all was boring. In fact the slow start gives it the perfect aura of a haunted tale. The story shifts between past and present from the perspectives of both Joel and Nina and once in a ...more
Even though that is not the main point of the story, the disease itself sets the platform for a sad and horrific tale.
The story is a bit slow in its first half’ slow; mind you, not at all was boring. In fact the slow start gives it the perfect aura of a haunted tale. The story shifts between past and present from the perspectives of both Joel and Nina and once in a ...more

Apr 18, 2020
Ana
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
horror,
netgalley-to-read
https://anaslair.wordpress.com/2020/0...
It's been a while since I read a horror novel, I missed it. And this one did not disappoint.
First of all, it was very refreshing to read a novel taking place in Sweden. I actually didn't know that beforehand and it was a pleasant surprise.
Our main character Joel is a flawed 38-year-old man who has many regrets. Being back home, seeing his mother in that state, and having to commit her while his brother completely brushes off any responsibility is bad enoug ...more
It's been a while since I read a horror novel, I missed it. And this one did not disappoint.
First of all, it was very refreshing to read a novel taking place in Sweden. I actually didn't know that beforehand and it was a pleasant surprise.
Our main character Joel is a flawed 38-year-old man who has many regrets. Being back home, seeing his mother in that state, and having to commit her while his brother completely brushes off any responsibility is bad enoug ...more

I definitely enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as 'Färjan/Blood Cruise' (The English title is awful). The build-up was too subtle and too slow given the length of the book, and it lacked a sense of threat to drive the narrative forwards. I think the novel might have benefited from having Monika as a POV as well as Joel and Nina. It was still head and shoulders above other Nordic horror I've read (although admittedly I've not read too much) and the ending was more satisfying than most horror nov
...more

I had some expectations for The Home (Hemmet), because the previous book from Mats Strandberg, Blood cruise, was really really good. But, like all cautious and conscious constant readers, I made sure I stayed reasonable.
☄️
I hope that some characters, both from Blood cruise and from The Home might make guest appearances in Strandberg's future books. I really want to meet them again. If they're not dead. Or, maybe even if they are.
☄️
Find the whole review at booksofdoom on instagram:
https://www.ins ...more
☄️
I hope that some characters, both from Blood cruise and from The Home might make guest appearances in Strandberg's future books. I really want to meet them again. If they're not dead. Or, maybe even if they are.
☄️
Find the whole review at booksofdoom on instagram:
https://www.ins ...more

As with his previous horror book, you kinda didn't need the supernatural elements. An old folks' home is such a creepy environment that the ghost thing is almost a relief - thank God it's not just dementia!
Strandberg is a master of conveying believable characters, you really _understand_ Joel and Nina, where they come from, what they want and so on. That is really the authors most excellent strength, and if he only wrote dramas without the horror/supernatural elements I would have missed this e ...more
Strandberg is a master of conveying believable characters, you really _understand_ Joel and Nina, where they come from, what they want and so on. That is really the authors most excellent strength, and if he only wrote dramas without the horror/supernatural elements I would have missed this e ...more

Read for work.
I was initially disgusted by this book: it is REALLY not shy about the bodily horrors of growing old, and in combination with the hopelessness and misery of all the characters... NOT my cuppa.
But then it's like Strandberg can't help but develop all the characters, and I actually get somewhat interested in their arcs, if not in the horror story. (Just not my genre.) Gorana is my favourite. Potentially the only sane one.
The ending is predictable, but that's fine, I wasn't here for ...more
I was initially disgusted by this book: it is REALLY not shy about the bodily horrors of growing old, and in combination with the hopelessness and misery of all the characters... NOT my cuppa.
But then it's like Strandberg can't help but develop all the characters, and I actually get somewhat interested in their arcs, if not in the horror story. (Just not my genre.) Gorana is my favourite. Potentially the only sane one.
The ending is predictable, but that's fine, I wasn't here for ...more

I enjoy the beginning the most when you do not know what is going on. There are many clever details from reality worked into the book that highten the level of creepiness. The book also has a high pace with short chapters which makes it a quick and fun read.
For me the passage into the stage where people have realized that something is going on came too soon. I would have been more freaked out if the book left you with an uncertain feeling: is something spooky going on or not?
For me the passage into the stage where people have realized that something is going on came too soon. I would have been more freaked out if the book left you with an uncertain feeling: is something spooky going on or not?

This book is gripping - the story proceeds at a good pace and the characters are interesting. This was an interesting and entertaining read, but it wasn't really special - good for a bit of light (though quite creepy) reading.
...more

My review in swedish ---> Romeoandjuliet
...more
...more

Honestly, I was kinda dissapointed. Maybe my expectation were too high. It wasn't scary, and the ending was so cliche and predictable that it took the rest of the wind out of the book.
...more

This has to be one of the creepiest books I've read. Set in a home for people with dementia it tells the story of Monica , whose son Joel has had to place her in the home as he can't cope anymore. However when she arrives all sorts of strange things begin to happen and the ending is brilliant. It's not a home I would like to end up in that's for sure.
...more

All of my reviews can be found at https://damppebbles.com/
I chose to read and review an eARC of The Home but that has in no way influenced my review.
The Home is a compelling, immersive piece of quality fiction and it absolutely broke my heart. As a contemporary horror novel it also made me very uneasy and gave me chills. It ticks all the boxes in that respect. But this isn’t a fast-paced thrill ride featuring the same old, same old we’ve all seen time and time again. Oh no. It’s a beautifully wr ...more
I chose to read and review an eARC of The Home but that has in no way influenced my review.
The Home is a compelling, immersive piece of quality fiction and it absolutely broke my heart. As a contemporary horror novel it also made me very uneasy and gave me chills. It ticks all the boxes in that respect. But this isn’t a fast-paced thrill ride featuring the same old, same old we’ve all seen time and time again. Oh no. It’s a beautifully wr ...more

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc. The cover drew me in, and the blurb had me hooked. I loved Let the Right One in, an iconic Swedish horror novel, so was intrigued. Unfortunately for me The Home was a tedious, slog of a read.
This is narrated from two characters:
* Joel - 38-years old has moved back home, after failing as a musician, to take care off his mother, Matilde. His mother suffered a heart attack and died for a minute, but she came back from her short death and is stru ...more
This is narrated from two characters:
* Joel - 38-years old has moved back home, after failing as a musician, to take care off his mother, Matilde. His mother suffered a heart attack and died for a minute, but she came back from her short death and is stru ...more
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Mats Strandberg is an award-winning novelist and journalist. He is a regular columnist for Sweden's biggest evening newspaper, has been named Columnist of the Year by Sweden's Newspapers and Magazines organization, and had published three previous novels, with rights sold in numerous countries.
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