This author never disappoints! The Undesired was full of mystery, suspense and strange twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat. Though it left me with a questions I didn't feel were answered in the book itself it was still an overall satisfying read.

This book came at a time when I wasn't fully able to appreciate it, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. The writing was superb and the characters were concise and beautifully written.

The Undesired begins with Odinn and his daughter trapped in a running automobile slowly being overcome with the fumes leaving a reader to wonder just who this pair is and what brought them to that moment. Going back to find out those answers we learn that Odinn had lost his wife and has been left to raise his young daughter alone.

At that point Odinn takes a new job to look into a former residential home for boys to see if there had possibly been any kind of abuse. As Odinn is looking into the past of the home and the allegations the story alternates even farther back into the past with Aldis, a young woman who was working at the home in the 70s and had befriended one of the boys in question.

The Undesired by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir for me was simply a case of this one being way too much of a slow building read for my taste. I’m sure some people will enjoy the story but I found myself very quick to losing interest as the story was being built switching timelines and points of view. We know that things happened in the past simply from the investigation so as things were slowly being explained I just wanted to hurry to the answers.

In the end even though this wasn’t a favorite of mine I would still urge others to give it a try if it sounded like something they might enjoy as the writing was fine just a bit too slow for my taste in a thriller type read.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This is more in the vein of I Remember You than Yrsa's long-running mystery series. Definitely full of unsettling, creepy elements. I liked the use of parallel storylines a lot in this context. I can't really talk about the things that didn't overwhelm me without giving away the plot. But for the most part I had a hard time putting down this atmospheric work, turning pages rapidly until the end - and what an end.

The Undesired opens with a scene of a father and young daughter in a car, dying from the exhaust fumes. Your mind automatically wonders how they got there and who is responsible.

Chapter One introduces single father Odinn, whose ex-wife has recently died. Odinn struggles with the responsibilities of being more than a weekend father and seeks ways to help his daughter with her grief.

When a colleague dies unexpectedly, Odinn finally gets an interesting assignment investigating possible abuse at a home for young offenders. The plot moves back and forth from the present to the past.

The past segments allow us to see the home and the inhabitants through the eyes of Aldis, a young woman who does the cleaning. In the present, Odinn attempts to balance a series of problems--interviewing individuals who were at the home during the 1974 incident, new information that makes him curious about his ex-wife's death, and his concerns about his daughter.

Definitely some surprises, especially in the conclusion. It is so tempting to put the spoiler here, but it would change the way the reader approaches the novel.

Icelandic writer Yrsa Sigurdardottir's The Undesired is a standalone and not part of her Thora Gudmundsdottir series.

This new cover beats the previous two options by a long shot.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press

Psychological Suspense. 2012; 2017 (translation). Print length: 362 pages.

Another great book by my favorite female author. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that it didn't quite come close to I REMEMBER YOU, which was amazing.
We go back and forth between today and 1974. The detention centre for troubled juveniles in 1974 is the basis of a report our protagonist is preparing. His research will determine whether or not compensation for the former inmates is warranted.
He has a difficult home life looking after his traumatized daughter, who is now in his care after his ex-wife and mother of their little girl fell to her death out of a window.
To his horror, he realizes the history of the juvenile home and his private world are linked, as he slowly begins to think he's going mad.
The tension ratchets up until the shocking ending, leaving me out of breath gasping 'wow', not a very literary utterance, but sincerely meant!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher, and especially Yrsa Sigurdardottir, keep your wonderful books coming, please! Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and Yrsa Sigurdardottir, please keep your books coming!

Deliciously creepy standalone by one of my favorite authors! With hints of paranormal activity and the stark Icelandic setting, this mystery/thriller was impossible to put down so I read it cover to cover in a single sitting. It's dark, chilling and twisted and I really liked the story.

The opening of the novel sets the stage for the backstory -- a man and his 11-year-old daughter are slowly asphyxiating in a car in a garage. Who has done this to them, and why? Odinn and Run (accents missing) had reconnected and she was living with him after his ex-wife's tragic fall and death. Was this connected to the case he was working on?

Odinn had quit his previous job when Run came to live with him and was now working for an agency tasked with investigating possible abuse in an old delinquent boys' home -- the Krokur care home. As an engineer, they counted on his rational approach to discovering if anything untoward had happened on that isolated farm in the 1970s. The previous investigator had died suddenly, and Odinn was looking through her files and notes to catch up and finish the report. The narrative then shifts to another point of view -- that of Aldis, a young woman who worked at the care home as a cleaner and aide to the owners. Lilja and Veigar are rigid and lack compassion for their charges and the hired help.

The pacing is smooth and the shifts between present day Odinn and 1974 Aldis are flawless as the story develops and builds tension as the reader begins to understand what might have happened there at the care home and how Odinn might be connected. Add in some seriously messed up characters and an atmosphere of gloom and a dose of weird bumps and noises and you have the sense that things are going to go wrong in a big way. No spoilers, but there are quite a few surprises at the climax and conclusion of this noir tale.

I can't wait to read more by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and though I've adored her Thora novels, I will read anything she writes.

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago, but wanted to give my feelings about it a chance to percolate before I wrote a review. This is one of those books where you are left with such a feeling of shock at the end, you almost have no choice but to go back and mentally review all of the events in the book and the characters as well. I did that--so thank you to the author for a lack of sleep one full night.

I'm not sure what to classify this book as. It is kind of psychological horror, kind of mystery, kind of suspense, kind of--everything all at once? Once it grabs you, it will be hard for you to simply set it to the side and forget about it, in fact, I believe that would be impossible.

You aren't quite sure what to believe during the course of this book. Is there something supernatural going on or isn't there? Is someone just disturbed or are they beyond all help? How does one event from the distant past relate to another closer to today? So many questions, but the author did a great job of answering them all before the climax of the book, and what a climax it is! I did not expect things to end the way they did, and it thrilled me.

After taking the time to think about this book, I decided to buy a copy for my bookshelf, as I think it would be fun to read it again in the future. I happily recommend this title to others who like very suspenseful. interesting novels.

This review is based on a complementary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

“The Undesired” is an intriguing thriller which begins with Odinn and his daughter Run close to death in a car. The novel then goes back to the events leading up to this scene. It alternates between Odinn’s job in the present and Aldis’s job in in the 70s. After his colleague Roberta dies at her desk, Odinn is tasked with continuing her investigation into a home tasked with reforming juvenile delinquents in the 70s. As there was a recent case showing maltreatment of the boys in another such home, the government is looking into all the old homes to see if there should be similar settlements. Roberta was investigating Kroker, a small home which seemed mostly on the up and up from Odinn’s quick cursory examination.

Things are not so simple as they appear, and we flash between Aldis, who worked at Kroker in the 70s as a cleaning girl, and Odinn as he investigates not only Kroker, but also deals with having a troubled girl (his daughter Run) living with him after the death of his ex-wife, Lara, who fell out of a window. Odinn quickly learns of the death of two of the boys in a car where they asphyxiated. Their deaths and that of his ex-wife were ruled accidental- but things may not be as simple as they appear at first glance. I won’t say too much about either situation so as to avoid spoilers.

The first third to half of the book was relatively slow and confusing as we are introduced to a whole host of characters from the past and present. About halfway through the book, it really picks up and becomes irresistibly intriguing. Aldis and Odinn are separately coming into some mysteries which beg to be solved, and the ending is intensely surprising. The last half really pushes the book into the thriller/mystery category, but the first half was more along the lines of general fiction- it’s really more of the day to day events of Aldis, who cleans house but wants to do more with her life, and Odinn, who is trying to figure out how to deal with his traumatized daughter and work demands. It did not feel overwhelming or scary- this is not a horror, and probably was more of a mystery/light thriller, as nothing felt too intense.

Overall, I found it interesting and was glad I kept reading- the last few chapters were really intense/well written. I wish the first half had been equally as intriguing. It’s a slow build but worth the journey. I’d give it 3.5 stars, but rounding up to 4. Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Yrsa Sigurdardottir sure knows how to make her readers squirm. Her Thora Gudmundsdottir series is excellent, but it is one of her standalone novels, I remember you, that made me afraid of the dark. The Undesired is similar in that it tells two apparently unconnected stories, that involve what seems to be ghostly presences. In this case it's Aldis, a cleaner in a home for trouble boys in 1974, and Oddin, a widowed single father who many years later looks into possible cases of abuse in said place. There are so many scary passages, that I couldn't choose one as the most unsettling. Could it be Aldis finding one of the boys alone, in the dark, talking to someone she can't see? Or the noises that Oddin hears when he's alone in his apartment at night? It gives me chills just thinking about it. Some parts of the mystery were quite obvious and I could only explain why Aldis didn't put it all together because she's so young. Others completely blindsided me. I'm not kidding when I say that the suspense at times was unbearable. It is flawlessly written and it's impossible not to start seeing things along with the characters. Five easy stars!

The UNDESIRED travels back and forth from the present day with Ódinn Hafsteinsson being charged with investigating a residential home for delinquent boys back in the 1970s to the past with the experiences of Aldis, a young woman working at the home in 1974. The death, ruled accidental, of two boys at the home interests Ódinn while Aldis develops a relationship with one of the doomed boys. The home's isolation, the harsh treatment of its residents and the mysterious death of a baby born there provide a sense of foreboding and menace which continues into the present day investigation with the accidental death of Ódinn's ex-wife, the resultant trauma suffered by his eleven-year-old daughter and Ódinn's guilt over the death and his previous desertion of his family.

If you’re looking for a book to creep you the heck out – look no further. You’ve found it. This book has two interlaced storylines and both are enough to make you pull the covers around you a little tighter and jump at stray noises.

In modern day Reykjavik, Odinn is handed a new project just as his personal life is in turmoil. His ex-wife was in an accident, leaving the care of their 11-year-old daughter to him. The project relates to an old care home for delinquent boys, which was shut down after a bizarre accident in the 1970s, and whether the boys were mistreated and could be entitled to compensation. Then bizarre things start happening and Odinn begins questioning his sanity the further he gets into his investigation. The second storyline – which follows a young woman hired to clean at the home – reveals the bizarre events leading up to the accident. The past and present collide in a huge climax which will leave you with goosebumps.

Yrsa Sigurdardottir is an Icelandic author who specializes in horror novels, and while this isn’t necessarily horror, it’s a thriller at its best. There are some hints about what the ultimate conclusion will be, but it’s still shocking and spooky when it happens.

I did guess at least part of the “modern” storyline “secret,” but the past story had me stumped. And I was not disappointed in either story even having guessed a little bit of what was happening. The author keeps you second-guessing everything you think you know about the characters and their motivations. There’s definitely a creeping, pervasive feeling of dread that really culminates when your theories are finally confirmed. It’s really good.

The author does a great job of creating an air of suspense where you’re not sure what the heck is going to happen next. As Odinn’s investigation creeps forward and as Aldis’ time at the home goes on, everything just builds and builds to its conclusion – by the time I got to about 60 percent through the book I couldn’t stop reading. I had to know what was going on – in both stories! That’s really an incredible thing: to create to stories in one that are just that good.

I am so glad I got a chance to read this book and am so thrilled to have discovered Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Do yourself a favor and pick this book up when it is released (Feb. 14).

Tense, unremitting suspense makes this a ghost story of the first water

A solid story that intrigued and engaged. A bit dark at times, I found the plot a bit unsettling, but unputdownable at the same time.