Very well written with well drawn characters but I found it too slow and difficult to engage with

This book had so much premise. But I just found it boring so I had to give up. The first few chapters were just a guy driving around and not getting anywhere. I did however like the character of the dog. I think he would have worked really well. It’s a shame it wasn’t quite as exciting as I’d hoped as I would liked to have seen what happened

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Forgoing all the benefits of Let the Right One In (such as a recognisable scene and time), our author dumps people into a generic limbo-land/domed-world thing, then regales us all with what badness they've done in their past, and what supernatural encounters they may have had, then gives us all kind of genre mish-mash, until it stops. Do NOT battle through this in the hope of ANY kind of resolution WHATSOEVER, and I can't see myself caring about the rest of the trilogy to see if any of it ever does make sense. Wish I'd had the courage of my convictions and dumped it early on.

This was sadly a bust for me, I got this from NetGalley but unfortunately found it impossible to get into.
For me, I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist was confusing, strange and extremely weird.
I had no clue most of the time what was occurring, even skipping to the end (which I never do) to see if it got clearer further on and to provide a touch of clarity to the perplexing storyline.
It didn't so I decided to down tools, life's too short for reading books that I am not enjoying.
As a result of not finishing, I'm not leaving a star rating as I feel it wouldn't be quite fair considering.
(I got to 15%) so not enough I feel to make an overall judgement.
Here's Hoping this will be a better fit for yourself.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with a free arc of I Am Behind You. This is my own honest opinion.

Written by the author of ‘Let the Right One In’, which was developed into 2 movies, one in Swedish and one in English, this novel tells the story of a group of people who wake up on their campsite to discover everything gone outside of their campervans. All they can see is grass stretching towards the horizon in all directions. Each group of people must deal with their new circumstances and each other, which proves incredibly difficult for some.

This book reminded me of ‘The Langoliers’ by Stephen King, (also, a so-bad-it’s-good 1990’s 2-episode tv miniseries) which tells the story of 10 people who wake up on a plane to discover the rest of the passengers have disappeared. When they manage to land the plane, the rest of the world seems to have disappeared too.

I Am Behind You was an enjoyable read, and I think it’ll probably be made into a movie at some stage, but the ending was a disappointment.

Quite odd and never really explained.
Reminded me of 'The Dome'
Preferred his earlier stuff.
But the characters were interesting, complex and well drawn.

This is the 1st in a planned trilogy, which opens with an interesting and philosophical voice describing the above. Nicely translated, it heightens the oddness of the situ where 4 caravans and their highly flawed and memorable owners find their caravans have seemingly moved overnight to this field on a never-ending horizon. They have no sat nav, no mobile signal, no electricity and limited food. And there is no sun in the sky!!

The characters are somewhat judgmental, unhappy, intolerant and most have very shady pasts. As they collect themselves to try and fathom what is going on, some of their back stories begin to emerge.

The book holds a very eerie, tense and suspicious atmosphere throughout. As a reader you are dying to find out more; for things to make sense and so in a good way it makes you impatient and needing to know, to be let in what’s happening – much like the owners themselves. Is this a mass psychological experiment, is it real or an optical illusion or is there a religious or an extra-terrestrial undertone? Food supplies are short and these characters are not going to gel. There is a continuous sense of a bad omen, that someone will snap and much worse is to come. An immersive, kooky, suspense horror.

I rarely give up on a book, but this one had to be the first one this year! This is such a mess! So many different characters thrown at us at the first few pages, the premise became apparent only after painful 20% of the story and irritating and annoying people didn't really make it easy for me to sympathize with them. I wanted to try this book because of the success of Let the right one in, which I didn't read yet, but I bought it last week. I will wonder about money well spent... I also had some issues with translation, there were some odd constructions and choice of words.

Excellent book. I adored the storyline and the characters. A real page turner. I would this recommend this book.

Four families wake in their caravans one day to find everything gone. There's just them, an perfect field that stretches on forever. And an endless blue sky, and yet no sun. Here they find there worst fears come true, their darkest secrets come back to haunt them. And for one of them possibly where they belong.

Here's a tip. Don't read this book and also be catching up on Twin Peaks at the same time. Seriously after a couple of episodes of that and then finishing this I felt like someone had spiked my drink. This book is that sort of weird which for me is good, but equally there will be people that will hate this. If you want neat endings and anything explained stay away. But if you like well written surreal fiction that will really get you thinking you've found the right book. Not an easy read by any means but it's so compelling and often really emotional. I found this hard to put down.

I would like to have given this 3 1/2 stars as I'm still thinking about the storyline.
Such a weird book, I saw the film of " let the right one in" and really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed the first part of this book. I was intrigued by the characters and their back stories. I also believed in the relationships between them - and the fact that Bennie the dog's fear was of the Grandchildren! Was there something linking them? Why were they "chosen" ? What happened to Molly in the tunnel? Sadly I found that in the second half I was reading more quickly just to see if the questions were answered satisfactorily and to me they weren't. Maybe the other books in the trilogy will provide more answers or maybe they will be different characters completely, but im not sure I'll be reading the next one.
5 stars for the translator. It didn't feel like I was reading a translated book which is probably the best compliment I can bestow.

I'm not 100% sure about how i feel about this book to be honest but I do keep finding myself thinking about it!!

The book is slightly bizarre, thought-provoking, and at times a touch baffling, it tears the heart and twists the soul.

This if the first book in a planned 3 part series and i am not sure how long the wait will be before the second instalment.

It was quite a slow drawn out first part of the book and i was close to giving up at one point, BUT I am pleased i persevered as the book picks up steam and the action starts.
I think it is a more psychological horror than blood bath but the book certainly doesn't shy away from the intense gruesome scenes that take place in the latter part of the book. They are descriptive without being too disturbing and over the top, some you will see coming and some not until it happens which i really liked.

John Ajvide Lindqvist has been called Sweden's version of Stephen King but I would put this book on a liking to some of Clive Barker's earlier work, which is in no way a bad thing!

The story takes place not in our world, or not as we see it. All that there is are 4 caravans where the occupants go to sleep in a busy caravan holiday park but wake up to a what appears to be an empty field. All they can see in all directions is flat green grass and pure blue sky, not even a single cloud.

There occupants are an eclectic bunch that are from different walks of life so why were these four families picked up and removed to this strange place? What’s the connection?
In one caravan are the Sundberg family consisting of Peter, a national football superstar, his wife Isabelle, a model and their 6-year-old daughter Molly.
The next caravan is home to Stefan Larsson, a small town store owner, his wife Carina and their young 9-year-old son Emil.
Next there is Lennart and Olof, two farmers who have been together since their wives ran off and left them and their cat, then finally Donald, his wife Majvor who are both retired and their dog Benny.

The book is in 3 parts, Outside, Inside and Beyond and the story is told in alternating parts by each of the characters, even the dog and cat have their parts to play.
The story follows the groups as they explore their new surroundings and their attempts at trying to understand why they have ended up here.
We also get to learn parts of the characters back stories and find out what inner demons they will have to face in the struggle to survive.

Due to the fact this is only book one it leaves a lot of things unresolved and unexplained, like the how and the why, so it will be very interesting to see where the story will go from here.

It is really well written and the translation is extremely good. There are some mentions of a Swedish singer i haven't heard of but other than that it works well in English.
So all in all, this book won't be for everyone but I am pleased i finished the book, its well written, most of the characters are believable even though some you don't care for, the creepiness sneaks up on you and ramps up the internal tensions to inevitable violence, sweeping you along for the ride. 

I will defiantly be waiting for book number 2 to be released!

Fans of John Ajvide Lindqvist's bestselling Let the Right One In will remember that slow burning, lingering feeling of unease that he manages to conjure up in his writing. Although in many ways I Am Behind You is a very different beast, with rather more going on and a faster-paced plot, it still has that sense of unease, that uncomfortable sense of impending doom, of something sinister afoot.

The concept is quite outlandish - a group of holiday makers wake up to find themselves and their caravans in the middle of a large, featureless field, the campsite and their fellow campers mysteriously vanished - but the characters are so crisply formed and believable that it's surprisingly easy to make the leap and accept the situation in which they find themselves. It's a great device for exploring how quickly people abandon normal societal behaviour when removed from normal society, and the relationships between the characters vary between sweet and disturbing, which keeps things moving at a real pace.

There are elements of Stephen King (good Stephen King) to the darker flights of fancy employed by Lindqvist here, and moments of sickening gore alongside more subtle terrors, but for me the lasting impression is that sense of unease, that surrounds you more and more insistently as you read, and stays with you long after the last page.

3.5 Stars rounded up.

This sure is one strange book!

I am Behind You is a conceptual horror novel featuring 4 families on caravan holidays who have woken up to find that they are not where they were the night before. This new place is strange and creepy and deadly.

Although not an awful lot of action happens within the first 70% of the book, it was still difficult to put down and it always left me wanting more. This is the first sign of a well-written novel.

However, this book is really all about the characters themselves. Unfortunately, most of the characters in the novel are not really fully realized and very much lacked any depth or believability. In fact, the most honest and believable characters were Emil (a small child) and Benny (a dog). A few of the characters were honestly the most despicable human beings I have ever encountered. Olaf and Lennert didn't have enough to separate them and seemed to basically just be the same character and I often got confused between them.

The concept itself is brilliant but just isn't quite fully realized in my opinion. I feel like it's so close but not quite there. I'm not sure if the inconsistencies etc. are done on purpose to make everything all the more weird and bizarre or if they are just missed.

At the end of the novel I am left with a lot of questions and very few answers! I assume this is done on purpose to set things up for the next book which I am hoping will be translated soon!

Sooooooo! This book was downright strange. I found it a difficult read to be honest and struggled to care about what actually happened to the characters as most were very unlikeable!....

I can't actually decide if I liked the book or not, it had so much weird stuff going on that I caught myself saying WTF (a lot).

The basis of it is that some caravanning holiday makers get stranded in the middle of nowhere and some really weird stuff happens! That's basically it, along with some arguing and fighting amongst them all and two weird kids to boot.

Have a read see if you can figure it out because I certainly couldn't! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This book is about a group of people who wake up to find themselves inexplicably in a field with no idea how they got there.
I did struggle with this book and didn't find it very engaging and the characters just didn't bond with me. I liked the idea of chapters told from the cats and dog's perspective which was quite amusing. Overall it's not something I loved or fully immersed myself in. I do love the idea of the story but this was written in a way that just wasn't for me.

Bizarre, creepy, unsettling, enthralling. I’m not entirely sure what I just read, but I think I liked it.

Getting off to a slow start the first half of the book is almost a character study. The characters are investigating the place they have found themselves, but at the same time, it goes in depth into their personalities and their back stories. Most of them are unpleasant people that have done bad things at one point or another or they have been through traumatic events. But the dog Benny, the little boy Emil and the farmers Lennart and Olof were all likeable enough to be able to emphasise with them.

The second half it all goes crazy. I’m not going to spoil it by talking about it, but it’s surreal, original, deeply unsettling, and I could not put it down. I just want someone now who can explain it all for me.

Don’t read this if you need an answer to where they are or how they got there. But if you like making up your own ideas about things, and if you like stories that are odd and scary, then this is for you!

Lindqvist does it again folks! He expertly casts his stellar reputation on the line by masterfully weaving child-like curiosity into an intricate web of complexity of human emotion in disguises of feinted playfulness or dangerous contempt just on the verge of breaking through the surface.

Reading this novel and perceiving events through the cast of Lundqvist’s realistic characters quickly makes you wonder aloud, and frequently: where are they? With nothing but each other and their memories to give them the strength they need to overcome this ordeal, you have to ask yourself: will it be enough? Will they find the answers they’re looking for? Will they ultimately find themselves as well?

Lundqvist really is the next Stephen King. The man writes fiction like a boss.

https://lynns-books.com/2017/09/07/i-am-behind-you-platserna-1-by-john-ajvide-lindqvist/
I Am Behind You is the strangest psychological horror that I think I’ve ever read. Quite an accomplishment really! Bizarre, creepy, insidious, thought provoking, compelling and absolutely baffling. I don’t really know what happened to be honest. I”m not totally sure how to review the book but I do know that this has kept me thinking for days and I know without doubt that I want to read the next instalment – I simply have to, I need to. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Twilight Zone.

At the start of this story we pretty quickly become aware that overnight four caravans and their occupants have been mysteriously transported from the campsite on which they resided and literally dropped into a never ending field. The green grass and blue sky stretch as far as the eye can see and an exploration by car just uncovers more of the same. You’re hooked by that aren’t you – you can’t deny it. Exactly like I was, Why were these four families picked up and removed to this strange place? What’s the connection? Have they all died overnight and ended up in a hell of their own making? My mind was simply racing with the need to find out what was actually happening.

So, to the occupants of this unusual territory. We have four caravans and their occupants. One, a couple of blokes, friends for many years and maybe with a friendship on the brink of developing into something more – it just needs a nudge. An unhappily married couple with a young daughter called Molly. Molly is one of those children that gives you the goosebumps, you can feel a chill on the back of your neck when you’re reading her chapters, as though somebody’s cold breath was on your skin. We have another couple, they don’t really know each other as well as they could, they have a son called Emil, a shy boy who is a little tied to his mother’s apron strings. Finally a couple whose family have grown and left the nest, leaving them a little in the land of ‘do we really like each other now we have nothing to occupy us’ territory. Basically we have this eclectic bunch of characters, thrown together in an unusual and stressful situation and we watch as the cracks begin to show and develop from cracks into deep yawning chasms.

The writing here is so good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author has an excellent way of making his characters come alive in the imagination. Slowly and surely he develops a picture of all of them and most of them have skeletons in their closets just waiting to jump out. It’s a fascinating and compelling ride watching all of them as they basically try to hold their sanity together. To be honest, many of them are not likeable characters and as their pasts are revealed you can’t help but wondering if this is some devilish punishment for past misdemeanours.

In terms of the action. Well, this is where we really enter the land of bizarre. Literally, prepare to encounter Darth Vader and his star troopers, an entire class of frantically exercising females, huge, six foot tall rabbits, tigers, zombies and James Stewart. I kid you not. Plus looming storm clouds and an horizon that seems to disappear into blackness with who knows what beyond.

I’m not going to deny that this book is unusual. I also admit that it might not be for everyone. There are no neat and tidy wrap ups here, no clean cut solutions. You’re probably not going to have any lightbulb moments and if the thought of reading a book and thinking wtf just happened doesn’t really appeal to you then you might just want to give it a swerve. Simply put, although I like answers as much as the next person, I found myself totally absorbed and want to read more. I guess I’m hoping for answers eventually but even without them I’m in the zone now.

I received a copy courtesy of the publisher through Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.