I finished this book on Saturday evening, and I'm still not entirely sure what was going on. Where did they go? Why were they put there? Who was responsible? What on earth is going on?!

Those burning questions aside, I Am Behind You is an excellent horror book. I can imagine this being made into an incredibly creepy film, one that would make me jump out of my skin at every turn. Most of the characters are quite unlikable, but I believe this may have been the point. They're all human, all flawed, and not there to be liked. I Am Behind You gives a rare insight into the minds of people, uncovering their deepest secrets, their shame.

Emil was probably the only "good" character, although, being a young child, he hasn't had as much time to make mistakes. The most fascinating characters, to me, were Carina and Isabelle. With such colourful pasts, and the journey they had to make to get where they are, these two woman were undoubtedly the strongest out of the bunch.

I Am Behind You is one hell of a ride. Don't expect answers; you won't get any. But you will get a haunting story that will probably stay with you for a while.

Gosh! What to say about this book?
'I am behind you' by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the author of 'let the right one in'
This is a very unusual strange and unsettling supernatural premise.. A really well told, bizarre, storyline that transported me to the expanse of grass and had me reading until well into the night. Weird and thought provoking, I can't say I enjoyed it, but, it's certainly different.

I loved this book. It's perfectly crafted, excellently written, and establishes its world brilliantly. The character point of views enable you to see different perspectives of the situation.
One of the best horrors I have read this year.

A book that is both horrifically creepy and emotionally moving is a rare treat. I loved this book! 5 stars!!!

“Abstract horror which seriously disappoints”

“I Am Behind You” is John Ajvide Lindqvist’s first novel to appear in English since “Little Star” in 2011, being a major fan of this highly versatile Swedish author I was really looking forward to reading something new. However, this was a major disappointment and it does not compare favourably to any of his previous four novels. Interestingly, it appeared in Sweden way back in 2014 and the translation has taken a while to materialise, perhaps they struggled to find a home for it? If that was the case, it really would not surprise me. However, a second book (in this projected trilogy) has recently been released in Sweden, so the story does continue. The original title, in Swedish, translates into English literally as “Heaven’s Beach”.

The opening sequences of the book definitely catches the reader’s eye and initial interest for me was high. A group of holidaymakers, who do not know each other, wake up one morning to find themselves and their caravans are no longer in their caravan site. Instead they have, in some weird way, been transported to a huge open grass plain, where there is no sun, an endless horizon, and they have absolutely no idea how they got there, or how to leave. It then takes a while for the ten characters involved to come to their senses and explore their surroundings. So this is the setting for what has been billed as a “conceptual horror” as the ten Swedes try to deal with whatever this crisis is.

To be frank it was all pretty dull and uninvolving from start to finish. I struggled to visualise this endless and empty grassy place where this generally unlikeable and pretty boring bunch of people were stranded. The author does not give much in the way of descriptions to liven things up and I tired of this empty location pretty quickly as it took ages for anything to happen. Slowly the group realise the seriousness of their predicament and they start to scheme, backbite and things begin to go from bad to worse as they start to have visions, hallucinate, fight inner demons, and contend with acid rain with the power to create gaping holes in their caravan roofs. It gets even more bizarre when real people such as the actor James “everyone calls me Jimmy” Stewart makes several appearances, along with characters from Star Wars. One of the better characters is a slightly unsettling little girl who enjoys watching the French torture flick “Martyrs”, then throw in an emancipated tiger and white humanoid creatures lurking on the distant horizon who don’t do very much except lurk. What did this amount to? Not a lot, except a hodgepodge of disjointed sequences that made little sense.

The book explores not only the group's attempts to understand this new world but also investigates their individual histories - did something each of them do when they were younger lead to this current situation? A lot of the novel is told via this flashback method and once again I found these sequences very uninvolving. Further real characters appear including popular Swedish singer Peter Himmelstrand and lots of other references mainly to Swedish pop culture. The Swedish media did indicate that some of the occurrences may have been autobiographical points of notes from the author’s own life. Once the initial interest wears of the book really sagged in the middle, the back stories plodded, and I naively hoped for a conclusion that would provide answers. Once again, I was disappointed.

It's a very dodgy sign when the only characters you care about and want to survive are the cat and the dog which become friends when everything else goes to crap. The Swedish media reacted pretty favourably to this book, stating that Lindquist was evolving his literary style into more abstract and existentialist type of horror. Personally I don’t buy that statement, I enjoy challenging and intelligent horror, but when you get to the end of 400 pages and absolutely nothing is revealed the majority of readers are going to be shaking their heads. Horror requires atmosphere and this novel really, really lacked it, and was as bland as the grassy setting.

Is it heaven, hell, purgatory or something else? You may not care by the time you get to the end. Not that you find out anyway. I like very strange horror novels, “Little Star” by this author is so much more than this cumbersome and tiring book I would highly recommend you read either that or any f the author’s other novels instead of this. The publishers will probably try to sell this new novel as “psychological horror” don’t believe them. Very disappointing.

Wow, this was...intense. And weird. And peculiar. And...well, honestly? Bizarre, but in a great way.

This will be a review filled with SPOILERS, specially because I want to have it all noted so when book 2 arrives I'll have help remembering key elements, so read at your own risk.

<spoiler>

It was my first Lindqvist novel and I had no idea what to expect besides that it would be paranormal and leaned toward horror. It was but it's also a wonderful character study, a psychological drama, in some ways even a bit of a romance and coming of age. We have people from the most diverse backgrounds and ages, all bundled together for unknown reasons, having to face the inexplicable grotesque with very little preparation and tools.
Some are better than others, in all senses of the expression; better prepared due to their inner state, better as people, better at this apocalyptic scenario. They have, however, to face it together and that will lead to some confrontations that were key to the moving of the events.

It took a while for the novel to really start, for some action to happen but I am so glad I didn't give up. The monotony of the first chapters is, in my opinion, intentional; we need that to feel the new scenery, the unnerving calm and quietude of their setting.

We are not left with much explanation or closure but that was to be expected considering this is the 1st in a trilogy, but I feel satisfied even if it remained as a standalone. I think the lack of real answers adds to the terrifying horror of their situation.

My heart broke for Stephan's family, specially Emil. Molly gave me nightmares, that girl is scary but what happened to shape her like that in her infancy was so unfair I can see things from her POV; Isabelle was the true evil in that family, actually... Donald and Majvor were a mess from the start and their ending was brilliant (also, I love James Stewart and it was a delight to read him as a character!). Having the dog as one of the POVs was a risky move but it paid off. And...Lennart and Olof are the most adorable couple in all books I've read this year and I love them to pieces. I hope with all my heart they are back in book 2 because I could never have enough of them. </spoiler>

Extremely recommended for all horror and suspense fans. Can't wait for the sequel.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Was really enjoying this book up until the ending which left me scratching my head. I still have no idea what really happened here. The ending did not give any kind of hint or answer really so I sit here still wondering about these characters.

However, Lindqvist's passages detailing Isabelle's hyperthyroidism were so spot on it was scary. Having been recently diagnosed with this myself I was shocked to discover a character dealing with the same health issues in this book. Really I picked this book to read to take my mind off the thyroid problems, shaking, and huge appetite and did not expect to find a character suffering from the same problems.

Really enjoyed the writing overall and learning about the characters but the ending killed this story for me.