This book reminded me a lot of “THE STRAIN” which could be good or bad depending on what your opinion on that book was. For me this book was in the middle.

For the first half I absolutely hated the book, I thought it was too pessimistic and just morally disturbed. The characters and the writing were too negative for me and I felt morally dirty after reading a chapter and I had to break up reading the book because I felt myself spiraling in a dark hole. Sadly it’s pretty normal for horror if someone has read Stephen King and is inspired by his writing but horror has evolved.

When I am reading I am trying to escape and not feel tormented and in a dark head space so this book didn’t have the tone that I was looking for and it was very anti feminism which was another point that made me take off a star.

I did appreciate the slow burn of the infection going around the boat and seeing how each character had to deal with it, different points of view really helped this book, but the slow burn just sizzled out and there was no climax or resolution to the book.

I was very disappointed in a concept that I am intrigued in but it fell short with it being too much like old horror and not evolved.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. A fun little book. Great for Halloween Month 🎃.

I wanted to like this so badly because I love horror and I love reading about vampires. I could not find one likable thing about any of the characters though. I sped read through this just to get to the end.

Is Mats Strandberg the Swedish Stephen King? Yes, yes he is. Will I ever go on a booze cruise? No, no I will not. 😄

I loved everything about this book! It completely reminded me of the older, original Stephen King books like The Shining, Salem’s Lot, Carrie, Christine, etc.

The first 30-40% of the story is all about character development. There are multiple characters, some of which I loved and some of which I hated, and you get a great peak into their lives, their hopes and fears. At the same time, the stage is being set for the utter chaos that is coming! The creepy undercurrents are delicious. I was eagerly turning pages to see when and where the shit was going to hit the fan!

The last half of the book had me creeped out because I could literally imagine being on a cruise and having nowhere to run to keep safe.

Racing heartbeat, I was jumping from my bed to run to the bathroom just to make sure that no hands were going to shoot out from under the bed to grab my leg. Of course, the lights had to be on at night and every little sound I heard had me stopping to listen a little harder. It’s that kind of book. What a great time!

Part of the fun of this story is hoping that your favorite characters are going to make it through. I’m not going to drop any spoilers here except to say that I was both happy and sad with the ending and yes, I did cry some actual tears.

There are some pretty gory parts within the last half of the book. I usually just skip a few sentences forward when I see these and I had to do that a couple of times in this story. Doesn’t even matter, it was just such a great scary read!

If you are a Horror fan, you must pick this one up! I hope to read more from Mats Standberg!!

Thank you to #NetGalley for providing this book. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy and all views expressed are only my honest opinion.

If the cover doesn't give it away then the review won't help. Readers will pick this up for the promise of a booze cruise gone wrong (what booze cruise goes right?), but they'll stay for the strong characters, the heart, and the hope. Strandberg deftly juggles a good number of character POVs, showing one night's events unfurling through the eyes of disappointed lovers, those looking for a good time, those fighting their own demons, and those looking to create havoc, starting with the ship and moving outward. Disaster on a vessel sets its own tone; Strandberg's character work gives readers a reason to hook in and ride out the night. This is a gory and chilling and a wild ride on the bloody high seas.

The name of the book says it all...Blood Cruise. I thought this book would be better. I enjoyed the beginning of the book and getting to know the characters. Because there were so many characters I had a really hard time caring for any of them.

1200 guests have boarded the Baltic Charisma, a run-down, aging cruise ship which runs from Sweden to Finland nightly. Many view it as a booze cruise and are planning on a night of partying. The fun turns to horror when a vampire virus starts spreading like wildfire on board. Who can be trusted? Can anyone help? On the Baltic Sea, there's no one to hear you scream.

I don't think I'll be going on a cruise ship any time soon. This book was pretty scary! There was good, high-level suspense and tension, and quite a bit of gore. I found this book to be very read-able. The chapters were short and the POV rotated amongst about a dozen characters. That may seem like a lot of people to keep track of, but the characters were very distinct and well differentiated. The rotating POV really kept the plot moving forward and the stories intertwined cleverly as the story progressed. There were some heart warming moments and great relationships amongst the blood and carnage. On the negative side, it was a little predictable and I thought it ran a bit too long. Overall, pretty fun vampires on a cruise ship romp. I enjoyed it, with some reservations. Thank you to Netgalley and Jo Fletcher Books for the opportunity to read this book.

This book was so long, drawn out and extremely predictable. I honestly do not understand what the point of writing this book was, simply because there are way too many like it already. Descriptive writing was good, but I feel like I have read/seen this exact story far too many times.

This was a great horror novel, I could see the comparison of Stephen King and I could see the differences. I enjoyed how the atmosphere was and the characters felt like real people and I enjoyed getting to know them. I hope the author does more in this genre.

3 for neutral. Unfortunately, this was nit at all for me. I am a very moody reader though and if I’m able to finish at a later date, I’ll update my review!

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2021 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2021/02/2021-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Let me start off by saying that I don't like vanpires in horror. At all. To the point where when I realized that was what this book was about, I legitimately considered giving up on the book right then and there.

Well, I'm so glad I didn't. I absolutely loved this, and don't understand why it doesn't have a higher rating. It looks like a lot of people disliked the rather hefty set-up and establishing of characters- that's actually a big part of why I enjoyed this book so much. I like getting to know the characters before horrible things happen to them!

Touching back on the vampire aspect, these vampires were actually legitimately scary. The language used to describe them is both vicious and beautiful, easily leading the reader to perfectly envision what is happening. Despite the novel's length, I found it flowed easily and was difficult to put down.

Scandinavian horror continues to be one of my absolute favorite kinds of horror, and this book was no exception. I actually enjoyed it so much that I ordered one of his other horror novels and am eagerly waiting for it to show up! I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more from this author in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Zombies on a boat sounds like a fun premise. That is what I was expecting when I picked up “Blood Cruise" by Mats Strandberg. I was just hoping that this writer, who I was completely unfamiliar with, would be able to entertain with this premise.



It was a short cruise on the Baltic Sea from Sweden to Finland. Many of those on board were there to party. It truly was meant to be a booze cruise. Nothing too serious. Just a good time for all on the high seas. The Baltic Charisma was an old boat and had seen many of these parties but it had never seen anything like what was going to happen on this cruise. It had seen accidents and probably a few deaths but never before had a cruise ship been the potential lauching pad for the apocalypse.



An ancient evil is a passenger on this cruise and nothing will ever be the same again. In its new move to take over the world, the old monster plans to infect the 1200 or so people on the cruise ship and run it into port so that his newly-minted minions can attack before anyone knows what is happening. The only problem, though, is that people do not surrender without a fight. And it is going to be one hell of a fight. The cruise may have been planned as a night of debauchery but it quickly turns into a war for the human race and only a couple people stand in the way of total domination by humanity's oldest foe.



Mats Strandberg was billed on this book as the “Swedish Stephen King” and maybe that can happen one day but he has a long way to go. There is some good in this book. There is a lot of action and fans of slasher films and books are sure to enjoy this one. There is a lot of blood and guts splattered across the pages of the novel. The action takes a little bit of time to get to but Strandberg does not hold back once it starts. With a title like “Blood Cruise,” the reader is sure to expect violence and gore and Strandberg supplies those by the bucketful. Where Strandberg falls short of the comparison is outside of the action portion of the novel.



The setup of the novel does have a bit of a Stephen King feel to it. Strandberg spends a fair amount of time on the many characters that are set to wander through the pages of the book much like Stephen King often does. There are a lot of actors on this stage and it takes time to get them all set. My biggest problem with the book, though, is that it remains relatively shallow and a bit confusing. After all, this is a zombie novel. There is really no other way to describe the book. Yet the reader is supposed to believe that it is not but rather a different horror monster. And “Blood Cruise” starts out with the feel of that monster, but then changes into zombies pure and simple. There is no other way to describe it. It is a zombie novel even if it is not meant to be one but it feels as if the reader is not supposed to notice this. In the end, Blood Cruise did offer some good action sequences but very little else to elevate the book past a curiosity with some entertainment value. Others my enjoy the book more than I did, and I did still find some positives in the story, but it was not the story I was expecting when I started the book.



I would like to thank Jo Fletcher Books and NetGalley for this review copy. Blood Cruise is available now.

The horror novel Blood Cruise by Mats Strandberg is set aboard the Baltic Charisma, a ferry ship between Sweden and Finland that also doubles as an overnight "booze cruise."

On this particular night, over 1200 people, including children, are on board. But on this particular cruise, there are two passengers unlike any the crew of the Baltic Charisma has ever seen.

One of those passengers is a little boy who is sooooo hungry. When his mother leaves to find food, the boy takes it upon himself to find his own, not just to slake his hunger, but to create an army of those like him. Creatures who borrow from the mythology of both vampires and zombies.

Blood Cruise is actually the English version of the hit Swedish novel Färjan, and I'll admit in reading the book, it felt like some things were lost in translation, especially with the POVs in the book switching from character to character with each chapter.

The author also incorporates a lot of sexual horror, in addition to the body horror and outright killing. I'm not a fan of sexual horror, so I tended to gloss over those scenes.

But once the slow burn intro kicked into complete mayhem, I really enjoyed the story and how it weaved the individual POVs into a cohesive night of terror.

I'm giving Blood Cruise by Mats Strandberg a 3.5 out of 5.

I went into this expecting more of a supernatural presence so that’s on me. This book went along okay but was nothing great and in my opinion too detailed on certain gory scenes.

I think the Swedes must really love vampires

I enjoyed this creature feature cruise tale. It takes place on a booze cruise ship sailing on the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland.

Not too far into the story, a strange young boy and his mother start creating havoc among the passengers and soon chaos reigns.

The writing style (and subject matter, too, in fact) reminded me of another story by another Swedish author LET ME IN. Both stories are creepy and gory but I sure enjoyed them. LET ME IN was made into a couple of great movies too.

I've never been on any kind of cruise and I was leery enough during this COVID-19 pandemic but after reading this book I think I'll just stay on dry land or maybe an air flight.

I recommend this book if you enjoy horror and/or vampire tales.

I received this book from Quercus Books through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

There were a lot of people to keep track of!

I had a hard time keeping everyone straight as it jumped around every few pages. While the storyline was decent enough, the author's writing style was more tell than show which did start to grate on me after a while but Im not sure if that is just the translation.

All in all a decent horror story,

Book Review for Blood Cruise by Mats Strandberg
Full review for this title can be found at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

I really, really enjoyed the writing style on this one.... but it was struggling to hold my attention and it’s just so long I never felt like I was making any progress. I was enjoying it, and would try an audio version if available.

Blood Cruise follows several characters as they board an overnight booze cruise that will take them across the Baltic Sea from Sweden to Finland. However, some nefarious characters are also boarding the Baltic Charisma, and they have other plans for the passengers. The book follows a pretty typical horror format. We spend some time getting to know the major players and their personal struggles. We see the first few attacks by the villain. The situation escalates into total chaos.

That first section can be a slog in some books, but the characters in Blood Cruise are so compelling, I came away from the book actually enjoying the beginning more so than the actual horror part. This book has a lot of POVs, so do your best to keep track from the beginning. I was impressed with how well the many POVs were utilized.

Once we get into the meat of the story, be prepared for some gruesome descriptions. Being so invested in the characters, I was hooked for the journey, but the story has a bit too much gore for me. I also felt like certain moments closer to the end were unnecessary to the story but included for the author's enjoyment in inventing stomach-churning scenarios for the characters. It was maybe 5 (short) chapters too long.

Some major pluses were the queer rep, disabled rep, mental health rep, and the social critique that touched on issues like class and climate change. If you're into horror and don't mind a heavy dose of gore, Blood Cruise gets my strong recommendation!

Content warnings (may contain mild spoilers):
blood (lots), vivid body trauma descriptions, violence against children, rape-like situation, suicidal ideation