Monday, November 19, 2018

I am Behind You - Review and Excerpt

Idgie Says:
This novel was advertised to me as a horror novel written by "Sweden's Stephen King".  I'll be honest in that I'm not quite sure how I would describe this book.  It has elements of horror, but it's so fantastical in nature that it tends to leave you scratching your head in mild confusion rather than grimacing over a scene. 

The characters are fleshed out well with interesting backstories for each one.  Some are likable, others dis-likable and a few leave no impression at all.  Two of the characters are a dog and cat, which adds an interesting twist to the story. 

The basic premise of the novel is that 4 sets of families wake up in a campground to find the entire world gone.  They exist on an endless plane of grass with no end in site.  This is NOT a group that decides to work together to solve their dilemma - they start to turn on each other almost immediately. 

The book had a very interesting start to it, and the characters intrigued me, but the story took some very odd twists and turns with no real reasoning behind them and I have to admit that at the end of the book I put it down and simply thought, "Huh...".  I found the final chapters to be a rather confusing hot mess with no real explanation of what actually occurred. 

Again, this is just my opinion and other readers who enjoy the more mystical/fantastical types of stories may enjoy it much - as I said the characters themselves were quite interesting. 
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Print Length: 416 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (October 16, 2018)
Click HERE for Excerpt

Four families wake up one morning in their trailer on an ordinary campsite. However, during the night something strange has happened. Everything outside the camping grounds has disappeared, and the world has been transformed into an endless expanse of grass. The sky is blue, but there is no sign of the sun; there are no trees, no flowers, no birds. And every radio plays nothing but the songs of sixties pop icon Peter Himmelstrand.

As the holiday-makers try to come to terms with what has happened, they are forced to confront their deepest fears and secret desires. Past events that each of them has tried to bury rise to the surface and take on terrifying physical forms. Can any of them find a way back to reality?