In January of last year, I set myself a goal of reading six translated SFF works. This was my second book. (I know, it’s 2019!)
[Editor’s note: to be fair, Ronya read and reviewed this in December, and it just so happened that we had space to fill in January.]
I Remember You
Written by: Yrsa Sigurdardottir (tr. Philip Roughton)
Genre: Horror
Pages: 384 (paperback)
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Why I Chose It: I wanted to read something set in Iceland that wasn’t crime fiction. Iceland, parts further north, and the U.S. produce a staggering amount of crime fiction and television, but I have sworn off anything that popularizes police work (other than Brooklyn 99, like so many other nerds I know, and Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache books). This book, though, sways into the supernatural – so I couldn’t resist. The author has written several crime fiction novels in her Thora Godmundsdottir series, but I Remember You is a standalone.
The premise:
Sigurdardottir weaves together dual narratives to tell a chilling, effective ghost story. Gardar and Katrin have lost everything. They join their friend Lif and pool their remaining funds into a house rehab project. When it’s done, it will be a B&B during the summer on a tourist island off the Icelandic coast. But right now, during winter, that island is abandoned. All Gardar, Karin and Lif have are their supplies, their work ethic, and their friendships, which deteriorate when the resident ghost haunts them. At the same time, on the mainland, a young psychiatrist named Freyr reluctantly, then obsessively, investigates the years-old disappearance of his own son, Benni, whose loss caused Freyr and his wife to break up. When he probes an incident of school vandalism, he discovers an old woman, Halla, a former student of the school, who is obsessed with Benni’s disappearance. When Halla commits suicide, Freyr finds out that none of her old classmates died of natural causes, either.
I’m going to try very hard not to spoil the end.
Discussion: I was impressed with Sigurdardottir’s plot twists. I won’t share them; that’s giving too much away. I liked the straightforwardness of what unfolded on the island with Gardar, Katrin, and Lif, who all understand they are being haunted; they’re just in various stages of denial, unease, and deceit. There is not a lot of importance placed on the requisite “do you think it’s really a ghost?” waffling that can bog down a good horror story or movie. At no point did I want to yell “Yes, it’s a ghost!” at the characters. It’s clear the ghost’s existence drives a wedge between the three friends, in ways I did not expect; Sigurdardottir handles cognitive dissonance well. At the same time, as Freyr looks into Halla’s past, I desperately needed that thread to have a mundane cause – although conversely I hoped it wouldn’t. (People are made up of contradictions, amiright?) As Sigurdardottir dovetails the two stories – Freyr ultimately goes to the island in search of his missing son – the story builds from a slow burn to full-speed conclusion.
Conclusion: Sigurdardottir gives equal weight to both the supernatural thriller and the procedural mystery, and the result is pretty damn enjoyable. Okay, I kind of saw the very end coming. But I didn’t care. This is a really effective, very disturbing story, and I would read it again in a heartbeat. It makes me want to try out her crime novels, too. If you’re looking for a good ghost story, especially one with a few curveballs, this is the book for you. It’s a fast read and probably especially effective in winter (did I mention Iceland?) I love horror stories, and I am scared or unnerved by very little (except heights; heights suck), but right now, I’m questioning the wisdom of writing this review after midnight. Was that the murmur of a old pipe I heard or a human(ish) voice?
But I’m the only one here. If I’m not back in ten minutes, tell my loved ones I–
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