Let the Old Dreams Die

August 12, 2013
In Lindqvist’s commendable first short-fiction collection, people often are not what they seem, usually to a horrifying degree. “The Border” tells of a customs agent whose relationship with a suspected smuggler uncovers extraordinary truths about the agent’s heritage. The celebrities whom a paparazzo photographer thinks he is snapping in “Itsy Bitsy” reveal pedigrees that are as eerie as they are inexplicable. A drowning victim who dies but is resuscitated in “Eternal/Love” comes back to his lover as “something else, although still in human form.” In addition to these tales of deceptive identities and their unsettling natures, the book features “Final Processing,” a sequel to Handling the Undead, and the title tale, a sequel to Let the Right One In that riffs poignantly on that novel’s romantic relationship between a young boy and a vampire girl. Segerberg’s translation is murky in places, but the originality of Lindqvist’s ideas shines through.

August 15, 2013
The Swedish author offers sequel stories to Handling the Undead (2010) and Let the Right One In (aka Let Me In, 2007; adapted for film in Sweden and in the U.S.). "Final Processing" adds an intense, moving coda to Handling the Undead; the psychically gifted Flora, aided by musician/hauler Kalle, seeks final peace for the zombies imprisoned in a government facility. The title story is a quiet little tale that may confuse people who haven't read Let the Right One In and may not entirely satisfy readers hoping to learn more about Oskar and his vampire friend Eli. But the collection provides other treasures, particularly the perversely sweet "The Border," in which an ugly, lonely customs agent who can literally smell deceit finally discovers where she fits, and "Equinox," concerning a compulsively nosy crossword writer with low self-esteem who makes a gruesomely attractive discovery in a deserted house. The spare, poetic quality of Lindqvist's translated prose and the inexplicable dream logic that drives so many of his stories recall the work of Jonathan Carroll or Ray Bradbury in his less baroque moments. Even at its darkest, the collection affirms the importance of love: Its presence and its lack cause people to do strange things, terrible things, heroic things, with horrible and/or exultantly beautiful consequences. Gripping, cerebral, intriguing, enigmatic--like a puzzle you enjoy working on but may never solve.

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August 1, 2013
Lindqvist's short stories pack the same emotional punch as his novels. This collection includes sequels to two of his best-known works, Let the Right One In and Handling the Undead. Both are pleasing, if frightening, epilogues to their respective stories. Aside from those, there are atmospheric tales of people with strange origins and things to hide in The Border, urban monsters in A Village in the Sky, and the terrible thing a woman finds while house-sitting in Equinox. There's also Eternal/Love, which explores the true horror of immortal love. Suffice it to saythis is only a small sampling of the stories presented herethat Lindqvist's short pieces are terribly effective horror fiction, both in the sense of being deeply unnerving and rarely safe to read any night, and also in the sense of exploring the hidden, shadowy facets of human emotional lives. These are excellent examples of the form, and well worth readingjust not alone in a cold, dark house.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)