Thursday, September 15, 2011

A year ago, Lincoln Cho liked John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Handling the Undead (Thomas Dunne Books) well enough to comment on it:

In a publishing era when anything that even whiffs of Stieg Larssen seems to draw attention, it’s not surprising that John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2005 novel has been polished up, dusted off and has found its way back to the top of the pile.

The new paperback edition has a less compelling cover than did the American hardcover edition, but in paperback it’s an easier package to huddle with under the covers. And Cho figures huddling is just what you’ll be doing:

Handling the Undead is a frightening, thoughtful book. The two things should not go together and most of the time they do not. Lindqvist pulls it off, though. These are not the garish, neon zombies you’ve encountered in English language fiction. These are proper Swedish zombies, starkly nuanced, fully realized, frighteningly rendered. You might not ever sleep again.