I have a yen for Icelandic thrillers, and haven't read one from Yrsa Sigurdardottir for a long time. Stumbling upon this thriller I Remember You, I thought I was in for a treat.
"A don't-read-it-in-the-dark ghost story","Things get seriously scary","Genuinely bone chilling","A thriller chiller of immense scariness, not to be read alone after dark","A true roller coaster of a chiller","A chilling read for a dark night","A stomach churning ghost story that will rattle your cage".
Ok, I'm ready for serious terror now.
In the far north of Iceland, accessible only by a two hour boat ride from Isafjordir, lies the town of Hesteyri long since abandoned after the coal mine shut down. Gardar and his wife Katrin, along with their recently widowed friend Lif are dropped off in the dark night by a jitney, he'll be back in a few days to collect them. The couple had planned on renovating an old house into a guest cottage and without electricity or running water, begin to see why it was abandoned by the last tenant. It will take a lot of work they are not up to.
Back in Isafjordor, Police Psychologist Freyr works with a detective to discover who vandalized a school, and why. His marriage broke up several years ago when his son mysteriously disappeared without a trace. His wife is still distraught and believes she communicates with his ghost. Indeed, Freyr has seen apparitions that might be his son's spirit.
As the trio in Hesteyri struggle with repairs, wet footprints keep appearing on the floorboards, snarled hands creep around corners, and several attempts are made to kill off the inhabitants. Is it the ghost of a child? The two stories begin to merge as the police realize they must get to Hesteryi before it's too late.
There seems to be a ghostly presence, but not enough to keep me up at night. Frustratingly, the chapters begin to end with the build up to something scary, only to be forgotten in the next chapter as we move on to something else. A promising beginning on a stormy and tempestuous night devolves into several explainable events, a grounded conclusion, and an ending we have seen too many times to elicit anything but a groan from the reader of "Oh, Brother".
I did read it at night after dark and nothing happened.
2012 / Tradeback / 391 pages
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