I = I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist

"I have a life and you have a life, however different they may be. The question is: Who has the power?"

Let me start by talking about the very frustrating wait I had for this book. That its original language is Swedish, and I don't know a word of it. And if Swedish publishing was anything like the US: first run hardback, 2nd run paperback, I'd only have 2 years to wait. And then I found out the English edition was only released in Australia! Then I was irritated. No one seemed to know if the book was coming to the US. It was an additional 2 years for that decision to be made. I'm not the kind who likes to wait so I went out of my mind.

And now that I've finally read the book... I love this guy!

This is the camping trip from hell. Four families wake up to find that the world as they know it, disappeared over night. Nothing connects the unlucky campers, except the endless expanse of grass and the too perfect sky that they find themselves staring at with horror. And as they try to figure out where they are and how to go home, they start to realize they are not alone. Something dangerous lives on the prairie... and it knows what they fear most. Fear breeds hate, and suddenly its human nature at its worst.

I couldn't put it down seems a bit cliche but it's true. I was drawn into the characters; true to form JAL kept his protagonists just a bit antagonistic. They were too bad to be good and too sad to be bad. They broke my heart. The monsters and the memories that inspired them were freaky, creepy, and gross, and if horror is your thing I strongly recommend this story.

It is part one of a three-part series but was written to stand on its own...which is good, because it seems I'm the only one who enjoyed it and consequently the other two were not published in the US.

I wish I could read Swedish.