HANDLING THE UNDEAD by John Ajvide Lindqvist

This book is the 2nd one by this Swedish author.  It was actually published a few years ago in Sweden, but is just now (a few months ago) released in the US--translated into English, of course.  This same author is the guy who wrote Let the Right One In--the US movie version which came out at the end of the last year is called Let Me In.  This first book is a story about a vampire in a child's body.  It's pretty creepy and weird.  If you're into vampire stories, it's worth the read.  I wouldn't say that I loved it, but I did find it worth reading.  I've passed it on to my parents to read, but neither of them can get beyond the first part of the book.  It is definitely NOT an easy book to read.  I haven't seen the US movie yet (I did see the Swedish version, though).  The image that I'm sure I'll remember forever and a day from this first book is the scene where the guy who had been helping the vampire get blood and living with the vampire, with his face burned off--he had tried to kill himself by spilling acid on himself; obviously it doesn't work--but he jumps out of a 10-story hospital window and runs off!!!  Then, the other scene that's pretty horrifying is the scene where a woman who has been bitten by the vampire and "infected"--she's becoming a vampire herself, allows the nurse in the hospital to open the blinds so she can burn in the sun.  Yes, her body bursts into flames.....Cool, huh?

I know I'm sick.  So what else is new?

Anyway, in this new book, Handling the Undead, it's exactly what you think it's about:  the undead--Zombies.  I didn't find this book a very interesting read, though.  (Sorry Mr. Lindquist.)  It drags.  Nothing really happens until the very end of the book.  I mean, of course things happen, but nothing exciting.  The characters in the story just move from one motion to the next without much emotion or anything exciting taking place.  Even when one of the major characters in the story is being eaten by an undead body that had been drowned, it's written without emotion.  I'm pretty sure it's the tone and feel that Lindquist wanted, but I don't like it. 

I expected to be REALLY scared out of my skin.  Rather than scared, I was simply only mildly curious about what would happen next.  It took me right a month to finish the whole book.  Normally, I can zip through a book in a week or less, but I just couldn't bring myself to WANT to keep reading this one.  Each time I would pick it up, I would stare at the cover, read the background information, look for something new in the eye on the cover, or just simply hold the book in my hands rather than actually read it.  I had to force myself to open the book to where I was and read. 

Does that mean that the book is awful?  The worst book I've ever read?  No.  Not really.  I really feel that part of my "problem" with the book is that something of the real excitement--fear is what I really mean--of the story is lost in having to translate the story from Swedish to English.  It makes me wish I could read Swedish so I could read the story in its original language.  I think so often that the subtle, great nuances of stories and other writings are lost in translation. 

For example, there's no real way to translate much of the Redneck slang that is common for many of us.  We can try to make sense of it, but if you don't speak Redneck, you don't really "get" it.  In many ways, I think that's why so often readers find books where the writer attempts to write in the slang or dialect of the region difficult, tedious, or just not worthy of reading.  Truly, as wonderful as it is for authors to write in the true dialect of the characters in a story, if we're not familiar with that dialect, so much is truly lost in the translation.

As a result, I wish I could read this story in its original translation.  Since I can't, I gave it a chance.  In English, I just don't feel it's a book I want to pass on and share with my friends and family.  If you choose to read it because you "like" zombie stories, I don't think you'll be too disappointed in the story as a whole.  I just think that if undead zombies are going to kill the true living, it should happen throughout the story rather than JUST at the end of the story....