Handling The Undead

Posted In: Let Me In

Julian Osterholt says...

The author of the wonderfully bleak vampiric LET THE RIGHT ONE IN explores zombies in HANDLING THE UNDEAD.



In the Swedish summer, it's not just coincidence that citizens' heads are aching. The power surges...and then nothing. But life has changed for some of the dead: they have risen.



The sudden death of author/illustrator Eva is a shock, but even more startling is her reliving - she can even speak. But as her case is so different, Eva is being kept away from her comedian husband David and their son. It's a bad time to have a birthday, but rabbit Balthazar makes things better for Magnus - and us readers.



Grandmother Elvy and granddaughter Flora both have the Sense, but only Elvy receives a vision of the Holy Mother telling her to spread word that the End of Days is near.



When journalist Mahler hears of the reliving, he unearths grandson Elias from his grave. Mahler tries to train him to become more human, but Elias's mother Anna is at her wits' end.



The novel is character-driven, rather than plot-driven, and it results in a somewhat incoherent read. The characters's reactions and emotions are believable, the Heath is delightfully creepy, and I certainly wanted my own Balthazar. But I don't quite understand how the reliving happened, what set off the power surge, why it affected everyone, and why telepathic abilities suddenly abounded.



It's confusing, but also a brilliant study of how humans cope in extraordinary circumstances.

Posted on September 23, 2010

Ruthie Wylam says...

Handling the Undead is not your typical zombie book. When I first picked it up, however, I thought it would be -you know, something possibly serious (due to the cover art) like 28 Days later or possibly something humorous like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland or World War Z. What I got however, was completely different and unexpected. Instead of some kind of humorous zombie-fighting or horrifying zombie apocalypse story where characters are running for their lives, Handling the Undead focuses on a more realistic and somewhat more human approach to zombies. Rather than battling the undead, author John Ajvide Lindqvist studies a range of possible, realistic human reactions to reanimated dead, or "reliving" as they are called in the novel, ranging from horror to religious fanaticism, panic and even acceptance.



In Handling the Undead, several individuals around Stockholm who have been dead for two months or less suddenly start coming back to life -scratching their way out of coffins, walking out of hospitals and mortuaries...some falling apart from previously fatal wounds, others with remnants of speech or even memories of their past life. Though their appearance causes panic throughout the city and eventually the world, several people, including the characters Lindqvist explores, have their own, more human experiences with the reliving -mostly in an attempt to continue lives with their previously dead families and friends.



An interesting take on the zombie genre, Handling the Undead reads more like a literary, emotional novel than a horror story. While I have to admit it's different and interesting, it did disappoint the little zombie horror fan in me, especially since the book probably should have just been a short story. The middle especially feels like there just isn't much going on -there are news clippings and timeline reports about the strange zombie events, which offer quick, interesting snapshots of the world, but seemed to be fluff more than anything. The story also seems like it's staying in the same place for much of the time and not really adding anything new plot-wise -it's so bad that probably around 100 pages of this book could be removed from the middle and it would still have the same impact (possibly even more).



Not a great book, but certainly unique and different -but, sadly, not truly for zombie-horror fans, but more for fans of emotional literary tales of family and human connections.

Posted on September 24, 2010

Charla Pickersgill says...

I spent the pre-dawn hours this morning trying to digest Handling the Undead. Most zombie lit and movies are really more about fighting death, what it means to be alive, and our base terror of dying. Handling the Dead comes at zombies from a completely different angle. The "reliving" as they are called are limited to a small population in Sweden of people who died in the previous two months. The story is much more about how we as humans are instinctively at conflict between grieving for lost love ones and our innate revulsion of corpses and death. It is also a metaphysical discussion about the nature of souls, Death, and belief systems. Ultimately there are no easy answers and the concepts and characters continued to tumble around in my mind this morning.



Handling the Undead opens with an unexplained atmospheric and electrical disturbances. Soon the recently dead "awaken". Instead of the dead appearing threatening, they are more like empty shells that are following an instinctive desire to return to their former lives.This of course is met with fear and chaos.



David's wife Eva has just been in a car accident and despite massive trauma, and unlike the rest if the dead, retains the power of speech when she returns. He has to deal with his extremely confused grief and also try and explain what has happened to his 9 year old son, Magnus. Mahler was a newspaper reporter before the death of his grandson, Elias. He breaks into the cemetery where the boy was buried two-months previously and steals his desiccated, but reliving, body before the military arrives to collect him. Flora and Elvy, a granddaughter and grandmother,are surprised when Elva's recently departed husband returns home in the middle of the night. For Elvy, this is proof of her Christian beliefs and she is sure the Rapture is near. Flora is more a believer in Marilyn Manson and the Resident Evil films and is not so convinced.



The book is really about these characters and how the impact of the reliving hits them emotionally and spiritually.How Sweden and the world react to these events is smartly limited to short exposition between chapters. How loved ones react to the reliving returning is conflicted. They want to love the person, but the corpse is another matter. Love and revulsion. Also groups of the reliving, and whatever broke in the atmosphere that night, have unexpected side-effects on the living.



Author John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In) does an excellent job creating small moments of real horror that get under your skin. There is minimal gore and the atmosphere of grief is very affecting. He does an excellent jobshowing what events such as this would mean to a grieving parent, child, and spouse. This passage in particular got to me:



But zoom in on one single child and there you hand and upholder of the world. A child with a mother and father, grandparents, relatives and friends. A child whose existence is necessary for the proper functioning of many lives. Children are fragile, and carry so many lives on their frail shoulders. Fragile is their world, controlled by adults. Everything is fragile.



Overall, this is an excellent addition to the genre and I loved the original take on the concept of zombies. My only criticism would be the ending. It felt like it needed something more. Even a simple epilogue acknowledging some of the loose ends. There were too many unanswered questions. Some characters got closure and some didn't. Normally I would have no problem with that, but in this case it felt like they should have at least been acknowledged. The final scene with Elias and his mother is haunting.



Rigor Mortis

[...]

Posted on September 25, 2010

John Dols says...

As a fan of the zombie genre, I immediately snapped this book up the moment it showed up on my vine listing. Then I worried- would it be as interesting as my anticipation was telling me it would be? Well, the answer is yes & no. Yes because it brings a very interesting spin to the zombie genre & no because it was slower than I'd anticipated & as such, it took me a little longer to finish it.



Handling the Dead focuses around the idea of how people would react to their loved ones coming back from the grave. Some are overjoyed at the idea of being reunited with their loved one. Others are horrified when they see what the "reliving" have become. Some people view their reanimated family member with a sense of detachment or ambivalence. The different reactions by these people as well as the reactions from the staff forced to care for these beings make up a good portion of this book.



Overall this was a satisfying enough read & many will love seeing the different reactions by the many characters in this book. One such character is Elvy, an elderly woman whose husband returns from the grave. He'd been suffering from Alzheimer's, so for her his new reanimation isn't that overly different from before. (Although she is still freaked out by everything.) Another element many readers will enjoy is that Lindqvist has his zombies (or reliving, as the book calls them) initially very calm & not attacking anyone. In a genre where the norm is for the zombies to immediately start nomming on human flesh, this was a refreshing twist.



Howerver, one of the drawbacks that many readers will face is that this is a very slow moving book. It takes at least 1/4th of the book for things to get started, so people looking for a faster read will probably want to look elsewhere. Others might get a little irritated that the book focuses around so many different viewpoints that at times the story thread just seems to unravel a bit rather than being a tight read.



Mostly though, the audience should be pleased with this book as a whole. It isn't the best zombie book out there, but it does bring a nice fresh perspective to the zombie genre & is sure to be an entertaining read for people longing to get in touch with their spooky sides.

Posted on September 25, 2010

Esther Rimmer says...

no need to go into detail what the book is about, as other reviews already have.if you have read let the right one in and loved it, you might be a little disappointed with undead.do not let that steer you away, read this book.you are not getting the strange sex and twisted minds that were in let the right one in, what you do get is a detailed relationship that a person who has lost a loved one has with the memory of before and the excitement of what could be if a person were to come back.no real zombie action until the last 50 pages or so.lindqvist gives you just enough in this one to keep you reading.i read it slow and took in every word as it will be awhile for another translation from lindqvist comes out.i couldnt wait to read it and wish i had a stack of his stuff waiting.

Posted on September 27, 2010

Quinn Harlee says...

In the summer, there are strange happenings in Sweden that are hard to ignore. First, people have headaches and electrical items refuse to turn off. They can't even be unplugged and if this is attempted, the person gets an electric shock. When things suddenly return to normal, the unthinkable happens: the dead rise. These zombies seem to just walk around with no capacity to understand or speak or even harm the living. This is only happening in Stockholm which leads the world to ask: what caused this? Why such a small area? While the rest of the world is trying to make sense of the event, the inhabitants of Stockholm are dealing with their dead loved ones with interesting results. David's wife had died minutes before the uprising, making his wife the only zombie that can speak. Elvy and her granddaughter Flora are both psychic and don't know what to make of Elvy's dead husband showing up at their door. Journalist Gustav Mahler and his daughter have been in a stasis since his grandson died and now see new hope in the dead rising. They just have to dig him out of his grave.



This is an entirely unexpected zombie novel. John Ajvide Lindqvist has done for zombies what he did for vampires in his previous novel Let the Right One In; he practically reinvented the genre. The novel is like a slow burn. It moves slowly, but succeeds in being extremely suspenseful and an altogether different kind of horror than is common in the genre. The focus of the novel isn't the gore or the zombies or the reasons for these strange happenings, but the living people that have close family members returning as zombies. The people focused on are about as different as can be, but they all share in this bizarre experience. Each character is described eloquently, complete with histories that directly influence how they deal with the zombies. Their reactions are realistic and believable, ranging from religious fanaticism to hysteria to anger to disgust to delusions of normalcy. Each chapter focuses on a different group of characters. Lindqvist is skilled at capturing different individuals' voices, getting into the hearts and minds of each character, and making it all ring true. The most chilling situation is with Gustav Mahler, his daughter, and her young, undead son.



One thing that I really enjoyed is the presence of the rest of the world in the novel. Many other zombie books and movies are just focused on one country with no reactions or events from other countries. Newspaper articles, television interviews, and radio broadcasts from all over the world are placed in between chapters through most of the book. It lets the reader know that this is an isolated incident and what other countries think about it, as well as giving the story a sense of realism.



There are only a few things in the novel that are flawed. The cause of the uprising is never revealed. I don't find this a flaw, but I think other fans of the genre would. This isn't the focus of the story, so it essentially doesn't really matter what caused it. The ending of the novel is pretty much unresolved. I feel like it could have been tied together a little better. I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote a follow up novel to continue the story.



Although it has a few flaws, Handling the Undead really blew me away with its originality and eloquence. I can't wait to see what John Ajvide Lindqvist will do next.

Posted on September 27, 2010

Kathline Fridell says...

"Handling the Undead" is a zombie book. But not the typical gory, horrendous BRAAAAAAINSSSS-craving type. Instead John Ajvinde Lindquist slowly weaves together an intelligent, philosophical look at what would happen if the dead were to unnaturally rise from their graves... and the only flaw is that the middle section of the book is so SLOW.



Something strange is happening in Stockholm -- the weather is oppressive, electrical glitches are everywhere, and everybody has a headache.



But when the strange conditions vanish, everybody who has died within the last two months rises from the morgue, funeral homes, and even their coffins. The "reliving" wander back to their old homes, mute and seemingly unaware, shocking their loved ones. And of course, the government quickly rounds them up and confines them, until they can be sure what dangers the "reliving" might pose.



In the days that follow, Lindqvist follows five people whose loved ones have come back -- a comedian sunk deep in denial about his wife being gone, a wannabe-rebel teen, a grandfather and a young mother trying to help her undead son "recover," and a widow who believes that she has a mission from the Virgin Mary. But something else is approaching Stockholm, bringing unexpected effects in its wake.



"Handling the Undead" doesn't really focus on the zombies themselves. Instead, Lindqvist conjures up a simple scenario, and examines how people would react to it -- we see hysteria, suicide, denial, dismissal, religious fervor, and a delusional belief that the zombies can simply go back to their old lives. And he brings up a number of philosophical questions with no easy answers.



The biggest problem with this book is that it should have been much smaller. Lindqvist spends most of the book's middle section spinning his wheels, with nothing really happening. And we never really find out WHY the dead rose, just that it is somehow an error.



Fortunately the beginning and ending are filled with subtle, creeping psychological horror (the whole scene with the grotesque drowned zombie is nauseating), as well as the painful scene where David and Magnus meet Eva again. And there's an exquisite metaphysical edge, which implies that there's more out there than just zombies -- think an elusive, benevolent figure with fishhook fingertips.



Lindqvist also fleshes out his characters beautifully, giving each one a backstory that shapes their current reactions. And he handles each one with compassion, even if they're delusional or twerpy. Among the best are David (desperately clinging to hope and unable to grieve), Flora (a rather annoying a teen who thinks she's an iconoclast), and Anna (whose son Elias has "come back") -- and even some of the zombies show a glimmer of personality.



"Handling the Undead" is a deeply flawed book -- the entire middle section is bogged down. Yet it's still a beautiful, affecting read.

Posted on September 27, 2010

Joette Snearly says...

Handling the Undead is one of those books.It's one of those books that no matter if you're enjoying a part or not and no matter if what you are reading is exciting or not, you still know you are reading a good book.It's written so well that while maybe not a page turner it is still captivating.



The book concerns a town in Switzerland where one night the population experiences a strange electrical phenomenon and wakes up to the recently departed (or reliving as they come to be called) walking among them.Don't expect a typical zombie thriller though.Part of what makes this so intriguing is that it's more about the living and their emotions about the reliving than it is about the reliving themselves.There are some light horror elements but these come late in the book and are secondary to what the characters are experiencing internally.



There is David, a stand-up comic whose wife returns, Flora and Elvy who's granddad and husband (respectively, same person) return and deal with the reliving completely differently.Mahler who's grandchild met a bad end weeks ago and so on.We follow several different groups of people's lives (some that intersect and some that don't) as they deal with what has happened.Some become depressed to the extreme, one takes it as a religious mission and another quite the opposite and another pair make a fateful decision.No less a character is the city and government itself with several chapters devoted to their efforts to handle the situation.



Also interesting is the living's impact on the reliving.For the most part they are nonviolent and somewhat robotic but become a twisted parody of the living as their actions become affected by the living's emotions.And the living's interactions with each other when they realize that in the presence of the undead they can read each other's minds adds yet another layer.



And in the end the author explains enough about what happed that you don't feel you were left hanging but at the same time the whole event remains mysterious.He does not shy away from the supernatural but the ending is satisfying in its emotional depth as much as it is in anything else.It rarely, if ever, gets hokey.



I would recommend this book and think most will be surprised by what they are reading as opposed to what they expect.

Posted on September 29, 2010

Kami Shibles says...

One night in Stockholm, a bizarre electrical phenomenon has everything from television sets to ovens acting strangely, and also has a nearly incapacitating effect on people.The next thing you know, anyone who died in the last two months has come back to life.Well, sort of.Sound familiar?Oh, but it's not!These undead, termed "reliving", aren't your classic zombies.They don't go around killing people or eating brains.Mostly, they just want to go home.About the only similarity with classic zombie lit is that the reason the dead have come back isn't really explained, which in this case tends to cripple the story.



One thing is for sure, you can't say Lindqvist doesn't flesh out his characters.By the end, you'll know most of them as well as your meddling mother-in-law, and regard them about as fondly.Some characters are sympathetic, but none particularly likeable.That might not seem important, but as you go through the book, you notice that you really don't much care what happens to them.



As things come to a head, we get a partial, confusing explanation for what powers these undead, which is as confusing as it is unsatisfying.ESP and religion mix uncomfortably.We don't really know if the Stockholm experience is a one time strange deal, or the start of a bizarre evolution for humanity.



Overall, the book is interesting, original, and about as far off the beaten path as you're liable to get.If you're a jaded horror fan looking for a true change of pace, this is worth considering.

Posted on September 30, 2010

Argentina Couchman says...

There are two reasons I chose this book 1) its about zombies and 2) it was written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who wrote one of my favorite books/movies L

Posted on October 4, 2010