I never know what to expect or what is likely to happen with a Lindqvist novel. I think this is what makes his work so exceptional. What you do think is going to happen next, doesn't.

This book made me feel so many emotions that I still cannot place them all.
It begins with a down on his luck, not too likeable character and slowly descends into a situational story of horror.

I loved the writing style, so straight forward and no-nonsense it made the book really easy to read. The time of the 80s was perfect, with added references and mentions of 80s songs and culture.

However, I wasn't entirely prepared for the supernatural element, I would have enjoyed the book more if it was straight-up horror, although that is entirely down to my personal preference.
Overall it was a good read and I will definitely be reading more of his work.

Took me a while to get round to this and now I'm sad I waited so long! Creepy and atmospheric, brilliant translation.

are there any other translated books in English by the same author?? I need them now!! Haha!!

Great horror book!! The fans of this genre will definitely get excited with this book!

Great atmosphere of this book! Very good plot as well!!

Go grab yourself a copy, you will not get disappointed!

Another odd tale told in a 'semi autobiographical' but fictionalilised style, the second in a series. It's not for the feint hearted and won't appeal to everyone. If you liked Lindqvist's last novel you'll probably get on with this one, if you didn't enjoy the experimental style, you may not like this one either.

This is the second novel in a proposed trilogy by the Swedish horror writer (the third and final instalment forthcoming) and is a sequel to I Am Behind You, which I reviewed here: https://bit.ly/2SVDh97

Whereas I Am Behind You was just surreal, I Always find you is really a very odd book. In fact, I would almost go as far as to describe it as experimental. For a start, the protagonist is called John Ajvide Lindqvist, and if that name sounds familiar, it’s because it is, it’s the name of the author. Secondly, the protagonist informs the reader that at the time of the events of this novel, he was an aspiring magician who often performed street magic in Stockholm, but that these events contributed to him becoming a horror writer. And yes, the real John Ajvide Lindqvist, the author of this novel, used to perform street magic in Stockholm and before writing horror was a magician. Is this novel autobiographical in any way? Certainly some reviewers on Amazon have asked this very question, what with the protagonist’s biographical similarities to the author. It’s undoubted the author has based his character on himself, but what of the events in the book? Well, whether the reader believes them to be based on true events will depend how much they give credence to the supernatural.

The story itself is straightforward enough. A young man (John Ajvide Lindqvist), trying to make it as a magician in the big city, moves into a crummy apartment. His neighbours are a diverse lot, albeit not the most charming of people. He’s lonely and struggling financially. There’s something very strange in the shower block, a black substance dripping from the ceiling and into the bathtub. It calls out to them all psychically. They have the urge to cut themselves and plunge their arms into it’s depths. When they do, it transports them to another world, an endless field of grass, where they take on the forms of their inner natures. Soon obsession builds as they each become preoccupied with this other world, to the extent that this world seems dull and lacklustre. What this obsession makes them do becomes more horrific over time.

I won’t say anymore for fear of divulging spoilers, but what I will say is that the plot of this novel could have been told in a more conventional way. Indeed, many of the author’s earlier works, such as his highly regarded vampire novel, Let The Right One In, were more conventional and yet extremely good. This time the author has opted for a much more experimental style and I have to say that for me it does not work. Quite apart from the protagonist’s similarities to the author, the writing itself is experimental. The narrator regularly talks to the reader. While this is normal to a certain extent in first person narratives, the author takes this further in I Always Find You, to the extent that I would categorise the writing as at times breaking the fourth wall. The fourth wall is a performance convention in television and theatre whereby actors don’t address the audience and thus break the illusion that they are unaware of being watched. One of the best examples from recent years of this rule being successfully broken is when Frank Underwood speaks to the viewer in Netflix’s House of Cards.

The fourth rules applies to novels as well and while all first person narratives break it to a certain degree, the John Ajvide Lindqvist of this novel (the character not the novelist) breaks it enough to be noteworthy. Whether in theatre, television, or the written page, when the fourth wall is broken well, such as in House of Cards, it is a very effective and compelling technique. Unfortunately, I felt it did not work in I Always Find You. Perhaps it was because the novel is just so weird generally, or perhaps it’s just the writing didn’t translate well from Swedish into English, but I found myself really noticing this as an issue. Personally, I think that when a reader finds themselves noticing how a novel is written, rather than what is written, there’s a problem. I found myself noticing, really noticing, how this novel was written, to the extent that it distracted me from the narrative.

I’m not sure I would have enjoyed this novel much anyway, it really didn’t do it for me as a story, but I have to say I nearly gave up at points with this book. It’s only because I quite enjoyed the first book in the series that I persevered. Some people laud experimental novels and criticise convention. But there’s a reason most novels are more conventional and it’s because, with a few honourable exceptions, more experimental writing just doesn’t work very well. And conventional doesn’t have to mean unoriginal or boring, John Ajvide Lindqvist’s own work proves that. Few horror readers would accuse Let The Right One In of being unoriginal or boring. It was a brilliant novel which met with well-deserved success, both with the critics and the reading public, and leading to not one, but two movie adaptations.

Personally, I hope the author writes a more traditional horror narrative for the third title of this trilogy.

I Will Always Find You has a deep sense of unease and foreboding throughout which doesn't quite go the way one would expect. There's some memorable imagery and the characters have dreamlike and, occasionally sinister aspect.

It's definitely an interesting novel, although I wasn't quite sure about why Lindqvist made it a fictional biography of himself, admittedly, every time I saw his name in the pages it did take me out of the story a little.

Solid read, overall, and would pick up another of his books on the back of this.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Some years back I had enjoyed - with some reservations - Lindqvist's first and best novel "Let the Right One In". It was that which led me to try his latest book to be published in English (in a translation by Marlaine Delargy) - I Always Find You - the second instalment in the "Places" trilogy. Unfortunately, it left me with a sour taste, a reminder that in-your-face horror is, alas, not for me... Which, of course, does not mean that there's not much for others to enjoy in this book.

Lindqvist has often been compared to Stephen King and one can see certain parallels with the American master of horror. Lindqvist is as much concerned with the realist/social aspects of his story as with the supernatural ones. In this case, the protagonist-narrator is a fictionalised version of the author himself, who is recalling events which occurred in 1985, as well as a disturbing incident from some years before that. In the mid-80s, the narrator/author was just 19 years old and starting out as a young showman/magician. He moves into a small and decrepit flat in a run-down apartment complex in Stockholm and the 'horrors' he has to face are the very real daily challenges faced as a teenager coming to terms with adult life. A novel does not need to go far back to count as convincing historical fiction and, in this case, judiciously-placed cultural and historical references (Depeche Mode, skinheads, the assassination of Olof Palme) take us, very effectively, back to 80s Stockholm. One also gets the impression that mixed with the distaste for the sordidness which city life could bring, there's also a vague sense of nostalgia.

The supernatural elements start, literally, with drainage problems. The apartment condomini share a communal laundry and bathroom and, out of the blue, an out-of-order sign appears on the bathroom door. Soon after, cataclysmic and ominous signs manifest themselves - birds fall out of the sky, John suffers from a constant claustrophobic feeling and the neighbours start behaving strangely. And the bathroom seems to beckon.

What follows is hard to describe without giving away much of the plot. And so I will leave any intrigued readers to discover for themselves the strangeness which lurks in the cover's bathtub. Suffice it to say that it is both splendid and bizarre, and evidence of the author's wild flights of the imagination. However, it also leads to some bloody and, at least to me, repulsive scenes and it is here that the book started to lose me.

Lindqvist manages to give even the more outlandish aspects of his book a social and political underpinning. It is an interesting approach even it sometimes gives rise to rather preachy monologues.

Overall, a mixed bag, which gives a horror twist to the "autofiction" genre.

This is the second book in the Places trilogy, the first being I am Behind You.

I Always Find You is written as a fictionalised autobiography or memoir of the author's life growing up in Sweden. Aged 19 John moves in to a dingy apartment in a housing complex in Stockholm, scratching a meagre living as a street magician and petty thief. His neighbours seem friendly enough until something goes kaput in the communal bathroom rendering it unusable. The room is locked up but something behind the padlocked door is calling to residents. People start behaving unusually and it becomes apparent that the strange phenomenon in the bathroom is the cause. John is not immune to the pull of the bathroom and he becomes even more curious when he sees his neighbours entering and leaving the room. Despite his attempts to resist its draw John eventually succumbs and investigates for himself.

Undoubtedly this is the weirdest book I have read by this author to date. I believe that there are certain things about the author in this book that are true, places he lived and the fact that he did actually work as a magician for a time. However, it is obviously a story of fiction for the most part. Maybe the author has experienced some strange phenomenon in his life, I don't know. But if any of the outlandish parts parts of this story do have any small grain of truth it would explain an awful lot about why his novels are so darn freaky most of the time.

This novel is a story about growing up, life and loneliness. It is also about finding ones place in society and accepting responsibility for our actions. And learning that sometimes places are locked for good reason, and should be left that way.

A beautiful book to read!

The story flowed very naturally and was interesting and gripping. The characters were believable and I could really connect with them while reading.

Touted as Sweden's answer to Stephen King, I was eager to get my hands on a copy of this. I have always been a fan of the horror genre, and have been trying to read more from this array of pieces to choose from. While I did enjoy this, I found it more than a little odd, which is no bad thing for a horror novel. I would catergorise it as avant'garde horror as it really is out there!

Odd? Creepy? Very strange? Yes, please! It sounds right up my reading street! The writing was sparse and flowed well, and there were many different themes explored yet still not a lot of action happening. This is one of those novels that is essentially plotless. We have all read one of those books before where everything comes together, and it's labelled as a contempory masterpiece, but, in my opinion, this was lacking something special to make it work. The book does emanate authennticity and also creates a classic foreboding atmosphere that stays for the duration of the story. This is not what we would class as classic horror, it's a thought-provoking, disturbing read. Recommended.

Many thanks to riverrun for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

3.5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2018/09/17/i-always-find-you-by-john-ajvide-lindqvist/
I Always Find You is such a strange book to review. It evoked so many emotions as I was reading it that my thoughts are a hot jumbled mess and to be totally frank I’m not convinced even at this point, that I enjoyed it. In fact, it’s not a book that you enjoy – absolutely not – it’s more like a book that compels you to read on even if you feel horrified, creeped out or just downright repulsed. You simply have to read on. It’s like a hideous trainwreck that you can’t tear your eyes away from. Anyway… I’ve cut and paste the blurb for the book below – I don’t think I’ll attempt to outline the plot but more explore my feelings and thoughts. So:

‘In September 1985, nineteen-year-old John Lindqvist moves into a dilapidated old building in Stockholm, planning to make his living as a magician. Something strange is going on in the building’s basement – and the price of entry is just a little blood.

I Always Find You is a horror story – as bizarre and macabre as any of Lindqvist’s bestselling novels. It’s also a book about being young and lonely, about making friends and growing up. It’s about magic, and the intensity of human connection – and a society’s communal responsibility for a devastating act of political violence.’

This is undoubtedly going to be a splurge of ideas and emotions so bear with me.

The story starts out like an exploration of loneliness. JL rents an apartment that is little more than a concrete box. He is living in complete dire straits with very little money. He doesn’t know anybody and dreams of becoming a magician and finding his fortunes that way. He’s a difficult character to like in some respects, or, at least he’s a character that you find yourself going from feeling sympathy for to eventually kind of disliking as his actions spiral out of control, and yet in spite of that I still did want to be on his side. He feels like his actions have gotten away from him somehow but there’s still goodness inside – it’s just been poisoned a little by events. Strangely enough, the other residents seem to be living similarly lonely existences. Lots of lonely people, locked away in their little concrete boxes, isolated and unhappy – all mixed in with a period of political unrest when people feel cheated somehow. At the same time we are given a back story from JL’s childhood in which he meets a young boy. I’m not going to give anything away here because I found this story really creepy and so think you should read it without any prior knowledge. Whilst this element feels oddly disconnected at first this isn’t the case and both stories are in fact related.

The first thing that really stood out for me was a feeling of confusion. Is any of this actually based on real events? Don’t get me wrong – I’m not talking about the horror elements because those definitely come from the land of fiction – at least I hope they do! But, and this is why I had the confusion, there are elements of this story where you can really see the inspiration for the other JL stories. Clearly this is an author with a very vivid imagination and an ability to take the simplest of things and create a horror scene – for example the ‘tunnel’ that is featured in the book. It feels insidiously creepy and it’s the sort of place that most people would feel wary of. It’s a great example of letting your imagination run riot. But then there’s elements of the story such as the loneliness, the unhappiness the failed relationship, the stealing, etc – are these also imaginary. I would say that some of these are real experiences and they’re mixed into the story in such a realistic way that the result makes it impossible to separate fact from fiction – hence confusion.

Then there’s the other residents. All of them eventually congregate around the shower block/washroom where something decidedly odd is taking place. The horror element here is a strange creeping weirdness. Something that is paid for in blood and that takes people into what becomes known as the ‘other’. The ‘other’ feels like a bizarre space where people’s imagination runs riot, their inhibitions are squashed and it’s almost like they become a massive exaggeration of themselves somehow. More than that though it becomes an obsession for all of them, and obsessions are never a good thing. Those obsessions eventually leads to a general feeling of apathy with real life compared to the escapism and freedom felt when transported to the ‘other’. Now imagine the desperation when it seems like the ‘other’ is starting to disappear. Can you go back to normality having experienced this life with no shackles. No need for politeness. If you’re a monster then you’re a monster, no explanation necessary – but having released your inner beast can you really put it back again and return to normality?

I sort of wish I’d made more notes now as I was reading because parts of this felt like the personas that the characters take on when in the ‘other’ are a representation of the seven deadly sins. Gluttony and lust definitely seem to be represented but I’m not so sure about the others. That’s another of my random thoughts that I just wanted to chuck into the mix.

Then there’s the writing style. There’s a cold simplicity to the writing, a lack of embellishment and a simple ‘truth’ to it that somehow exacerbates the horror elements. I distinctly recall at one part of the book being really scared. I couldn’t stop reading, in fact I was almost afraid to put the book down because I wanted to keep moving forward to see if I could get past the scary elements and find a happier place to latch onto. At that particular point I thought this was perhaps the scariest thing I’d ever read. But then the story did move on. The creep factor seemed to decrease whilst the ick factor increased and I then had a very strong feeling of discomfort. Some of the scenes are difficult to read about without doubt. There’s an element of the story that feels like voyeurism and I think I can safely say that if you’re in the least bit squeamish then this will not be the book for you. Now, obviously I don’t want to over egg the pudding here. I’m sure there are staunch horror fans out there who will doubtless find this a walk in the park and will wonder what I’m chatting about – but for me, the strongest feelings that came across during this read were fear followed by discomfort all tied into a story that I couldn’t put down.

I don’t know what else to say really. Should you read this – not if you’re easily disturbed or don’t want nightmares. If you’ve read the author before then I think yes. Particularly, if you’ve read Let the Right One in or I Am Behind You because I think you’ll be able to see the connections.

I’m definitely not sorry I read this. I’m not sure that I totally understand it. And, in case I’ve not been clear above, this is a disturbing book and certainly not a popcorn read. With those provisos in mind don’t say you haven’t been warned. Pick it up if you dare.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

I Always Find You is a slow burn horror novel about a strange entrance to another place and how the residents of a building find themselves drawn to it. It is 1985 and young John Lindqvist moves into an old building, trying to make it as a magician. He is drawn towards a mysterious laundry room in the building, and feels a darkness emanating from it that he wants to know more about. The other residents in the building seem to know something about it, and he becomes part of a strange group held by its power.

The novel has a slow pace, drawing out John's reminiscences about his strange childhood and his instinctual actions as he shoplifts and works on being a magician. The narrative, whilst a horror one, feels more focused on ideas of loneliness, what people desire, and how the political is blended into life. Much of the horror feels like it comes from people themselves and what is inside them, which matches this focus on human themes. The narrator's style, with hints of foreshadowing and the sense of looking back at these events, feels like classic horror, though it doesn't quite build enough atmosphere to keep the slow pace moving forward.

I Always Find You is a bizarre horror novel that is intriguing at points, but also difficult to get gripped by.

3.5 stars

I've read quite a few Lindqvist books,and they're all a bit odd and creepy.
This meant that right from the beginning I'm waiting for SOMETHING to happen.
It did... broken children,crazy neighbours,blood,violence and the unexplained.
I think I actually winced at one particular description.
Decent as always,but I'm often left wondering "what the ????" after his books.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Quercus Books and the author, John Ajvide Lindqvist for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of I Will Always Find You.
I have always been a fan of the horror genre. When I saw the cover of this book, then read the description, I was excited. I was thrilled when I was given my digital copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
Unfortunately, I struggled to finish this book. I found the storyline to be very slow and it didn't hold my attention.
Not a book for me.