John Ajvide Lindqvist exploded onto the international horror scene a few years back when his amazing vampire coming of age book, LET ME IN spawned two very good, non-sparkling and completely horrifying vampire movies; LET THE RIGHT ONE IN from Sweden and the English/American remake that shared the novel’s original title. Since then Mr. Lindqvist has gone on to pen more books focusing on his unique take on horror and traditional monsters found therein. This, his latest book, is a bit of a departure from his previous novels that I’ve read, but it was no less powerful, haunting, enjoyable, and well written. There’s a far more satirical edge to it as not only is it a damn good horror novel, but also a jab at the current pitiful state of the pop-centric, generic, and completely disposable music industry as it stands today.
A failed musician, while rooting around in the woods for some mushrooms, comes across an abandoned baby girl. He’s naturally surprised at his discovery, but he is completely stunned when the near dead infant belts out a pitch-perfect music note. Recognizing the (god given?) potential, he takes the child home where he and his wife decided to raise the baby themselves instead of notifying the authorities. Their motives are not completely altruistic as they keep the child, whom they named Theres, locked in the basement for several years until one night…well let’s just say some bad stuff happens. Next thing you know Theres moves in with her older adoptive brother, an ex-con named Jerry. All too soon Jerry notices young Theres’ special talents and seeing dollar signs, enters her into American Idol-like TV singing competition.
That’s when things really heat up.
Another child ‘blessed’ like Theres named Teresa sees the little star performing on the television and goes to meet her. When the two adolescent girls get together is when the real horror show starts. And that’s saying something, considering what has already happened in the book.
Lindqvist has repeatedly been called “Sweden’s Stephen King” and while I usually don’t like such comparisons, I can see the reason for them. LITTLE STAR reads like King when he’s showing us his A game. It is at times touching, funny, haunting, amusing, gory, and grotesque with wonderfully detailed settings and very fleshed out characters. That is not to say that it reads like a Stephen King pastiche. Far from it, John Ajvide Lindqvist has his own unique style and voice that I’m surprised to see remain intact when translated from Swedish to English. What I mean when I agree with that comparison is that it’s obvious that LITTLE STAR was written by a master story teller and like King’s earlier works, you get a real sense that more amazingness is still to come from the man.
LITTLE STAR is a hell of a good read and should not be missed by anyone, least of all by anyone calling themselves a fan of horror. This right here is what good, new, and unique horror looks like. In this remake/retreaded laden world that needs to be celebrated. Pick up this book and come celebrate with me.
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