Harbor

Umm wow.In many ways, this feels like a conclusion to a trilogy rather than a standalone book. A trilogy that folds back in on itself and maybe, that's where the true horror lies. No, you don't have to read his previous two books (The famous Let the Right One In and generally misunderstood Handling The Undead) to enjoy Harbor. In many ways,for people looking for a book to start with, this is the one that should be the first John Lindqvist. I only wish I read it sooner but, like so many of my b [...]

Harbour is a very impressive novel but ultimately failed to hook up to my emotions. It starts out beautifully. A child disappears on the frozen harbor during the winter. The father returns to the island and the harbor after two years. He is divorced and driven to alcohol. It is not really clear why he returns but it soon turns into not only a search for his child but also an investigation into the small community that lives on the island. The author contructs his tale by moving from present to p [...]

John Ajvide Lindqvist's third book, after Let The Right One In and Handling The Undead, is also his third masterpiece. An epic sprawling many fascinating characters and spanning several decades on an (fictitious) island in Scandinavia, it tells of a malevolent force that seems to be taking people who disappear without trace and for seemingly no purpose to begin with. The scope of ideas here is what truly sets this book, as with Lindqvist's other works, apart from an often unfairly marginalised g [...]

Two things I often hear repeated about Lindqvist are that he's "Sweden's Stephen King" and that although his novels may make for excellent reading they're not scary. Regarding the first claim, I always felt that this was a combination of reviewer laziness and marketing wishful thinking . . . until Harbor. Harbor is very, very much in the style of King. A small town with secrets, a sizable supporting cast from every social strata, a seamless integration of pop culture references, and a strong sen [...]

Supernatural, small town horror. I loved it!

A real thriller. I disagree with the tag of "horror" genre, I think it will turn some people off from reading this book. Lindqvist has a way of taking a story and drawing you into it immediately. You can smell the smells, feel the textures, hear the sounds, you know the people he writes about as if you've known them forever.Harbor is about several different people whose lives are intertwined on a small archipelago outside of Stockholm. A little girl vanishes right in front of her parents eyes, a [...]

Muy buen libro, con un aire comparable a los trabajos de Stephen King. No pense que otros autores tuvieran ese estilo de escritura ademas de el.Mi temor era que el final resultara en un trabajo a las apuradas, pero fue bien logrado, a pesar que se resuelve bastante rapido.Tiene una o dos escenas bastante asquerosas, ademas de unas cuantas hojas de mas. Creo que si lo comprimiera en un libro de 300 paginas quedaria mejor.Definitivamente voy a leer algo mas de este autor, cuyo nombre no puedo pron [...]

Harbor was an intriguing novel. When I started it, I was a little apprehensive, as I was afraid I would be too scared – remember, I'm a wimp when it comes to reading horror – but while thrilling and frightening, it didn't give me nightmares. Instead its horror started with a creeping feeling of unease, of something off and, slowly, the true threat only becomes fully clear towards the end. I found myself eager to return to its pages each night and read until I had to turn off the light due to [...]

Vilken berättare han är, den där Ajvide Lindqvist. Tycker dock inte han lyckas få ihop trådarna lika snyggt som i Låt den rätte komma in. Var besviken på slutet. Nu har jag drömt mardrömmar flera nätter i rad. Och mitt harhjärta säger tack&hej till light-skräck för den här gången.

Bahf.Quick summary: Man investigates his daughter's abduction from a small Swedish town with one huge disappointing secret.I'm not much for horror novels, but even I thought this book wasn't scary. The plot floated on the surface of the water. It was as interesting as watching someone fish for hours.SPOILERS AHOY AHOY If you like books where the main character mopes a lot (Catcher In the Rye, Snow, anything by Jonathan Tropper) then pick this book up right away! The main character calls his ex-w [...]

John Ajvide Lindqvist is an author who always seems to have a new trick up his sleeve, and Harbor is his best trick yet.He pumped fresh blood into the vampire story with Let the Right One In, he gave new life to the zombie in Handling the Undead. With Harbor, he seemingly does the impossible, blending the characters and natural human conflicts of a good Stephen King novel with the sprawling menace of the stories of H.P. Lovecraft.Harbor is the story of a distant fishing community, almost ruined [...]

This is a popular horror novel from Sweden. The story is compelling and well constructed. I am not a fan of this genre but this is a better example. Domaro is an island in a Swedish archipelago with a secret. People disappear and residents don't talk about these disappearances. Ander's small daughter becomes one of the disappeared and he leaves the island. Two years later he returns determine to get to the bottom of the mystery of her disappearance. Early on there is a sense of foreboding and te [...]

3.5 The writing is a 5/5, however the length and pace bring the rating down a bit. Still, very good!

It's a very different novel than Let the Right One In. Not just because it's a different subject and pace, it almost feels like it was written by a different author. Of course it is the same author, but it is a new translator. I had assumed that a translator just took the original text and translated it. Word x becomes y etc. Maybe move them about a bit to correct the grammar, but that was it. Turns out I may have underestimated that role pretty seriously unless Lindqvist is changing his style f [...]

This otherwise quite interesting story came unstuck when one character gets a slug which he puts in a match box. This is soon after we learn that Anders has lost his six year old daughter, Maja, vanished in the snow. Here I need to introduce the spoiler early, just in case anyone wants to read John Ajvide Lindqvists’s Harbour. (view spoiler)[ It’s a magic slug, and to be fairer than I have been so far, Lindqvist describes it as a larva or insect, so slug is my word. Anyway- slug in a matchbo [...]

This book is set on a creepy little island in a Swedish archipelago. The folks who live there are interesting and well-rendered and a little weird. There is a big secret here, something awful, and the drunk, grieving protagonist has to uncover that secret. But of course, nobody wants him to.I love so much about this novel. The characters are all fantastic, particularly the elderly magician, Simon. The setting is unique and the author takes time to fully explore it. He tells all manner of stories [...]

2.5 starsAnders, a man almost ruined following the disappearance of his young daughter, returns to the lighthouse where she wandered away across the ice, seemingly lost forever.However, this is only the beginning of an epic, disjointed journey, not only his, but also the other residents of the island.Weird, dream-like and with some really peculiar surrealism thrown in, I was often confused about where this tale was going, what was 'real' and what wasn't, but the mystery of the island held my att [...]

I enjoyed reading Harbour, but I found the storyline to be weaker than his previous books - Let the Right One In and Handling the Undead. I think it lost its way towards the end and left too many unanswered questions.It had its moments of suspense and a foreboding, yet it is not a horror story. It won't make you fear the sea, but it will make you see it differently. I found the book to be more of a character study, on what can happen to a person when they lose someone close to them - the self de [...]

With 89 pages to go, I had to give it up. "Harbor" drifts around like an untied boat. I would guess the editors assumed Lindqvist was infallible from his previous successes so they checked a little grammar and approved the whole book.The protagonist is a sad and pathetic drunk. His grandmother and her boyfriend were more interesting, but mysteriously they seemed unconcerned when the protagonist told them some of his serious problems. These problems should have been at the center of the story's c [...]

This was a pretty good scary story and I liked the characters of Anne Marie, Simon and Anders, but I felt it was too drawn out

Dark tale of the deep Northern sea, its secrets older than a lifetime and love that will always find a way, with a touch of Cthulhu-element.

Wonderful characters, small town atmosphere of dread and suspense, good build-up, intriguing, and horrifying at times. Plus nobody does depressed and lonely (middle-aged scandinavian men) like Lindqvist. I thoroughly enjoyed this and wanted to love it, but the supernatural aspects were just no. While it wasn't the best book ever nor even the author's best (at least compared to the other 3 I've read) it nevertheless cemented my good opinion of him (dare I say he's one of the authors I'm most exci [...]

I say I'm not much of a fan of paranormal books, but as with all of my absolute declarations on reading matters, there is an author out there who is destined to blow my prejudices out of the water. John Ajvide Lindqvist is one of those authors. Since the first of his books LET THE RIGHT ONE IN became an all-time favourite of mine, I've looked forward to each new release. HARBOUR, released last year, is a book I've been champing at the bit to read, but it should come with a warning - once picked [...]

Wow. I'm not really sure what to say. I try to make my reviews as helpful to other potential readers as possible but all I can say is W-O-W. I really loved this book.I'm a fan of horror, but I don't just like any horror novel. Lindqvist's novel before this one - Rasing the Undead - I didn't enjoy. It just wasn't up to par with his debut "Let the Riht One In", otherwise known in English as "Let Me In". The thing about Lindqvist is that he takes something classic like a vampire or a missing child [...]

Supernatural maritime thriller/horror (in the scary, not gory sense) novel set on a small island in Sweden. It got extra points from me because I like stories set in Sweden, but it really was creepy and good. The "Swedish Stephen King", I've read; I agree, but this novel was more mythical in theme than King's. The author also wrote Let the Right One In, which was made into a movie - I haven't watched or read it but I gather it has a vampire theme. Harbor is set on a small village in Sweden in mo [...]

Unfortunately, I am unable to write a full review of John Ajvide Lindqvist's Harbor due to other pressing writing commitments at this particular time, but I feel I should clarify my 5 star rating in this case since I do give top marks to a fair proportion of books I've rated here. Quite simply, this is easily one of the best horror novels I've ever come across in over 20 years of reading and loving this genre. Eerily, I just read one of the only other authors I've ever come across who can produc [...]

I am a fan of John Ajvide Lindqvist and 'Harbour' definitely met up to my expectations, you are engrossed from the first page, the story of Anders and his family and the history of Domaro is interesting and well written, it was not difficult to imagine the sights and sounds of Domaro and the ominous feeling of dread which clouds over the isolated town and the residents , who all share the same fear and have come to accept it and as the story progresses Anders begins to see what is wrong with Dom [...]

Just a little off-topic here, isn't "harbor" spelled with a 'U'? "Harbour"? Or is "harbour" the Canadian and British variation of the word? Well, I don't care if it keeps underlining it in red, I'm still going with "harbour" out of habit. Harbour is another fantastic book by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, but instead of child vampires or singers with dark secrets, this novel is a little more down-to-earth. Harbour is shrouded in mystery and the main character has tried to drown his demons [...]

This novel was an epic. Definitely in volume, but also in scope, it covered (in great detail) the lives of generations of residents of a small island off the coast of Sweden. It was very easy at first to become engrossed with their lives, the author does some very good descriptive writing and he really spends a lot of time fleshing out his characters. The horror aspect in this book is less traditional.t it was his take on vampires, then on zombies, but in this story the antagonist is the sea its [...]

Deeper and richer (and longer) than Lindqvist's previous works, and in many ways better. The twists and explanations were all entirely unexpected, Lindqvist continues to be the only author I know who includes sex without trying to be prurient or salacious, and there was a great The Shadow Over Innsmouth meets "The Fog" feel to the whole thing -- and notice that I said "feel". That's not the plot, just the feeling I picked up from it. He even adds a brave contrast to his usual pro-Morrissey stanc [...]