The Haar

I was into the setup and first quarter or so, with the old residents trying to fight against the invading billionaire trying to buy up the land. Unfortunately then it ended up going more gory than creepy, with an emphasis on describing dissolving body parts. I was hoping for a different ending but felt like it pretty much ran on rails, and ended up relatively predictable.

This book had a lot of hype behind it, and for good reason. It was very well written and very charming. However, that's about it for me. I did enjoy the beginning and the ending, but the entire meat of the book was very bland. Like The Goonies meets Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls, we have a bunch of old folks who don't want to move and then a shapeshifting mer-person comes to save the day (and have sex with the old lady).

I get that one of the biggest themes of the book is holding onto the past, but the romance stuff was just weird.

The book ends in a very satisfying way. If you're in the same boat as me, please do yourself a favor and finish the dang book!

My first Sodergren book and surely not my LAST. This book just scratched a certain itch in my brain. From the monster to gruesome depictions of body horror. This was a perfect book to start off spooky season and will probably a frequent reread for me.

When I first started reading horror novels, I was looking for the same feeling I get from horror movies and couldn't find it anywhere. The Haar was the first time I've literally had to put a hand over my mouth to process the image a book just put in my mind. The gore was so nasty and vibrant and fantastic, and then it's balanced with this heartfelt story of grief and love. A story this outrageous has to be executed just right, and David Sodergren makes it look easy.

PS — I never would have guessed Bianca Del Rio would be mentioned in this book but I appreciate it nonetheless.

I didn’t go into this book expecting a love story; however it was a good time! A few plot holes! 4 Stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read for a buddy read, ended up burning through in a weekend. Squishy, gross, and oddly moving!

Just what I'd come to expect in terms of gore and horror, but I found the character work in this one particularly strong! It was a particularly emotional ride and for that, it might be my favorite Sodergren yet.

All I knew about this book was that it was a different kind of horror novel - practically went into this book blind.

The Haar is definitely a new kind of horror novel - at easy for me. It was beautiful in the strangest and often goriest of ways.

I didn't expect a horror novel to make me feel emotions at the end of it. It was really a beautiful book.

 This book was great. We follow a lovely old Scottish lady called Muriel who is being harrassed by the Grant Organisation, a company own by an American billionaire who has bought out most of Muriel's little home village by the sea to destroy the landscape and build a golf course. He's your basic Trump/Musk/Murdoch guy who thinks money can buy him everything. Nasty piece of work. All Muriel wants to do is live out the rest of her life in peace, but the machines changing her landscape run day and night and it seems every day, another friend takes the money and leaves. Muriel refuses. And then one day she makes an odd discovery that set the wheels of change into motion...

The Haar is a beautiful story with a lot of gore. It's intense, wondrous, and the perfect length. I will have to check out who of Sodergren's stuff!