After a strange sort of undefined magnetic storm hits Stockholm, something happens and all those who died in the last six weeks are reanimated. People, the government, don't know how to react to the 'reliving,' who are pretty strange. They aren't your run of the mill zombies; they are confused and have a strange effect on those around them.

The book is full of some horrifying, unforgettable scenes, but there isn't a lot of narrative force driving through it, and the resolution wasn't very satisfying. ( )

Meh ( )

Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist is a zombie book with a difference. The story begins with the sudden reanimation of thousands of deceased individuals, now referred to as "reliving," before exploring the perspectives of various characters, including grieving families and medical professionals, as they struggle with the emotional and ethical complexities of the situation. Lindqvist combines horror elements with an examination of human nature to explore themes of loss, grief, and our understanding of life and death.

Lindqvist's true mastery, however, lies in the seamless alternation between action and inner dialogue, which results in an ominous air of tension, and in his ability to paint a vivid picture with his words. The author's portrayal of grief is nothing short of haunting; I found myself holding back tears multiple times.

What sets this novel apart is its unique approach to the undead. If you're seeking a traditionally fast-paced, action-packed zombie story, this book may not be to your taste. Far from the mindless flesh-eaters we're accustomed to, these reanimated beings are imbued with a haunting humanity. Lindqvist doesn't just explore death and resurrection; he delves deep into the recesses of human nature, plumbing fear, loathing, disgust, compassion, love, and the raw, unrelenting ache of grief.

The characters in Handling the Undead are complex and enigmatic, breathing life into a genre often characterised by lifelessness. The strong focus on character introspection does slow the pace of the novel; however, the narrative is complex and intricate, weaving a web that leaves readers constantly on edge. The horror here is subtle, playing upon our deepest fears. Through the lens of the zombie premise, Lindqvist offers a searing commentary on modern society, laying bare its fissures - the isolation, the fear, the fraying of social bonds, and the desperate hope for a better future.

The novel concludes with a degree of ambiguity, which may be off-putting for some readers. Many questions are unanswered, including the ultimate fate of the undead and the nature of the force that seems to be influencing them. Some readers will appreciate the open-ended nature of this finish, while others may prefer a more conclusive resolution.

Overall, Handling the Undead is a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant work that brings a unique spin to the zombie genre, making it a worthwhile read for those seeking a fresh perspective on the undead. ( )

Este libro lo leí hace varios años y me pareció aterrador. En esta segunda lectura repasar los pasajes, reconocerlos, reencontrarme con ellos, me ha confirmado que la premisa es aterradora. Me gusta la forma en la que el autor va llevando a la historia y los personajes, aunque algunos comentarios dicen que los encuentran aburridos, en lo personal los encuentro muy interesantes.

Quizá me hizo falta un poco más "acción" en la sociedad sueca ante un mundo en el que los muertos vuelven a la vida, más que esa tensa calma; pero quién sabe, igual y estoy muy mal acostumbrada a tantas historias de zombies donde todo es caos. Y no es que aquí no lo haya, lo hay y mucho, pero como ya lo dije, es una calma muy tensa, en todo momento parece que las cosas van a explotar y que todos van tranquilos para que esa explosión no sea de escalas mayores.

En fin, me gustan las historias de John Ajvide Lindqvist; siempre encuentro un terror muy humano, algo que rompe de manera muy profunda y que es horroroso. Y ahora que volví a este libro, no me decepcionó. ( )

Not as good as let the right one in, but still intriguing. Kind of Stephen King like ( )

great read, nice original take on a zombie outbreak, shame about the ending. ( )

I can see why someone looking for a straight-up horror story wouldn't like this book. This is not that. It's more about loss & grief. I liked it as an alternative treatment of the zombie genre, but I still wished for a bit more explanation of what was going on. ( )

I borrowed this from the library because I read and enjoyed Lindqvist’s debut novel, Let the Right One In, a while back and was interested in reading more of his work. Here is the summary from the Kobo store:

In his new novel, John Ajvide Lindqvist does for zombies what his previous novel, Let the Right One In, did for vampires. Across Stockholm the power grid has gone crazy. In the morgue and in cemeteries, the recently deceased are waking up. One grandfather is alight with hope that his grandson will be returned, but one husband is aghast at what his adored wife has become. A horror novel that transcends its genre by showing what the return of the dead might really mean to those who loved them.

This is not your typical zombie book. This is more about the families and loved ones of the ‘reliving’, as they are referred to in this book, than it is about the reliving themselves. If that appeals to you, I would recommend this book.

Through the three families in this book – David and his son Magnus, and the reliving Eva (David’s wife and Magnus’s mother); Anna and her father Gustav and Anna’s reliving son Elias; and Flora and her grandmother Elvy, and Elvy’s reliving husband Tore – different viewpoints on this reanimation are represented: it is the end of days; it is a miracle; it is a burden; and more. For some, it’s a sign that death is not the end. For the politicians, it becomes a debate about whether or not the reliving have any rights, and how society should deal with them.

This was not necessarily a scary or horror story – although there were moments that chilled me, they were rare and I don’t think the point or purpose of this story is to flat-out frighten. It’s a slow moving story but one that I couldn’t really put down. I was drawn to the characters (particularly David and Magnus) and could feel that the book was building up to something – there was so much tension and I wanted to read to the end and see what happened.

The translation seemed a bit clunky at times, particularly the dialogue between characters, but I do like Lindqvist’s writing and will probably read more of his work. If you’re interested in a different take on zombies, I recommend this book.
(From www.pingwings.ca) ( )

I've been spending some time in Stockholm recently so I thought I'd read some Swedish horror and who better than John Lindqvist who brought us "Let The Right One In" which was turned into one of the most powerful vampire movies I've ever seen (go here if you're interested).

"Handling The Undead" gives an equally unique and powerful view on zombies. He uses the zombie tropes from "Resident Evil" or "Walking Dead" as pop-culture reference points and then pushes past them to something much more realistic and personal and therefore, much more disturbing.

"Handling The Undead" imagines a freak set of circumstances where, on a particular day, all those who have died in Stockholm in the past two weeks reanimate and find themselves driven by the urge to go home.

What follows is a thoughtful and emotionally taxing exploration of what it would mean if the bodies and some form of the minds of the dead we have loved and grieved over, came back.

This being Sweden and not the USA, the authorities do not respond with guns and violence but instead are thrown into a debate about what to do with what they refer to as "The Unliving". Their task is made more difficult when it becomes clear that, in the presence of groups of the Unliving, normal people can hear one another's thoughts and experience each others emotions. This does not lead to peace and harmony. It was fascinating to watch the politicians discuss the rights of the Unliving while the army rounded them up and scientist tried to figure out what was animating the Unliving and to what extent they were sentient.

The actions of the government are a like a news channel running in the background rather than the main focus of the story. The impact of the Unliving is made real through three stories.

One is of a young child who's recent accidental death has left his young single parent mother and her father drowning in grief and guilt, unable to help each other.

One is of a man who's wife dies in a car accident on the day of the reanimation and who must now cope with the impact of her return, broken and different, on him, his young son and his father-in-law.

One is of a woman and her granddaughter, both gifted or blighted with second sight, who can feel the presence of the Unliving and struggle to understand what they can do for them.

These stories are harrowing and difficult and focused on the living rather than the Unliving. In their different ways, they are all struggling to come to terms with the necessity of death to give life meaning and whether or not the bodies that has returned are anything more than an echo of the people they used to be.

It is a strange and sometimes difficult book, not a light read, but a compelling mixture of grief and fear and hope. ( )

Not as mind-blowing as "Let Me In" but quite good overall. Both macabre and touching. ( )

I liked the premise of this, even though I felt like the actual mechanism was a little... weird. If it wasn't clear in the first couple pages, for a brief period of time in single city, the souls of the dead re-enter their shambling, broken bodies. They're Zombies, But Different! Okay, sort of cool. Like in Let the Right One In, Lindqvist divides his narrative... but I feel like he split it a few too many ways. I felt more like I was reading a series of split-up novellas or short stories rather than one cohesive narrative, and I could never get far enough involved with any of the characters to really... well, care. It was interesting, it was decently written (with some of the same weird syntactical choices that probably stem from translation), but honestly not all that memorable. Probably going to sell it at Half-Price Books. ( )

Sjuuukt bra. Det är lite ovanligt med en zombiebok som platsar i dramagenren, och inte i skräck. Dock är slutet lite eh. ( )

Not your typical zombie novel; instead of being a survival story, it looks at how people would actually cope with their dead returning. Touching and realistically depicted. ( )

This book is so good I forgot to watch one of my favorite shows the night I first started reading. On the surface _Handling the Undead_ seems to be just about Swedish zombies, or, as they're more commonly referred to within the novel, "the reliving."

I can't help but think Lindqvist's novel is all about the unbearable pain and power of grief...because when the dead (only those who have passed away within the past two months return from the grave) start coming back to life, their loved ones will do anything to keep hold of them.

It doesn't seem to matter to the families and spouses that "reliving" means nothing more than rotting, gray flesh, rancid smells and a strictly electrical reanimation with restricted bodily movement and limited speech. The grieving will take whatever they can get!! ( )

Amazing reboot of the zombie idea. I found the ending a bit odd, as some problems seemed unresolved (or at least not addressed enough), but I really enjoyed it otherwise. ( )

Handling The Undead was an interesting and awesome read!

The storyline was pretty impressive, and intriguing too.

The characters were all awesome, though my favorite was, Flora. I wish there was more about the characters as individuals, but at the same time, I'm glad that the story was fast paced and not a complete drag.

I'm kinda wishing it hadn't ended, it was a fairly awesome read...I guess I'll have to re-read it some other time! :) ( )

A lot less uncomfortable to read than Let The Right One In but just as compelling, this touching tale about a partial zombie uprising focuses on the more human matters involved - what do with all the reanimated corpses, why they're alive, and how several characters cope with the reanimation of their dead loved ones. ( )

For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed reading thrillers, I love horror from time to time, I have a solid stomach and things do not easily get too bloody or creepy with me. And, as an extra bonus, this is a Nordic writer :-)

Despite all that I didn't get past page 111 in this book. Zombies. Huh! They are really not my thing. Not in movies and, as it seems, neither in books.
Dragons, monsters of any kind, mythological creatures, I swallow lits and do enjoy, but really no zombies.
The living characters are okay, but the zombie part is so big, that I can't look past it any more. Too bad!

I enjoyed this! A word of caution: These are not your traditional bloodthirsty zombies, though I find them equally as disturbing. If you're looking for strict gore and horror look elsewhere. ( )

The strangest zombie book I've ever read. Imagine that the dead coming back to life and.... that's all. They are not aggressive they don't want to eat you. They're just there. What to do? How reacts the society and how the relatives? Of course the whole thing is a bit more complicated and the ending is a bit too spiritual for me, but it's still a thought-provoking, interesting and a (strangely) very sad book. ( )

Before you actually dive into this book expecting mad rabid zombies trying to get into your house, while the characters try to survive and scrounge whatever resources they can to make it out into a world turned upside down, you’re not going to find it here. Yes it was disappointing. Is it worth a try? Maybe...maybe not.

In this case, besides the fact that the dead have risen. They’re shells of their former self. Not rabid things we’re so used to seeing. They feed and react to the living’s feelings. (For example if you react with disgust, or hatred, they’ll lash out). Seems interesting. Certainly a different approach. Zombie purists out there probably wouldn’t give this book a second glance. I like trying out different things (just like food!) as there are times when you do come across a gem. Do I consider this one a gem? Not really.

Although it deals with several issues; such as the loss and acceptance of a loved one, or how far would someone go to protect the love one had for someone who was deceased. So in a sense, it’s a book that does make you think (well that mixed with zombies? Sacrilege!) so if you want something for the action fast paced plot, you’re not going to find it here. You want something to slowly digest (har!), read on character development and thinking, and for something to think about then maybe, just maybe this is for you.

My view on this book, take it or leave it. I found it all right. Not the best read, certainly but worth a try just to have a book that actually makes you think about what would really happen in scenarios such as this. Would you sacrifice everything? Or curl up and cry on the floor as the world burns? It’s worth to mull over. Those that want something with raging undead at your doorstep, skip this and go to the next one. ( )

Worst book I've read this year. The characters felt flat, the ending felt cobbled-together and the explanation for having to handle the undead in the first place was just goofy. Maybe this was more impressive in its original language or something. ( )

Worst book I've read this year. The characters felt flat, the ending felt cobbled-together and the explanation for having to handle the undead in the first place was just goofy. Maybe this was more impressive in its original language or something. ( )

I did not find this book very scary and I struggled to get through to the end. I was more disappointed than I normally would be because of the great reviews. ( )

One unusually warm night in Stockholm, Sweden, something very strange happens. Everyone in the city experiences a terrible headache. Electrical appliances refuse to turn off, even when they're unplugged. And the recent dead begin to rise...

It sounds like a bog-standard setup for a zombie story, but what John Ajvide Lindqvist gives us is something very different: a deconstruction of the zombie genre, or a subversion of it, or maybe just a very different take. Because these zombies do not rise up and immediately begin hungering for human flesh. They are merely your loved ones, dead and rotting, not what they were, but not entirely gone, either. And, ultimately, it's a novel that's more concerned with the people that once belonged in those shuffling corpses than in the bodies themselves.

It is kind of an odd book. If you go into it looking for plot, or even for big drama, you might well be disappointed. Ditto if you're hoping for simple, logical, scientific explanations for everything in the end. And the writing can feel a little awkward, in a hard-to-pin-down way that I'm inclined to blame on the translation. But there are lots of fascinating subtleties to it, things that invite you to contemplate the mysteries of life and death and to take a new look at a horror trope that's become so familiar that we no longer bother to consider too closely at what it's really made of. Plus, there were a surprising number of moments when I found myself thinking, "Wow, zombies that don't' eat people are a thousand times creepier than ones who do. Who would have thought?" ( )