Review Harbor by John Ajvide LindQvist
"One ordinary winter afternoon on a snowy island, Anders and Cecilia take their six-year-old daughter Maja across the ice to visit the lighthouse in the middle of the frozen channel. While the couple explore the lighthouse, Maja disappears — either into thin air or under thin ice — leaving not even a footprint in the snow. Two years later, alone and more or less permanently drunk, Anders returns to the island to regroup. He slowly realises that people are not telling him all they know; even his own mother, it seems, is keeping secrets. What is happening in Domaro, and what power does the sea have over the town's inhabitants?" Cover Blurb
Harbor is an enveloping read. Lindqvist's prose is lyrical and subtle . He has the ability to have you instantly connect with Anders and his family. On a family outing Anders daughter literally vanishes. Barely seconds outside of Anders and Cecilia's sight Maja disappears from the lighthouse where the young family has been picnicking. Noting surrounds the lighthouse but ice. The mystery of her disappearance tears the family apart. Three years later Anders has lost his wife his home and is contemplating suicide. Something in him struggles to live and as he returns back to Domaro to face his past he uncovers dark secrets about his town and the people in it. Creepy water creatures, sacrifices to an ancient evil surround Andres and he makes a startling choice to save his daughter.
I was originally very engaged with this book. Their is an interesting supernatural element as well as a terrible secret about the disappearance that occasionally affect this island. I became a little distracted by the narrative style. There were a lot of flashbacks. Although I found them interesting they distracted a little from the main story for me. Once the narrative firmly focus on Anders and his discoveries the story really picked up in pace and held my interest.
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