I Remember You
By: Yrsa Sigurdardottir
5/5 MUST READ
Oh my goodness ! I absolutely am obsessed with this book, it was the kind of read that when you finish you can't stop thinking about it and all the characters and events that fell from the pages. I never wanted it to end, I freakin' love anything paranormal or horror themed and it is so hard to find a well written ghost story that isn't cheesy, campy or too obvious and cliche.
I Remember You was unique and was the first book I have read that took place in Iceland and was written by Sigurdardottir, what a great first impression .
This story goes between the POV of a threesome renovating an abandoned, dilapidated house in a very seculuded summer destination village that can only be reached by boat, in the beginnings of winter- they are Lif, a widow and her longtime friends Garoar and Katrin; and the POV of a Psychologist named Freyer who is a divorcee and has suffered the unimaginable tradegy of his son and only child going missing without a trace years before and has never been seen again.
The ambitious trio ignore many warnings about their new house and begin to experience strange and unexplainable phenomena ; they are trying to fix an unviable house-that's haunted- and soon learn that they were not the only ones who had ever had this goal and the former owner had failed and is now presumed dead. They also learn that a mother and child had died on this property and are buried very near to their house; could the boy have not died though?? How could he be dead if they can see him standing by the beach crying and he keeps making all these bad things happen to them... So that's not his grave then right??
Meanwhile, Freyer helping the Police investigate a vandalism of a primary school back on the mainland, finds a connection to the past- this exact thing has happened 60 years before- and now one of the class members of 60 years ago commits suicide in a church to which she does not belong and writes that she must find Benni, who is Freyer's son and another boy called Bernodus, another classmate from the first vandalism investigation who also disappeared without a trace.
Freyr is sent into a downward spiral when he delves into this mystery and how it could possibly be connected to Benni; could he still be alive after all these years? If not then why can Freyer hear him running down the hall and calling out to him?
The way these two stories collide was perfection, and was actually very sad, I always appreciate a well thought out back story for any ghost stories. Sigurdardottir has a real skill, to create such a story that really gets the tradgedy across, this is not just a haunting, although very scary and some insidious methods were used it is a cry for help this ghost used to be a living person who could have experienced anything and needs to be absolved. I feel like in most movies that message gets lost just for the "jump scare" I loved reading the scary movie so much more it allows your imagination to really sink its teeth in and create the atmosphere and it cant be ruined by a campy stock image ghost, or terrible acting.
( That being said I live for scary movies campy or not and love them all, and I recently saw I Remember You is being made into a movie and you bet your bottom dollar I'm going to watch it with nothing but high hopes and excitement.... and subtitles.)
The way this story ended was very open ended -in a good way- the kind of ending that blatantly says this cycle isn't over, problem not solved. I love love love this book and wish I could read it anew, its a real gem.
XOXO-THISRAVENCLAWREADER
