But she does become increasingly annoying as the plot continues and again the obsession and her sole goal being to just be able to peacefully hold a sea creature in her house and have it shape shift into her husband so she can play house with it - it’s just not my jam. The only holdouts who haven’t sold are Muriel and a group of other elderly townspeople who can’t bear to see the homes, and the town they love so very much, just go up in smoke.

David Sodergren – Paperbacks and Pugs | The official website David Sodergren – Paperbacks and Pugs | The official website

If there was ever a story I wish I could erase from my mind only to read over and over again…it would be this one! Well I got news for you Ulli – you already ‘sold out’ by making The Bogeyman, so it’s a bit late to be whinging and moaning about it now.He goes on to state in the afterward that the character isn’t solely based on her, but there are elements of her life that he worked into the character, which really gives it a personal feel and elevates it just that much more. Actually, The Forgotten Island is the first book of his I discovered from a friend here on WordPress. What I liked: The story follows 80+ year old, Muriel McAuley, life long resident of the Scottish fishing town Witchaven. By the beginning of our gruesome tale, the majority of the town has sold their properties to Grant, and the authorities in town have [figuratively] sold their souls. While there are some sweet moments in this book in terms of senior love and marriage, this is STILL a Sodergren novel and you can expect all the gore and blood and death.

The Haar by David Sodergren | Goodreads

There is no doubt in my mind that David Sodergren will go on to continue breaking the mold and creating fun and interesting stories to keep us up in the dead of night. This story is a gloomy tale about a small community by the sea in Scotland fighting to keep their homes. I was cooking dinner while reading, doing laundry and reading, I moved my schedule around so I could FINISH THIS BOOK!It's set in a small Scottish seaside fishing village that's under threat of a billionare land developer. You might think it would bother a woman of her age, but, as Muriel was fond of saying, she had seen a lot in her eighty-four short years. Muriel Margaret McAuley has seen a lot in her 84 short years, and she’s going to see a lot more over the coming days. They’ve tried placating with money, they’ve moved to psychological warfare, and soon, when it becomes clear that’s not enough, things escalate to an even more violent degree.

Book Review: The Haar by David Sodergren | Steve Stred – The

Had I known it was about an elderly woman becoming obsessed with a jelly creature and pretending it’s her husband - I would’ve never picked the book up. This usually results in me eating poke bowls for three months straight and then not being able to look at fish and rice for a whole five months after, just to name a very topical example. It’s main plot is a trope I don’t like and I had gotten the wrong impression upon what the book would be about and what would take place. There are just enough crazy supernatural deaths to keep you from falling asleep, and there’s the classic scene near the end where Susan’s breasts grow faces and rip someone’s guts out, but everything around these moments seem designed to make you not give a shit, and it is for this reason that I simply can’t recommend Mausoleum.

A similar, but also kind of not similar, thing happened when I discovered horror author David Sodergren. The ending was quite satisfying, so I've updated the rating, but my point still stands: some parts were unnecessary, disgusting and disappoining. It is too bad that the one interesting aspect of the story, the monster found in the fog by the old woman, was overshadowed by the inane nonsense of the rest of the story.