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lanko's review
1.0
I read the magnificent Wolf Winter and was excited to know there was a sequel, even if set a century later with different characters, but in the same place.
Both books stand on their own, so I definitely encourage you to read Wolf Winter.
The problem here is that there is no tension or stakes for the characters. There's no sense of urgency for anything.
It's a glaring contrast to Wolf Winter where there was that creep, cold and uncertain feeling around everything happening. The characters talked to each other, secondary characters had their own traits and problems. Each had their own mysteries, fears and problems to solve, not to mention the danger lurking around.
Now here there's nothing of the sort. I wonder if it's because of the choice of going multiple POVs in first person. I don't know if was the characters or the style that made everything sound so internal, distant and individualistic. They're left too much to their own devices and internal monologue.
Maybe if Magnus had his family with him (or if they were already settled in Blackasen) and Lovisa was around or sent there, things could've turned out to be different in that regard.
There are themes of culture destruction, societal roles and rules, but those were also in Wolf Winter, but with more stakes, tension and characterization for us to care about.
I very rarely DNF a book, but I just couldn't bring myself to proceed. I read half of it, then put it down. Returned a few days later, read 10% more and decided I couldn't do it anymore.
I think I gave it a really fair shot at 60%.
Both books stand on their own, so I definitely encourage you to read Wolf Winter.
The problem here is that there is no tension or stakes for the characters. There's no sense of urgency for anything.
It's a glaring contrast to Wolf Winter where there was that creep, cold and uncertain feeling around everything happening. The characters talked to each other, secondary characters had their own traits and problems. Each had their own mysteries, fears and problems to solve, not to mention the danger lurking around.
Now here there's nothing of the sort. I wonder if it's because of the choice of going multiple POVs in first person. I don't know if was the characters or the style that made everything sound so internal, distant and individualistic. They're left too much to their own devices and internal monologue.
Maybe if Magnus had his family with him (or if they were already settled in Blackasen) and Lovisa was around or sent there, things could've turned out to be different in that regard.
There are themes of culture destruction, societal roles and rules, but those were also in Wolf Winter, but with more stakes, tension and characterization for us to care about.
I very rarely DNF a book, but I just couldn't bring myself to proceed. I read half of it, then put it down. Returned a few days later, read 10% more and decided I couldn't do it anymore.
I think I gave it a really fair shot at 60%.
taniabotes's review against another edition
3.0
I loved this author's previous book, [b: Wolf Winter|21413846|Wolf Winter|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1419320744s/21413846.jpg|40714611], so decided to give this one a try. Set a 100 years later, in 1856 it plays of in the same place, Blackasen Mountain in Lapland. Her descriptions of this bleak landscape is extremely well down, and she creates a sense of threat that run throughout the story.
Magnus has been send to Blackasen Mountain to investigate a murder by his father in law. He is also instructed to take his wayward sister in law, Lovisa, along with him. We soon realize that there is a secret history shared by the locals that played a big role in the killing of three men. They meet Ester, a woman from a nomadic group of Sami people, who has recently lost her husband.
Lovisa and Ester are both interesting characters, strong females with complex feelings. The author does a brilliant job with creating a sense of uneasiness, and of not knowing who to trust. If you enjoyed Burial Rites I think you should try her books.
Magnus has been send to Blackasen Mountain to investigate a murder by his father in law. He is also instructed to take his wayward sister in law, Lovisa, along with him. We soon realize that there is a secret history shared by the locals that played a big role in the killing of three men. They meet Ester, a woman from a nomadic group of Sami people, who has recently lost her husband.
Lovisa and Ester are both interesting characters, strong females with complex feelings. The author does a brilliant job with creating a sense of uneasiness, and of not knowing who to trust. If you enjoyed Burial Rites I think you should try her books.
roxyc's review against another edition
3.0
Nordic Noir meets historical mystery. Atmospheric with plenty of intriguing elements that keep you guessing. Very visual and littered with complex characters. It is told from multiple points of view and I must admit I don’t usually enjoy that setup, but Cecilia makes it work seamlessly. It did take a while to get going and grab my interest but once it did it did not disappoint. I like that each character has their own perspective and feelings on what the mysterious mountain means to them. I have not read anything from this author before but I will certainly be on the lookout for more of her works.
readbydusk's review against another edition
4.0
A beautifully rendered historical fiction. Told in three POVs, each character stands out in their own way. I loved Ester, she’s a fascinating character who learns that everything is not as it seems. Marcus is like a romance hero, with a scarred face, cold demeanor and complicated history. Lovisa is the wild card, whose difficult behaviour masks her loneliness. Their interactions are entertaining and I couldn’t guess where the story would go! The answers to the mystery is satisfying but bittersweet.
The story is a slowburn because it takes the time to set the scene. There’s a lot of information about mineralogy! It also highlights the history and conflict at the time, particularly between religious settlers and the Sami tribe. It shows the terrible treatment towards Indigenous people and how their old beliefs are forcibly wiped to make way for new religion. This is a murder mystery but it’s also a rumination on colonisation, identity and secrets. And it still feels relevant today. Recommended!
CW: rape, physical assault
book blog | twitter | instagram
The story is a slowburn because it takes the time to set the scene. There’s a lot of information about mineralogy! It also highlights the history and conflict at the time, particularly between religious settlers and the Sami tribe. It shows the terrible treatment towards Indigenous people and how their old beliefs are forcibly wiped to make way for new religion. This is a murder mystery but it’s also a rumination on colonisation, identity and secrets. And it still feels relevant today. Recommended!
CW: rape, physical assault
book blog | twitter | instagram
evelina96's review against another edition
2.0
Tyvärr inte riktigt min typ av bok, men jag tyckte om att den utspelade sig i Lappland! Länk till recensionen: https://ewelinasbokblogg.blogspot.se/2017/03/midnattssolens-timme.html
traceychick's review against another edition
5.0
Having absolutely loved Ms Ekback's debut novel Wolf Winter, I was really looking forward to this book and I am pleased to say I wasn't disappointed. The setting, the characters, the plot everything I hoped for and I am just sorry that I have finished it so soon.
I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Nordic Noir but with a historical twist.
I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Nordic Noir but with a historical twist.
lisa_setepenre's review against another edition
3.0
In the Month of the Midnight Sun is a historical crime novel set in a fictional Swedish village in 1856. Three men are found slaughtered, their murderer - a Lapp, one of the nomadic Sami people - sitting quietly with them. He does not speak to explain, nor does he resist when he arrested and imprisoned. Magnus Stille is sent with his wayward sister-in-law, Lovisa, to investigate under the guise of mapping the mountain, Blackåsen, the village lies in the shadow. Biija, a Lapp who has left her tribe after the death of her husband, stays close to the village and watches. Blackåsen itself may have a role to play in the mysteries and horrors that beset this small town.
I found Cecilia Ekbäck’s In the Month of the Midnight Sun to be quite an comfortable read. The prose is easy to digest, the characters are interesting and the mystery is intriguing. However, as I read I also found clear faults with the novel.
The writing, for me, never quite hit the spot. Written in first-person, present tense, and narrated by Magnus, Lovisa and Biija, the voices all sounded a bit too similar. It was only that each chapter was marked by the initial of the narrating character and the actual content of the chapter that told me who was narrating. I also would have restructured the first section of the novel. As it is, the story is in alternating sections – Biija then Magnus then Lovisa then back to Biija and so on. But as the first section has Biija’s chapters taking place in the spring before Magnus and Lovisa’s, I would have grouped together and placed them first and then introduced Magnus and Lovisa.
Ekbäck has created some fascinating characters, but I didn’t feel there was enough of them on the page to really get a good idea of them. There’s a lot of things that interest me about Biija, Magnus and Lovisa, but they’re sort of referenced and then left unexplored and undeveloped.
The central mystery is intriguing – did the Lapp really kill those three men, why did they die, what secrets lie in the mountain - but I didn’t feel like these mysteries were solved. Where we began to see the solution unfolding, I was on the edge of my seat for the reveal and then just left cold and a little confused by the follow up.
There are a lot of interesting things to find In the Month of the Midnight Sun, but overall I was left nonplussed by it.
I found Cecilia Ekbäck’s In the Month of the Midnight Sun to be quite an comfortable read. The prose is easy to digest, the characters are interesting and the mystery is intriguing. However, as I read I also found clear faults with the novel.
The writing, for me, never quite hit the spot. Written in first-person, present tense, and narrated by Magnus, Lovisa and Biija, the voices all sounded a bit too similar. It was only that each chapter was marked by the initial of the narrating character and the actual content of the chapter that told me who was narrating. I also would have restructured the first section of the novel. As it is, the story is in alternating sections – Biija then Magnus then Lovisa then back to Biija and so on. But as the first section has Biija’s chapters taking place in the spring before Magnus and Lovisa’s, I would have grouped together and placed them first and then introduced Magnus and Lovisa.
Ekbäck has created some fascinating characters, but I didn’t feel there was enough of them on the page to really get a good idea of them. There’s a lot of things that interest me about Biija, Magnus and Lovisa, but they’re sort of referenced and then left unexplored and undeveloped.
The central mystery is intriguing – did the Lapp really kill those three men, why did they die, what secrets lie in the mountain - but I didn’t feel like these mysteries were solved. Where we began to see the solution unfolding, I was on the edge of my seat for the reveal and then just left cold and a little confused by the follow up.
There are a lot of interesting things to find In the Month of the Midnight Sun, but overall I was left nonplussed by it.
amalia1985's review against another edition
4.0
''June is a good month to purge. It's a time to flush things out, to eliminate, to seek liberation. It's a month of light. The month of the midnight sun.''
Cecilia Ekbäck's [b:Wolf Winter|21413846|Wolf Winter|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1419320744s/21413846.jpg|40714611] is one of the greatest literary loves of my life. A novel that transported me in a distant, mystical setting, in a way that few novels have managed to do. Therefore, there was much anticipation and excitement when I opened the front cover of [b:In the Month of the Midnight Sun|25766707|In the Month of the Midnight Sun|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1466034423s/25766707.jpg|45613626]. As I was reading on and on, I realised that Cecilia Ekbäck is a witch of words. She weaves and casts spells with her sentences and the images she creates.The title alone is enough to attract our interest. The midnight sun is a uniquely beautiful experience. The resurrection of nature after the endless darkness. But is light a source of joy and hope? In this story, the light of the sun is not enough to reveil the secrets of a troubled community and a family that is falling apart.
The story starts in Stockholm, where we meet Magnus, a mineralogist, who is sent by his father -in -law to a mission involving the brutal murder of three people. Lovisa, Magnus'sister-in-law, is sent away with him. So, the story moves on to Lapland, the land of mystery and the midnight sun, and particularly to Blackåsen, a place we first met in [b:Wolf Winter|21413846|Wolf Winter|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1419320744s/21413846.jpg|40714611]. Magnus will find more secrets in his attempt to seek the answers, secrets that go beyond everything he has ever taken for granted. Biija, an older woman and one of the residents of the area, becomes his guide, while she is struggling with her own questions and terrors of the past.
There are three points of view in this novel. Magnus, Lovisa and Biija who names herself Esther. Each character represents a microcosm, a smaller part of that big, dark-mouthed monster called society, but they aren't stereotypes- how could they? It's Cecilia Ekbäck, after all. They are fully fleshed-out and fascinating. Magnus is a scientist, a man who believes in what he sees and has the clarity of mind to realise the secrets that are kept sealed, and still, the patriarchal values with which he was raised, manage to influence his own views. It is through his contact with Lovisa and Biija that he succeeds in reavulating his prejudices. This brings us to Lovisa who- for me, at least- is our eyes to the story and the very heart of it.
While Magnus and Biija are restricted by their religious and social expectations, Lovisa has the freedom of the person in despair, the one who is denied by everyone and has the open mind to accept and infiltrate whatever she considers useful. Lovisa is one of us, we witness a significant part of the story through her eyes. Biija has the wisdom of her people, the ability to ''see'' and ''read'' the nature and its signals without the smoked mirrors of society. In the character of Biija, we witness the fight between the Old Religion, the Pagan Ways of the region, and the attempt of the priests to smother everything they cannot understand, everything they fear and name it as ''evil''. Their relationship with the teachings of Jesus is non-existent. As usual.
''At the Resurrection, Jesus will return to wake the Faithful. What will he do if He finds them incomplete?''
Patriarchy and Religion are the two main themes in the story. Ekbäck has them working in parallel ways, driving the plot forward. Lovisa, a victim of patriarchal oppression in its most vicious form, finds a new affinity to nature and a new understanding of the people around her through Biija who represents the Old Ways. There is a comparison between the women's position in the Pagan past and the rules and orders of the ordained priests against them. No need to say which one is the losing side...
Aside from these themes, Cecilia Ekbäck stresses the importance of Nature, how the people of the past retained a special kind of wisdom due to their sacred proximity to their environment, their respect for every living thing, for the trees, the mountains, the soil...This is done in a language of impeccable beauty, with short sentences that make the narration move faster. Short,meaningful paragraphs is a characteristic feature of Nordic Literature, giving this special ''something'' to the novels.
If you have read [b:Wolf Winter|21413846|Wolf Winter|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1419320744s/21413846.jpg|40714611], you will equally enjoy [b:In the Month of the Midnight Sun|25766707|In the Month of the Midnight Sun|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1466034423s/25766707.jpg|45613626]. Ekbäck takes a mystery and turns it into a novel that is part-Noir, part-Historical Fiction, part-Magical Realism. The story takes place in 1856, in Lapland, but the questions it poses are- and will always be- crucial and relevant to any time and any place. You need to read this one and experience the beauty that is Nordic Literature at its finest...
Cecilia Ekbäck's [b:Wolf Winter|21413846|Wolf Winter|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1419320744s/21413846.jpg|40714611] is one of the greatest literary loves of my life. A novel that transported me in a distant, mystical setting, in a way that few novels have managed to do. Therefore, there was much anticipation and excitement when I opened the front cover of [b:In the Month of the Midnight Sun|25766707|In the Month of the Midnight Sun|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1466034423s/25766707.jpg|45613626]. As I was reading on and on, I realised that Cecilia Ekbäck is a witch of words. She weaves and casts spells with her sentences and the images she creates.The title alone is enough to attract our interest. The midnight sun is a uniquely beautiful experience. The resurrection of nature after the endless darkness. But is light a source of joy and hope? In this story, the light of the sun is not enough to reveil the secrets of a troubled community and a family that is falling apart.
The story starts in Stockholm, where we meet Magnus, a mineralogist, who is sent by his father -in -law to a mission involving the brutal murder of three people. Lovisa, Magnus'sister-in-law, is sent away with him. So, the story moves on to Lapland, the land of mystery and the midnight sun, and particularly to Blackåsen, a place we first met in [b:Wolf Winter|21413846|Wolf Winter|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1419320744s/21413846.jpg|40714611]. Magnus will find more secrets in his attempt to seek the answers, secrets that go beyond everything he has ever taken for granted. Biija, an older woman and one of the residents of the area, becomes his guide, while she is struggling with her own questions and terrors of the past.
There are three points of view in this novel. Magnus, Lovisa and Biija who names herself Esther. Each character represents a microcosm, a smaller part of that big, dark-mouthed monster called society, but they aren't stereotypes- how could they? It's Cecilia Ekbäck, after all. They are fully fleshed-out and fascinating. Magnus is a scientist, a man who believes in what he sees and has the clarity of mind to realise the secrets that are kept sealed, and still, the patriarchal values with which he was raised, manage to influence his own views. It is through his contact with Lovisa and Biija that he succeeds in reavulating his prejudices. This brings us to Lovisa who- for me, at least- is our eyes to the story and the very heart of it.
While Magnus and Biija are restricted by their religious and social expectations, Lovisa has the freedom of the person in despair, the one who is denied by everyone and has the open mind to accept and infiltrate whatever she considers useful. Lovisa is one of us, we witness a significant part of the story through her eyes. Biija has the wisdom of her people, the ability to ''see'' and ''read'' the nature and its signals without the smoked mirrors of society. In the character of Biija, we witness the fight between the Old Religion, the Pagan Ways of the region, and the attempt of the priests to smother everything they cannot understand, everything they fear and name it as ''evil''. Their relationship with the teachings of Jesus is non-existent. As usual.
''At the Resurrection, Jesus will return to wake the Faithful. What will he do if He finds them incomplete?''
Patriarchy and Religion are the two main themes in the story. Ekbäck has them working in parallel ways, driving the plot forward. Lovisa, a victim of patriarchal oppression in its most vicious form, finds a new affinity to nature and a new understanding of the people around her through Biija who represents the Old Ways. There is a comparison between the women's position in the Pagan past and the rules and orders of the ordained priests against them. No need to say which one is the losing side...
Aside from these themes, Cecilia Ekbäck stresses the importance of Nature, how the people of the past retained a special kind of wisdom due to their sacred proximity to their environment, their respect for every living thing, for the trees, the mountains, the soil...This is done in a language of impeccable beauty, with short sentences that make the narration move faster. Short,meaningful paragraphs is a characteristic feature of Nordic Literature, giving this special ''something'' to the novels.
If you have read [b:Wolf Winter|21413846|Wolf Winter|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1419320744s/21413846.jpg|40714611], you will equally enjoy [b:In the Month of the Midnight Sun|25766707|In the Month of the Midnight Sun|Cecilia Ekbäck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1466034423s/25766707.jpg|45613626]. Ekbäck takes a mystery and turns it into a novel that is part-Noir, part-Historical Fiction, part-Magical Realism. The story takes place in 1856, in Lapland, but the questions it poses are- and will always be- crucial and relevant to any time and any place. You need to read this one and experience the beauty that is Nordic Literature at its finest...
hauntedtesty's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0