Friday, September 6, 2013

Like the Swedes

Me on the Floor, Bleeding by Jenny Jagerfeld
Published:
July 2, 2013 by Stockholm Text
From the title, and knowing that this was YA, I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought maybe it would be a little to out there for me to relate to, but in fact for a lot of it the opposite was true. You couldn't help but feel and understand 17-year-old Maja with all the ups and downs life dealt her.

In some ways this reminded me of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but a YA version. I realize that's a bit of cliche since both of Swedish books, but there's still a similar tone and feel with each.

I'm a bit undecided on how I feel about the translation though, but I think that's more because some words don't translate well. When Maja says that she's in college, it took me a while to realize it was closer to our high school. But maybe there just isn't an equivalent translation for the word in English? Part of me think certain details would have made more sense in Swedish, but in a way that's part of what I enjoyed about this.

I think the main thing that stood out to me is how universal adolescence is. Yes, Maja is a teenager a decade after I was and growing up halfway around the world, except there's a lot of aspects of her life that I got and made sense to me. I guess it goes to show that growing up isn't so different as you'd expect.

4/5

Disclosure: I was provided this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Today I'm linking up with Blonde Undercover Blonde for Book Club Friday!

3 comments:

  1. Loved the Steig Larsson novels so I will HAVE to read this! I also recently heard there is a new[ish] series by another Swedish author that I've been meaning to hunt down.

    Happy Friday!

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    1. I definitely think you'd enjoy it then, especially if you're a fan of YA books as well. I think it's kind of a good mash-up of the two.

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  2. Hi, I saw The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo movie and I didn't like it but I haven't read the book . I am not a fan of YA although there are some great ones that I love. i.e: Vampire Academy , City of Bones and the entire Mortal Instrument series just to name a few. I don't know if I'd like this one but I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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