Review: Quicksand

Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

With about 100 pages edited out, this adult mystery translated from Swedish would have been outstanding. But it took almost a week for me to read it, because I was always finding something else to do, and that's not a good thing.

18-year-old Maja is on trial for a school shooting in a ritzy suburb, and the novel is told through transcript-like chapters of the court case (think Monster) and flashbacks. The flashbacks were a bit too long for me--I wanted to know if Maja was guilty or not, and reading about her horrific relationships were distressing. These high school kids in Sweden have better sex than I did in my 20s, and their drug use and lack of parental figures is nightmarish. I had to keep reading to find out what happened, though, which means that I skimmed a lot toward the end. 498 pages was just too long, even though I enjoyed Maja's teen-ish voice--she is hilarious and very observant.

View all my reviews