Ever since I’ve gone through my list of John Ajvide Lindqvist Books, I wanted to write a review for Little Star. But then I thought, how am I going to describe it? It’s like little girl gone bad. Or like Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn.

In the autumn of 1992, middle-aged Lennart Cederstrom drives his Volvo into the woods to hunt for mushrooms. He’s almost run off the dirt road by a black BMW speeding in the opposite direction. Lennart, a songwriter who for a moment in his youth seemed poised for stardom, discovers a baby girl wiggling in a shallow grave.

He saved her life. With her first breath – a perfect, musical note – he realised she was no ordinary child. It was for her own protection that he hid her from the authorities. Was it his fault, what she turned into? Or was that why she was left for dead in the first place? The girl who became a little star. Who became, with her extraordinary powers, the most terrifying thing imaginable.

In John Ajvide Lindqvist’s fourth masterpiece, he ratchets up the tension until the story reaches its blood-chilling conclusion. In doing so, he confirms his place as the undisputed new king of horror.

‘A magician of genre fiction’ Independent

I was expecting a vampire, zombie or ghost story and was ready for Lindqvist to veer down one of those boulevards, so I won’t give away where the story goes, except to say I was reminded of Stephen King’s Carrie a bit. It’s almost as if Lindqvist thought of doing his own version, except to make it Sweden, make it comment on pop music and televised singing contests, and make it far more disturbing. The result ends up 3,600 miles from Carrie.

Little Star, like Let the Right One In, taps into some seriously morbid self-intentions and instead of quieting down, cranks the disturbed amp to 9. Domestic abuse, child abuse, suicidal tendencies … if these subjects disturb you, you may be better off with a less challenging book. Yet in spite of its darkness, Lindqvist has the ability to spin a narrative about innocence, friendship and creativity that’s powerful.

“You can plan for things, work towards them for years, and yet they never materialize. Or you can just happen to be in the right place at the right moment, and everything falls into place. If you want to believe in something like Fate, she’s a capricious character. Sometimes she stand there blocking the doorway you were born to pass through, and sometimes she takes you by the hand and leads you through the minute you poke your nose out. And the stars gaze down and keep their counsel.”

The supernatural is also more ambiguous on this book. “Little Star” does not shed light on all its mysteries, nor does it tie all its loose ends. The pacing is a bit off, with the beginning stretching on- like a rollercoaster ride that has a very slow high rise. But what an atmosphere. By the ending, perhaps what horrified me the most was to ever have identified with the characters. Unexpectedly sad, as well.

“We are always in a certain amount of pain. There is chafing somewhere, and if it isn’t in our body, then it’s in our mind. There’s an itch, all the time.”