Drowned

This was a very different and hard to process psychological novel. I actually read part of it and put it aside for a few days just to think about what I was reading. The writing is lush,the prose wonderful the descriptions are very visual and sensory, at times beautiful. So on one hand is this beautiful background and on the other little random clues that point to madness and violence in a relationship. Yet these are easy to dismiss and the woman in this story does so, almost as it probably is in real like when one is trying to justify staying in an abusive relationship. It is not until there is a death that this woman begins to questions the things she has experienced and witnessed, begins to re-evaluate what she thinks she wants. This show more novel has almost a dreamlike quality to it and I really can not decide if it was brilliant or just pedantic, in the end I decided that regardless the prose is superb and I wanted to see where it ended. ARC from NetGalley. show less

Creepy, suspenseful book about a young woman fascinated by her sister's lover. I felt like the book was a little too neat and composed to be really great- the adders in the grass, etc.- but Bohman does a terrific job building tension, creating atmosphere and establishing the mindset of Marina, the protagonist, as she vacillates between attraction, repulsion, obsession and alienation vis-a-vis this enigmatic and genuinely frightening man. Great for readers interested in sexual obsession and dark love.
http://www.bostonbibliophile.com/2012/08/review-drowned-by-therese-bohman.html

I read Bohman's other book, The Other Woman, and while it wasn't great, it was compelling in the way it tried to think about class differences and how it shapes gender relations.

This book felt like it had something more going for it. It's a thin story held together by thin characters, and that's fine if the language or the style was striving to be something unique, of its own. But it was, in the end, a rather conventional book. There's a great image to work with embedded within the story, but the ekphrasis just sort of faltered.

Something that bothered me in The Other Woman and is a lot worse here is Bohman's style; there are commas where periods should be, and I'm not sure if it reads differently in the original Swedish and if the show more translator Marlaine Delargy should have reworked it so it doesn't read like this in English: "They met at a party while she was still a student, he tells me how beautiful he thought she was, pale skin and strawberry-blonde hair, I swallow, I have to look away, gaze at the moon, which has moved a little farther across the sky, it just seems to be getting bigger and bigger."

I'm all for twisted female relationships, troubled sisters, and the hell that is heterosexual love under patriarchy (I'm thinking of Theweleit here, who said oppression of women occurs through "exaltation" of certain women via imposed standards of beauty), so I'm sad that I didn't quite like it. show less

Drowned is a creepy psychological thriller that describes two sisters, two visits, and two sides of one man. Bohman makes nice, economical use of a rural-sounding Swedish house, a lot of plants, Millais's Ophelia painting, and, yes, even the weather. I also thought Marlaine Delargy's translation read very nicely.

(There's more on my blog about Drowned, here.)

Drowned by Therese Bohman is a literary novel and atmospheric psychological thriller. As the description says, the basic story in is deceptively simple. A young woman from Stockholm, Marina, visits her older sister, Stella. Stella, a horticulturist, lives in the countryside with Gabriel, a charismatic older man who is a writer. Marina finds herself attracted to Gabriel, but also seems to sense something dark and surreal about her sister's seemingly idyllic life. The novel itself is much more complex than the simple story would indicate.

The tone of Drowned is ominous and threatening right from the start. Even though the first part of the novel is set in the summer and there is lots of talk about the heat, the garden, the flowers, I show more still felt a shiver up my spine. There are so many undercurrents of conflicting emotions and things left unsaid that the suspense was building as I anticipated that something was dreadfully wrong and questioned what was really happening. There are small clues carefully introduced as the novel progresses that help make the conclusion very satisfying for me.

Due to be released on May 22, 2012, I felt that this translation of Drowned done by Marlaine Delargy (who also translated The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, another novel I enjoyed), was very well written. It is a short novel that leaves a big impact. Although some readers may find the extensive descriptions exhausting to read, I Highly Recommended it. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/ show less

Dark and disturbing story of a woman who is obsessed with her sister's lover. The author weaves a well-written and beautifully descriptive story detailing this woman's obsession and the man's very dark side. The ending was not what I was expecting at all.

Author: Therese Bohman
Published by: Nordstedts Forleag
Age Recommended: Adult
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Raven Rating: 4
Blog Review For: GMTA

Review:

"Drowned" by Therese Bohman was a literary, psychological, and chilling -thriller novel.

"Drowned" is of a university student from Stockholm,Marina, visits her older sister on vacation. Stella who is a horticulturist and her husband Gabriel....who is a charismatic older man and a writer. Marina is attracted to Gabriel and senses something very strange in her sister's 'idyllic life' which she will end up caught up in the feelings of sensuality. A vacation that you would have thought to be relaxing soon becomes something very dark and forbidding." OMG! This will definitely leave the reader to show more wonder what was really going on in this more complex well written story. This is where I say you must pick up "Drowned" to read.

The author does a wonderful job as her descriptions and details the sensual and darkness ...the surroundings... of Marina's childhood memories..showing who she is and the relationship she had with her sister, Stella.



"Drowned" was rather a quick short read that did keep my attention till the end. The ending will be somewhat a surprise WoW! If you are in for a story with plenty of twists...then you have come to the
right place and I would recommend this thriller novel for you. show less