Finished reading ‘Handling the Undead’ by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It deals with the return of the dead, but they don’t shamble around biting people. They return and the living have to deal with it. This turns the novel into something that cuts deeper. Ramsey Campbell reviewed ‘Pet Sematary (Spoiler warning) saying that he would have preferred it, if the child returned dead, but not malevolent and the family had to cope with this. It’s difficult to believe that Lindquist has read this, but the finished book proves the success of this approach.
Something else I’ve been wondering, is it easier to become moved by fictional events once you have lived for a while? When you are young, it’s possible to not get the full force of what death or heartbreak means. So when it happens in fiction, you don’t really understand until a certain point in your life.
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