I enjoyed this book, but found it a bit predictable. The description of the small village was realistic, but the plot and some of the characters weren’t as well described as they could be.. I have enjoyed other novels by Ragnar more to be honest.

I’ve read a couple of books by Ragnar Jonasson before, so his publisher kindly offered to send me a NetGalley review copy of his latest, 'The Girl Who Died'.

I’m very thrown by it. Nowadays writers are continually told to “show not tell”. It’s become a mantra that can be taken to ridiculous extremes. It is relatively modern writing rule. Many 19th-century authors “tell” all the time. It can seem a little odd to modern eyes, but it doesn’t stop them spinning a perfectly good yarn. I’ve often thought that we could make a great deal more use of straightforward telling, but this book seems to be told all the time. Let’s take a random sentence (the point at which I stopped reading and started to write this):

“Although he hadn’t said so in plain words, there was no doubt in her mind that he had been coming onto her. He had put his arm round her and angled for an invitation to go up to her bedroom. There was no way she could have misunderstood him, was there?”

There is no showing at all here. We are simply told what he has done and that the girl (the main character) had no doubt about his intent. It’s a simple statement of fact and I can see (indeed in the past I would have argued) that trying to look at the whole thing from “inside her head” can be overelaborate and unnecessary. But the story is almost all told in this tone, giving it a certain flatness.

Perhaps the author is trying to reflect the barrenness of the landscape in which our protagonist finds herself. She is in an isolated village on the very edge of Iceland with a population of just ten people. It’s not only a harsh and unforgiving landscape, but it is socially barren as well. Many of the characters seem to be social misfits. (I suppose they would have to be to live in such a place.) This style could, I suppose, have been deliberately chosen with this in mind.

The trouble is, it is, frankly, just boring to read: page after page of flat prose. And nothing really happens. The rather sad attempt at seduction I’ve just mentioned comes a third of the way into the book and is almost the most exciting thing so far.

There is something more exciting: a murder. Possibly a double murder. It appears, apparently arbitrarily, some way into the book and it’s returned to later. On both occasions it’s inserted in italics presumably to titillate us with the promise that eventually something will happen. But when? Is this something that has happened in the past? Or something that will happen in the future? And who is it who has been killed? We just don’t know. It seems a clumsy attempt to inject some interest where, so far, there is none.

The story is set in the Icelandic winter. So we have a rather dull character, her life so empty that she sees a job in this tiny village as an exciting opportunity, living in an almost deserted settlement in the middle of nowhere, when most of the time it is dark.

I’ve always thought that one of the greatest challenges that an author can faces to depict a spectacularly dull life in a way that is not itself dull. I can’t help feeling that Ragnar Jonasson has set himself this task and failed.

I get a lot of books off NetGalley and I feel that there is a social obligation to review them. It’s usually a pleasure. I’ve read many new authors and been exposed to some really interesting novels – including the first two I’ve read by Jonasson. Every so often, though, I come across something which I cannot, in good conscience, give a positive review to. I’ve only read a third of this book, so it may well get massively better, but I’m just finding it such hard work that I’m going to cut my losses at this point.

There is inevitably a lot of subjectivity in assessing any book. Some people may love this. For myself, though, this is going to get one of my very, very rare one star reviews.

Ragnar Jonasson is one of those authors whose books automatically jump straight to the top of my TBR pile.

He effortlessly writes such dark, chilling tales, which really are perfect for this time of year!

The Girl Who Died is a new standalone novel, but still set in a dark, secluded Icelandic town, as we've come to expect and love. For the first time though, I feel that Jonasson has truly written a chilling tale, as well as a murder mystery. Its not often that I have to shine a light into dark corners of the room when reading at night!

The story has a slow, creeping feel to it, yet somehow also manages to race along at a frantic pace from start to finish. Its a perfect winters tale, a perfect crime novel. Simply a joy to read.

In my opinion this title has a lot of unrealised potential. I felt several storylines were underdeveloped and it was trying to cover too many bases at once. The ending felt rushed and was unsatisfying. Shame as the setting was quite intriguing but it fell short for me.

A stand-alone novel by the author of some of my favourite thrillers., I was so excited to be able to read his latest work. Una goes to an extraordinarily remote part of Iceland to become teacher to two girls, and is put up in an attic apartment, which feels inexplicably sinister. The bleak weather, the remote villagers and the odd living arrangements all make Una wonder if she should have stayed in Reykjavik. Very spooky and totally engrossing.

A slow burner but somehow addictive reading. Most of the story was condensed into the last 20%. ,
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I've loved the other books by Ragnar but this one was a bit of a disappointment. It started off well, eerie and mysterious, but the ending felt rushed and was pretty unsatisfying.

This starts off slow but does pick up around the middle. I did a binge read at the end as I wanted to know what the villagers were hiding and it made me wonder what I would do in Una's place. I felt it was a little rushed at the end and, not to give anything away, I felt the other storyline wasn't properly resolved. In general the book as a whole could have had more flesh to the underlying story, too much was taken up by Una and her experience of her life in remote Iceand. However all in all it was okay and was a nice read in the run up to Christmas.

I found this book to be a huge disappointment. The plot is centred in a remote Icelandic community with only 10 inhabitants. A teacher is required to educate the 2 children and a 30year old from Reykjavik moves there to fill the vacancy. Once there her experiences are anything but normal.
However, in my opinion, Jonasson misses a trick by failing to create believable characters and as a result this reader felt one step removed from the issues they subsequently face. This has the effect of making the plot seem contrived. Feeling the remoteness, the darkness and the undercurrent of danger of this bleak little village is absolutely key to enjoying the book and, by failing to succeed in conveying this, Jonasson loses the balance between character and place. The result is a very average piece of writing. Not what I expect from an justifiably renowned author.

Quite enjoyable once I got into it but it took me a while, I couldn't really warm to any of the characters which is unusual for me. Overall, I didn't think this offering was as good or gripping as previous ones by this author.

Ragnar Jonasson steadily builds a story of ghosts, burgeoning romance, and murder to a totally unexpected ending. Along the way he asks questions about morality - what would you do? Best read on to find out ... and enjoy a very good book.

Loved this Scandi thriller/ghost story set in a remote village with just ten residents. Was so atmospheric and could really picture this tiny village. Forgot how much I liked ghost stories too! Fast paced read, pages just turned themselves!

In 1985, Una answers an advertisement for a ‘teacher at the end of the world’,which in Iceland is the village of Skalar on the Langanes peninsula, with ten inhabitants and two pupils for her to teach. She is escaping her grief after her father’s suicide and her reliance on red wine to dull the pain she feels.
When she arrives she is not welcomed by the villagers.She hears strange singing in the night and sees a ghostly child who she later finds out died in suspicious circumstances in the house in 1927. Her problems continue when she sees a man who she later learns has disappeared without trace ,but when she contacts the police she is not believed.The villagers close ranks and she is threatened by the village leader,Guffi.
Throughout the book there are flashbacks told by a woman who has been wrongly convicted of a murder,but it’s not till the end of the book that we learn the significance of this to the story.
The story held my attention and was quite unsettling ;the author recreates a very creepy atmosphere.However, it’s as if he couldn’t decide whether to write a crime thriller or a ghost story so he did a bit of both. I couldn’t understand why Una didn’t just get in her car and go back to Reykjavik .There are quite a lot of loose ends and the ending doesn’t really explain why she would decide to stay or not.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review which reflects my own opinion.

A young teacher takes a job in an isolated tiny village in order to get a fresh start in her life and finds herself shunned by the locals in this atmospheric thriller. She senses the ghost of a young girl murdered many years ago and falls foul of the entire village when trying to learn about her death as well as the disappearance of an outsider who visits the village.

I’m usually a fan of this author, have read several of his previous books and was very happy to be able to read this in advance of publication. Unfortunately I didn’t think this one was anything like as good as his previous books.
Teacher Una has a somewhat unhappy life in Reykjavik and, with some misgivings, accepts an offer to go and teach two girls in the remote village of Skalar. When she gets there, Una doesn’t feel entirely welcome (in fact, some of the villagers are particularly unwelcoming), there is the ghost of a child in the house she’s living in and one of the children she teaches is unfriendly, as is that child’s mother.
The main story is interspersed with flashbacks from a woman who has been imprisoned for a murder she is sure she didn’t commit.
I felt that the flashbacks from the imprisoned woman didn’t really go anywhere – that story is relevant but could’ve been told without the flashbacks. The unfriendliness of one of the children Una teaches is highlighted but turns out to have no relevance to the story and the circumstances around the death of one of the villagers seemed quite implausible to me. The ending was something of an anti-climax and, given the unfriendliness of the villagers (which also seemed a bit overdone), although there was no huge reason for Una to return to Reykjavik, there was no reason for her not to either.
A disappointing novel, but I would read more from this author as his previous novels have been good.

Una, a teacher in Reykjavik, is unsettled by her father’s suicide and has few friends. She answers an advert for “A teacher wanted at the edge of the world” . That description is exact. She goes possibly just for a year to Skalar on the Langanes Peninsula to teach the only two children there. The context of this book is as chilling as the story. The residents are unfriendly, the job unrewarding and Una drinks too much. The only hope is a relationship with the only eligible young man until it transpires that he is not what he seems. Slowly, Una grasps that there are hidden stories in this desolate place and the book moves towards an unexpected ending. Whether Una reacts correctly to what she learns is unresolved. Woven into all this is the death of a child, thus the title and, of course, the suggestion of a ghost. It is well written and keeps you interested.

The Girl Who Died toys with the reader - is it a murder mystery, a ghost story or the story of a woman before her murder? At one point, all of these seem to be possible.

I really enjoyed the story, it kept me up reading, under the covers, long into the night until I had to stop because I was a bit terrified. For a short book, it certainly packs a punch.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my review copy.

This was another excellent Icelandic mystery by Ragnar. Previous books have been truly excellent. Even though the pace is quite slow you are still itching to read just another chapter, then another and another. I thought Una was very brave to take on the teaching job in the isolated Skalar but she didn’t have much of a life back in Reykjavik. Her dismissal from the school was appalling, I think I would have appealed to the governors if they have something like that over there. Parents shouldn’t be able to constantly criticise teachers and at the same time send destructive and insulting emails to a teacher and expect an instant reply or else. Una was contending with a weak and biased headmaster. This book is part ghost story, part murder mystery and part fascinating about the lives of these people living in an isolated village on one of Iceland’s peninsulars. Once all was finally revealed by Thor and Hjordis I personally would have left as soon as but Una decided to stay, possibly permanently. Even though I cannot fault this brilliant authors work I did find the alter passages by Bjorne quite laborious and too long so I sadly ski mimed some of these pages. Until the very end you are not aware of the link so because there was so much content from her it started to feel annoying as you just want to continue with Unas story. I eagerly look forward to more from this author, he’s one of. My favourites .

Una, a young woman living in Reykjavik, takes up a post as a teacher in a remote Icelandic village which has just 10 inhabitants, including the two children she will teach.

What happens next is a fairly familiar plot, usually based around a large spooky house, whereas in this case it’s the entire village. Una enters a closed and not entirely friendly world, with strange happenings and talk of ghosts. Alongside this are flashbacks to a murder, though these are fairly brief and not explored in any depth.

For me this novel didn’t really work. The sense of dread doesn’t appear and the denouement is predictable for this genre. A shame as I like the dark Iceland series, but it seems that Jonasson is better at detective thrillers than spooky stuff.

#TheGirlWhoDied #NetGalley
It sucked me in.
Una knows she is struggling to deal with her father's sudden, tragic suicide. She spends her nights drinking alone in Reykjavik, stricken with thoughts that she might one day follow in his footsteps.
So when she sees an advert seeking a teacher for two girls in the tiny village of Skálar - population of ten - on the storm-battered north coast of the island, she sees it as a chance to escape.But once she arrives, Una quickly realises nothing in city life has prepared her for this. The villagers are unfriendly
I would like to definitely recommend this book to everyone. It's slow at some points but overall it's a good read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK Michael Joseph for giving me an advanced copy.