The Circle - Mats Strandberg

The Circle is the first book as part of the Engelsfors trilogy, translated from Swedish and takes part in a rural town, where strange things start to occur. The trilogy is a young adult fantasy novel which also has elements of horror and psychological drama. It is a fairly lengthy book but readers shouldn’t be disheartened as it is a very gripping read.

Six teenagers from the rural town are drawn to an abandoned theme park in the middle of the night as a red moon emerges in the sky. Soon these characters are drawn together, despite the fact they are from different backgrounds in order to discover their ‘fate’ as the Chosen Ones. As this novel progresses it is clear that everything is not as it appears in the seemingly sleepy town.

I had high expectations for this book due to various reviews, the fact that someone bothered to translate it (the circle has been translated into 21 different languages) and also the assumption that all Swedish thrillers are great (see 'The girl with the dragon tattoo' or 'Let the right one in'). I made the mistake of reading this at night as I couldn't put it down due to how the chapters fluently weave into one another and through the different perspectives of the very individual character. 

Having not read many fantasy books I was slightly apprehensive about delving into this book and at first I found this book difficult to get into. The character introduction were quite lengthy, but necessary and after the initial shaky start, I flew through the novel as the pace quickened with my pulse. There were many plot twists that I didn’t see coming, which is rare due to the amount I read. Each time I thought the plot was resolved in my head something threw me off track.

I loved the narrative, which was an over-the-shoulder 3rd person and I genuinely cared about what happened to (most of) the characters. The characters were really relatable as they all had their own secrets, stories and were very realistic without annoyingly moping over nothing.  The Circle also made me realise how these teenagers were easily manipulated by others due to their strong emotions and past history. I enjoyed the concentration on each character as an individual as well as how they worked together and were all important to the novel. 

I would recommend this book to the young adult audience as it has a few adult references and elements of psychological and suspense drama.

Towards the end of the novel, when the strings were drawn together I felt that everything was taken into consideration, with no continuity errors but obviously as this is a trilogy there was no absolute conclusion. I really want to read the next two books, but found these books difficult to find in my country. If you are interested in reading this fantasy novel, I would recommend checking out www.bookdepository.com

596 pages