Little Star

A scream, a perfectly picthed E is heard in the woods.

Whilst out mushrooming, has-been Swedish popsinger, Lennart, makes an unpleasant discovery. He finds a lifeless infant in a plastic bag. The baby is resuscitated and turns out to have a beautiful and rare voice. Lennart takes her home and decides that she must remain untouched, undisturbed. Locked up in the basement, the girl Teres, must represent pure music and the purpose of his life.

At the same time another young girl grows up in a small village in another part of Sweden. Teresa finds it difficult to make friends and her only way to escape loneliness is via the internet. One day she sees a girl who calls herself Tora Larsson on the Swedish version of pop-idol and is immediately transfixed by her. Teresa tries to get in touch and it turns out to be Teres who has performed under a false name. The girls become inseparable and start making music together. They get a myspace hit and slowly their relationship changes. Teres starts seeing other girls who have seen her in the video.

Soon the girls gather outside the fence at Skansen, the local stage. Teres is the focal point, the girl they all worship, their idol. The group start seeing themselves as a pack of wolves and display wolflike behaviour.

Little Star is a story about a supernatural voice, about idolisation and where it can lead when the idol has an ulterior motive.

In Little Star John Ajvide Linqvist reintroduces horror in everyday Sweden and between bloody scenes and high pitched notes it is the failure of the adults and the fraigility of the young that are reflected in the story. It is his darkest book so far and both fans of John Ajvide and lovers of community singing at Skansen: please be warned