Troll: A Love Story

Well. I must tell you. Two things broke this book to crap for me. Although it was generally rather boring, and I skipped all the alternating chapter of “Troll lore” that were just pointless (despite my love of mythology), and the ludicrous structure that switched so quickly from one character POV to another (in chapters as brief as a paragraph that communicate such deep transitions as “I swung my fist at him.” “His fist hit me in the cheek.”) that they pick up immediately where the o [...]

this book is both cute and creepy; and can be read in about three hours. what could be better?? it stays on table!!

Khem Nežinau, ką autorė rūkė, kad parašė tokią nesamonę, bet jai derėtų liautis. Nuobodi, kvaila ir visai bevertė knyga. Padori pradžia, bet toliau išsivysto į šizofrenišką absurdą. Nerekomenduoju niekam.

I was very taken with the idea of a fantasy book written by a Finnish author and steeped into Nordic folklore. This story is different from my usual reads (epic/low fantasy) and the worldbuilding is particular, consisting in several explanations, poems or details about trolls and other topics related to the story or the characters reactions to the events, all looking like book extracts. As a literary device to provide background and to further blend the elements of the novel, alongside my intere [...]

A Finnish book, which is not something I ordinarily get to say. This novel was flawed, but overall I really loved it. It takes place in an alternate universe where trolls were discovered to be a real, living species in the early part of the 20th century. Mikael, a photographer, finds a troll cub who’s somehow stumbled into the city, and takes him in. Their relationship is…not something I can easily describe, but it’s more than a little disturbing, oddly alluring, and completely captivating [...]

I have so many thoughts to capture in a review of this book. So many ways to try to justify not giving it that 4th star, or possibly talk myself into upping the rating to be 4 stars. But I'm also feeling very FUCK YOU at the moment and not inclined to generate content. Especially for a book that I purchased through FUCK YOU .I'll leave eloquence to those of you who can actually write.

Let me just preface this by saying that this is one of the best novels I've ever read. Prepare for some gushing. I also want to note that I'm an American reader, so a little bit of my fondness might stem from the novelty of being able to read an award-winning Finnish novel that was so wonderfully translated. For me, the book gave the same slightly-distanced feel that foreign movies have, and I love that. This is partially because America really lacks the quantity (and quality) of folklore that i [...]

I enjoyed the twist on the end in this and unfortunately this made me feel better about this book overall. But the more I think about it, the more I remember my apathy through most of the book. It's an odd bookActually, here's a question for my international friends. I can't figure out if this is a regional or translation issue. When you're a kid and you get in a fight with a sibling do you say "You began it!" or "You started it!"? and I couldn't help but wonder about why Angel was so incredibly [...]

This is one of those books that is hard to describe and oh-so-worthwhile. It's a contemporary urban fantasy and trolls are real creatures. They are considered animals, and Angel, the main character, finds an abandoned baby troll in the alley. This is presented as like finding a wildcat cub. Adopt at own risk.Then he spends the rest of the book researching how to take care of it. So it's sort of like reading a short story with a whole bunch of reference documents tucked between scenes, but that c [...]

For once, a synopsis, because I had never seen one (that actually said what Troll was about/happened in it): "Angel" (Mikael, gay photographer) takes in an abandonned Troll-puppy, which is described like a cat (believe me, I know, down to the litter), though Sinisalo lists good (fake) snippets how it is a recently discovered species of ape-cat (cp. the Okapi). Sinisalo uses real sources as well, most notably Pelli + Illusia (Angel with his head of blond curls so much like Illusia (a fairy) even [...]

oh now here's a lovely one.i was hooked by the first paragraph--a description of a young man flirting with another, wanting to hold hands and being subtly rejected. perfectly described--not overblown or sentimental, but with feeling. perfectd the rest of the story is like that, too. how a man falls for a troll. his efforts to care for the young, unwell troll. how his world begins to spin around the animal, and how it changes his lifee ending is pitch-perfect too--tragic but inevitable, and hopef [...]

Couldn't even finish it. Disturbing, not in the way the author intends. I'm uncomfortable with the underlying subtext of the book with the "child" like troll and its caretaker "parent" and where the author takes that relationship.

Tykkäsin mytologian sekoittamisesta nykyaikaan ja tarinan eri elementeistä, vaikka henkilöt olivatkin aika kamalia ihmisiä ja muita tekstilajeja seassa vähän liikaa. Muuten ehkä kolmen tähden arvoinen, mutta lopun tapahtumat nostivat neljään.

Why did I read it? It came up a few times on recommended lists and a book which featured a troll by a Finnish writer seemed like an interesting read, even when the synopsis hinted at sexual themes.What's it about? Mikael is returning from a gay club one evening and intercepts a gang intent on beating a cornered animal. Upon seeing the victim, it becomes clear to Mikael it is a young troll and, intoxicated by liquor and the beauty of the troll itself, he takes it home with him. Mikael attempts to [...]

This book had been mentioned by someone whose own writing I like quite a lot. It was a selection included in a creative writing course that he was teaching. In fairness, I never heard him say if he liked it or not, but wow - what a relentless bombardment of puerile drivel! I liked the troll, what little of him I got to see. Hated every other character in the (first half of)(far as I could get)the book. This is one of those books that I would like to physically throw just as far away from me as I [...]

This was a great story. I would have liked for more things to be made clear in the story instead of being danced around. and ack! the ending! Don't do that to me!

Всяка страна си има свое лице в литературата, което вероятно отговаря на географски, политически и исторически характеристики. Финландия стои някъде там в единия ъгъл на Европа, с нейния суров климат, прекрасна природа и народ, който хем е на скандинавския полуостров, хем г [...]

Johanna Sinisalo is apparently well-known in Finland. It's too bad the only pieces of hers that we have in English are this book and a short story in the Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy (which I have yet to read). But if Troll is representative of her writing, I have high, high hopes for more of her work.Troll plays with several kinds of eroticism and desire as we see the central story unfold: Angel, a gay photographer, rescues a young, injured troll from a band of teenage tormenters and takes i [...]

I didn't hate the book but I did hate a lot about it. I dislike in general when books are written from many different points of view, and this one seemed particularly hard to follow because of it. Characters are referred to by several different names so I cant even keep track of whose point of view it was in relation to what they've been a part of in the past. Plus I got a sick feeling that the only reason the author made the main character, Angel, gay, was to make the leap to bestiality/pedophi [...]

This is a unique and original book about a young troll who was being tormented by a group of teens. Angel, a photographer finds him and rescues him. But the troll is a wild animal. I'm not sure if it's a myth, legend, dark adult fairy tale or fable. The setting is in Finland which is part of the reason I chose it. Johanna Sinisalo is a very talented author. This is one of those books that will stay with me for a long time. 4.5 stars

Flat characters, nonsensical world building, and no plot. I don't know why a writer would center a book around a man discovering and falling in lust with a mythical creature, but not actually have any fantasy or wonder in the story at all. Plus, the characters and much of the writing felt mean spirited.

Really a 3.5, a quite interesting take on trollss, originating in Finnish myth.A young photographer finds a baby troll dying by the garbage dumpster, and decides to take it inbut trolls have legends all their own, and none of them are about domestication

Plot: Climate change is pushing trolls, once the stuff of folk tales, into urban Finland. A photographer finds a baby troll being abused by youths, takes it home and falls in love with it Ensue drama. The blurring between human and non-human is spooky and I’m not actually wholly sure trolls are fictional anymore 😂 Sinisalo raises really interesting questions of climate induced migration and what it means to be a citizen of the world; we’re experiencing the sixth great extinction now, what [...]

In the words of a character: this was damn uncool.

I read this book for a RL book group. I had already picked it up because it had such hype when it came out. I let it sit for a couple of years, and then read it for my group. I really wanted to like it more, but it was rather meh, disjointed and even a bit beyond the pale in some connections its makes. The story is of a young man who is full of himself. He is a photographer, gay, and personally and professionally hot. He is called Angel, but his real name is Michael. Those in his circle hang out [...]

3.5I've always asked myself; why do I end up reading weird books? Followed usually by another question; why do I end up liking weird books? And there's always that other question; Is something wrong with me?Sadly I can't answer them. Yet.If I could summarize the book it would be easy simple words. Gay guy falls in love with troll. Murder. Blood. Gore. Ejaculation. Gay guy and troll run away. End. Meaningless shit unless you're Freud. The author must have had some incredible major balls (metaphor [...]

The one where trolls are discovered in 1907 to be real animals, and in the present day, photographer Mikael takes in an injured troll cub.I'm glad I read this -- it was certainly worth the couple of hours I devoted to it -- but it wasn't really excellent. My chief problem was that all the voices in the first-person sections sounded the same. (This may be the fault of the translation.)I felt affection for Ecke and a sort of vague pity for Palomita, and of course the troll himself is endlessly fas [...]

This was another hard one. It's a little hard to get into, awkwardly written and simple, but I thought it was interesting, especially the encyclopedia and research articles that made trolls seem real. However, it is quite a tension-filled book, and not really in the I-want-to-know-what-happens-next way, but in a more Oh-God-what's-going-on way. This was another book that I picked up based on reviews; most people seem to love it. It was good, but strange. I loved the way Sinisalo described the va [...]

I had very mixed feelings about this book and actually would like to give it 3.5 stars but cannot quite justify giving it 4. I thought that the story itself was clever and I liked the interweaving of mythology and pseudo-scientific texts about but I get the feeling that perhaps the translation could have been better. There were a couple of times I read something and it fell flat but fell flat in a way that made me think something didn't come across the way it did in the native language printing [...]

This song kept playing in my head while reading this novel. It's not surprising because the Finnish title and the names of the chapters were taken from it. I don't usually read speculative fiction, this was probably my first as an adult, but I might read some more after this, though it didn't make me a fan. (I don't read contemporary fiction that often, either.)It was a weird little book, very Finnish because it relied so much on old Finnish folklore and classic novels. The author did use some u [...]