Review: The Beast

A brutal child murderer and paedophile escapes from prison. The police are aware that if he is not caught, he will kill and kill again. However, their worst fears come true and a little girl falls victim to the sexual predator. The father of the child, Fredrik Steffansson, decides that he will take revenge and his call for justice will have devastating effects right across the country.

‘The Beast’ is a powerful story and it took me a long time to get into it. Even when I had finished the novel, I could not say that I had enjoyed it in any way, shape or form, but I understood the comments and the point that the authors were trying to make. Börge Hellström is an ex-criminal, who now works to rehabilitate others, and his co-author, Anders Roslund, is a prize-winning news reporter. The novel is particularly explicit in terms of language and when the authors let the reader into the paedophile’s head. This was very off-putting at first, but it is necessary for them to do this, in order for the reader to understand the outpourings of hatred and fury against paedophiles and alleged paedophiles. However, this explicitness means that many readers will find it offensive and unpleasant.

I also found the characters very hard to understand. As a general rule, there are normally some characters in a novel that the reader can identify with or at the very least, comprehend their reasoning. However, in ‘The Beast’, none of the characters were likeable in any way. Police officers are usually characters that the reader can get behind, but here, Detective Chief Inspector Ewert Grens is just as unpleasant and dislikeable as all the other characters. We can sympathise with Steffansson because of the murder of his child, yet he still seems an aloof, cold character that did not quite ring true. Some characters could do with much more sketching out and remain somewhat like cardboard, and indeed, some events could also do with explaining, rather than just left in the air.

In terms of the translation, the book seemed to work well. At times, some of the dialogue seemed slightly stilted, but I wonder if this was not a deliberate feature of the text. The one term that I would question is that of ‘beast’ to refer to paedophiles. The reasoning given in the novel is that it is because they are committing bestial acts, and obviously, such a word has particular connotations, but the term is used with such frequency and it just does not sound correct to my ear. There are other slang terms used in English to refer to child molesters, such as ‘nonce’, and I wonder if sometimes this would not have been a better term.

‘The Beast’ was nominated for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of 2005 and there is no doubt that it is a powerful piece of work. The authors make some sharp points about vigilantism and the dangers of taking the law into one’s own hands. In the UK, we have already seen examples of the pursuit of supposed paedophiles, only to find that these people are innocent and were in fact paediatricians! A grim picture of modern-day Sweden is painted, with a very bleak outlook for society. There is no doubt that ‘The Beast’ will not be for everyone, but for those who can stomach its cold brutality, they may well find something interesting here.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Luke Croll - RAM

Book Review: The Beast