"Monsters. How could she possibly read that word without sneering? What she was looking for were hardly monsters, but still it was here among the monster researchers that she found her sympathisers...
'Monster' did not mean 'beast', it meant 'warning', from the Latin root 'monere'. It could also be interpreted as 'reminder'. The word 'monument' had the same origins.
But what was it a reminder of?"

I picked this up despite mixed reviews and am seriously glad I did. Stefan Spjut's "Stallo", translated from its original Swedish, is curious and clever in its combination of crime and horror with the Nordic folklore of the child-snatching, man-eating 'trolls' it expands on.

Despite it's lack of flowery description and its winding nature, Stallo is charming in a very normal way, and reads with all the nuances of the Swedish language despite being translated. It practically sparkles on the page with its blunt and 'everyday' ordinary depictions.

I absolutely loved this book though it's definitely not for everyone. Charming and magical but in no way fairytale, it leaves you with the question - in a world where the human and the not-so human live in the same land - who are the real monsters?