Troll

A Love Story

De: Johanna Sinisalo

Narrado por: J. Paul Guimont

Everyone has their rough nights, but things have clearly taken a turn for the surreal when Angel, a young photographer, finds a group of drunken teenagers in the courtyard of his apartment building, taunting a young troll. Trolls are known in Scandinavian mythology as wild beasts, like the werewolf, but this troll is just a small, wounded creature. Angel decides to offer it a safe haven for the night. In the morning Angel thinks he dreamed it all. But he finds the troll alive, well, and drinking from his toilet. What does one do with a troll in the city?

Angel begins researching frantically. Angel searches the Internet, folklore, nature journals, and newspaper clippings, but his research doesn't tell him that trolls exude pheromones that have a profound aphrodisiac effect on all those around him. As Angel's life changes beyond recognition, it becomes clear that the troll is familiar with the man's most forbidden feelings and that it may take him across lines he never thought he'd cross. A novel of sparkling originality, Troll is a wry, peculiar, and beguiling story of nature and man's relationship to wild things and of the dark power of the wildness in ourselves.

©2000 Johanna Sinisalo. Translation copyright 2003 by Herbert Lomas. Original title and lyrics from the song Päivänsäde ja menninkäinen composed by Reino Helismaa. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Uneven and unfun

The style is poetic and introspective. And it deals with dark motivations. I enjoyed the lore and weird mythology that is interspersed. But almost all of the characters are bleak and annoyingly serious. The ending, however, was cool enough for me to forgive some of its flaws.

Harlequin for gay dudes

It was okay. It uses a lot of extra-plottory references to build the world, which pulls you out... but other than them, it was a great book!

Disappointed

I had higher hopes for this book, but it was a bit of a bore

Interesting story!

What made the experience of listening to Troll the most enjoyable?

The factual and almost encyclopedic about Finnish folklore and troll stories. The breaks the book takes to read these tales was a bit distracting at first, but I grew to like them. I just wanted more story surrounding the characters...

Robotic Narration

My apologies to the author; I didn't make it far enough into the story to even know if it's any good. The narration is so flat and monotone. He literally sounds like one of those pre-recorded robotic phone tree voices. I just can't. I pushing zero, and screaming at my phone to talk to a human. 🤣