Loukko by 
Original title: Sarvijumala
Author: Magdalena Hai
Published: 2023
Publisher: Otava
Genre: Young Adult (13 or 14+)
Pages: 162
Reading material:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition
Creeping horror for the YA audience
✓ Winner of the Finlandia Prize for children’s and YA literature of 2023! Nominated for the Topelius Prize of 2024!
✓ Rights sold in 7 languages & a bestseller in Finland with over 6,000 copies sold
✓ Magdalena Hai’s books have been sold in over 27 territories and she has been nominated for several prestigious awards (Finlandia Prize, Nordic Council Literature Prize)
✓ Magdalena Hai is the winner of the Finnish Literary Export Prize (2017) and Kaarina Helakisa Prize (2020)
When death touches your life, everything changes.
Lauri wakes up in the hospital after a fatal car crash and he doesn’t remember much about it. Mom is dead and now life has changed drastically.
When Lauri starts his slow recovery in a small town at his aunt’s house, he has an unpleasant feeling that everything is not right. The dead don’t stay dead and the beautiful neighbor Vilja-Maaria doesn’t want to live. When an ominous creature with antlers appears behind the window, Lauri begins to see nightmarish dreams that feel too real.
17-year-old Lauri wakes up in hospital after a car accident. His mother has deceased, and father is in a coma in hospital. The horror story beautifully links the descriptions of recovering from a big loss, the grueling presence of awful things, the guilt caused by mistakes and the act of letting go. The novel which influences the reader on many levels also describes in a lively matter the everyday life of teenagers, experiences of mental health struggles, and racism. Below the horror elements there is an undercurrent that ties people together. At times in a painful way.
– The 2024 Topelius Award Jury
Download reading materials
Rights sold:
FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
DENMARK: ABC Forlag
ESTONIA: Päike & Pilv
HUNGARY: Metropolis
NORWAY: Gursli Berg Forlag
SLOVENIA: Didakta
SWEDEN: Epix
UKRAINE: Bohdan
