Loukko by 
Original title: Sarvijumala
Author: Magdalena Hai
Published: 2023
Publisher: Otava
Genre: Young Adult (13 or 14+)
Pages: 150
Creeping horror for the YA audience
- Magdalena Hai’s books have been sold in 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.
“The grim horror novel is one of the bright spots of this spring’s YA literature. [--] The Horned God is top-quality horror, where the atmosphere gets tighter and tighter as the bitter dead extort their loved ones who are still living. A little solace for [the main character] Lauri is offered by Vilja-Maaria, who, like the horned god, appears in his dreams. Hai reaches convincingly both the inner landscape of a young man and the reality numbed by the accident. [--] The Horned God gives the reader a tight, chilling story of death and regret.”
– Joonas Riekkola in Keskisuomalainen newspaper
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