Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124161 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-23
• Released on: 2007-01-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up—A small town in Sweden becomes embroiled in a mystery when one of its own becomes a missing person. One day Hilmer Eriksson walks into his high school classroom and finds that he has become invisible. He is a quiet young man who likes chess and has a steady girlfriend. The teen wonders why no one can see him and begins to realize that something terrible has happened. Hilmer learns that he is missing, but is confused because he can see what is going on around him. Soon he realizes that he is invisible to the outside world. Detective Harald Fors arrives to investigate his disappearance, and the teen remains by his side. After conducting several interviews, Fors suspects that a group of skinheads is involved: the teen had earned their wrath by trying to protect one of its victims—a fellow student who is an immigrant. Even after Hilmer is found hidden away in a compost heap, badly beaten and barely alive, his ghostly presence continues to follow the characters, until his body dies and his strength runs out. The story is intriguing at first, but once Fors gets on the trail of the skinheads, the book becomes predictable. Much of the story line centers around Hilmer's reaching out for help and no one responding because of his invisibility. However, as the plot picks up speed, the interludes describing his thoughts are dropped haphazardly into the chapters without cohesiveness. Give teens Carol Plum-Ucci's The Body of Christopher Creed (Harcourt, 2000) instead.—Shannon Seglin, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
This taut police procedural, full of foreshadowing and suspense, opens as Hilmer, a 15-year-old boy in a small Swedish town, realizes that he has become invisible and is believed missing. The focus soon shifts to Fors, a policeman brought in to investigate the case. Invisible Hilmer follows along. During the next two days, interviews with Hilmer's girlfriend, mother, classmates, and others reveal the missing boy's quiet integrity, and Fors learns that teenage neo-Nazis, abetted by prejudice among adults, may hold the key to the disappearance. Hilmer's angst and confusion contrasts with Fors' dogged pursuit of clues to the boy's fate. Wahl's skillful, understated prose explores the dark side of modern society, and readers come to understand that the book is less a mystery than a human tragedy. The book was published first in Sweden, where it was made into a movie; a U.S. film version will open in April 2007. Kathleen Odean
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"The intriguing premise of this suspenseful novel will pull readers right into contemporary Sweden.  As far away as this rural Swedish community may be, readers may be chilled by the commonalities of the dark side, wherever humans dwell."  --Publishers Weekly "Wahl’s skillful, understated prose explores the dark side of modern society.” –Booklist “Quietly haunting.”  —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, April 2007
 
“Compelling.”    —VOYA, April 2007 “More than just a good mystery, Wahl's story captures a community afflicted with a deep sadness, where the adults are as alienated as the literally and figuratively lost teenagers.”—Ellegirl.com
 

Customer Reviews

The book is great!
I really liked this book! It differs very much (and the final too) from the movie, so be ready to find here absolutely new heroes, if you order "The Invisible" to read about Annie & Nick. But still it is great. Life, society and people as they are.

ThE InViSiBlE KcS
How would you feel if you beaten one night, but didn't know what has happen to you and discovered that you have become invisible? This is how Hilmer Erikson feels in this story. The title of this book is The Invisible by Matts Wahl. The setting of this story takes place in Northern Sweden and is modern time. The main character of this book is a 9th grader named Hilmer Erikson that has become invisible and is trying to discover why and Detective Fors who is trying to find the disappearance of Hilmer Erikson.

On a Monday morning at Lugnet School, Hilmer Erikson finds out something weird, no one can see or hear him and does not know why. hilmer soon discovers that he has become invisible. Detective Fors is trying to put the disappearance of Hilmer together. He soon finds out that it was a group of kids from Hilmer's school that has kicked him to death. While being beaten, Hilmer is called a traitor for being nice to immigrants. Hilmer finds that his body is still alive and its his spirit that is trying to save him. He waits so that he can learn about the past events in his life.

I think that the theme of this book is to watch out for others and to always be aware. The meaning of title The Invisible is about Hilmer being Invisible. I think the pacing of this book was very good and the authors craft was very detailed and he left you wondering throughout the whole book. I didn't think that this book was in Christian perspective because there was a lot of swearing throughout the story but in the ending there was people praying. The genre of this story was realistic fiction because everything in this book could happen in real life. I thought this book was excellent and I would recommend it to people who like mysteries.

Good Story but the Invisible Factor Plays No Part in the Plot
I really enjoyed this book but the factor that attracted this story to me in the first place (an invisible kid who can't communicate with the world but finds out there's a police search for him) didn't play much of a part in this story. Don't get me wrong I still enjoyed this short story length read, but I feel many people may purchase this novel and feel slightly cheated being that other than for marketing the book, Hilmer being in the story as an invisible entity is pointless as he does not alter the investigation, interact with anyone or have any purpose for the plot, in fact there's very few paragraphs he even appears in at all. The story would have flowed smoothly, in fact smoother without him as his being in the present as an invisible one only lets the reader know for sure something bad has happened to his real self and he's not just a runaway as a lot of the townfolk want the detective to believe. Still lets be honest not many of those of us who read the book probably would have done so without this clever or unethical marketing twist but the reputation of the author may well suffer for future work due to this.

The Invisible is an enjoyable read though, complete with a main character Detective Herald Fors who like any real cop does has his flaws. His frustrations at the incompetent and selfish small town residents who prefer to brush a problem under the carpet rather than find a missing boy so their tourism marketing campaign to the Germans isn't messed up is brilliant reading. Tackling bigotry and hatred but explaining why the main bigot actually developed this rationale was also very well done. I would highly recommend this book and read more novels by this Swedish writer but I think they took a big risk with the minimal invisible non essential plot factor which may put a lot of readers after that sort of thing off side.

Read the book, it's good!