Review: Me on the Floor, Bleeding by Jenny Jägerfeld

Me  on the Floor, Bleeding
written by Jenny Jägerfeld
published by Stockholm Text

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Why did I pick this book: I was asked by the publicist to review this title. (I received a copy of this book for review purposes.)

Did I enjoy this book: Surprisingly, yes.

Imagine Lisbeth from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower getting together to create a new character. They would no doubt spawn Maja  and her story in Me On The Floor, Bleeding.

This book has so much to offer. Jägerfeld creates explicit imagery, writing with near surgical precision. She develops characters whose isolation feels contagious and chilling.

Maja, the main character, is what we would call accident prone. Early in her story it becomes clear that her numerous external injuries are metaphors for psychological wounds. At one point another character jokes with Maja that she should learn to wear red t-shirts so the blood won’t show.

I want to stop and let that last sentence sink in. For young adults edging ever nearer to adult choices, problems, and disappointments, I guess that’s a big part of growing up; learning to wear a cool, red exterior so the blood of our emotional injuries don’t show through. Disturbing.

Would I recommend it: Yes.  It’ll appeal mostly to YA readers and those who enjoy a dark, psychological drama that packs a powerful emotional punch.

Will I read it again: I will not.  It’ll take weeks to get some of those dark images out of my mind.

About the book – from Goodreads: High school outsider Maja would never hurt her¬self on purpose as her dad, teachers, and classmates seem to believe. Can’t a person saw off the tip of her thumb without everyone starting to worry? That is, everyone except Maja’s mum, who seems to have disappeared from the face of earth.

Crashing a neighbor’s party, Maja meets twenty-year-old Justin Case, a super-verbal car mechanic with pink pants, who makes her forget everything about absent mothers and sawn-off thumbs, at least temporarily. But then Maja hacks into her father’s e-mail account and reads an e-mail that hurts more than all the electric saws in the world.

In this funny and clever coming-of-age novel, seventeen-year-old Maja describes each moment with such bare-bones honesty that one can’t help but be drawn into her world. Wise beyond her years yet still surprisingly naïve, her story is entertaining and enlightening, at turns both hilarious and bittersweet.