Dead Weight

Dead Weight / Hildur Knutsdottir
translated from the Icelandic by Mary Robinette Kowal
NY: Tor, 2026, c2025.
152 p.

This was a very unexpected read, a short novel that I found in my library system and grabbed because of WIT Month. It's an Icelandic story but an author who is new to me. 

Sometimes these random discoveries are just the thing! I was shocked and surprised by this one, all in the best ways. For something so short, it really packed a wallop, and the ending was on point. 

Unnur is a solitary woman, happy with her job and single life, but one day a cat appears in her apartment. She puts it out but it appears again. And as it turns out, it's a pregnant cat who gives birth to just one kitten in her bedroom. 

Unnur tries to do the right thing and find the owner, to return this cat who's decided that Unnur's home is a great place to settle into. She discovers that the owner is a young woman, Asta, who desperately wants her cat but thinks it would be safer with Unnur. Why? Asta's home life is unsettled, to say the least. 

Unnur doesn't have many friends, and Asta needs one - they start developing a kind of friendship, with Unnur feeling protective of both Asta and her cat. She starts to realize that Asta's boyfriend is a problem. And in her mind, problems need to be dealt with. 

I didn't predict this storyline, and was genuinely surprised by the plot as it progressed. I really liked the characters - the story is told from Unnur's perspective alone, we are inside her head for the whole book and so things surprise us as much as they do her. This has been called a "cathartic horror story" in publisher blurbs, and I think they got that spot on. The female rage driving the action, and Unnur's no-nonsense reactions feel believable and satisfying. I read this in one go - you can't stop, the story is plainly told but propulsive. It's definitely a one-sitting read. Recommended!