''Engelsfors'' is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

young adult A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wo ...

written by

Mats Strandberg Mats Strandberg (born 1976) is a Swedish author. Strandberg has been a columnist in Aftonbladet. His debut novel was ''Jaktsäsong'', published in 2006. His young adult fantasy novel ''Cirkeln'', the first book in the '' Engelsfors'' trilogy wr ...

and

Sara Bergmark Elfgren Sara Bergmark Elfgren (born 1980) is a Swedish writer and screenwriter. Her first novel, '' Cirkeln'' (''The Circle)'', and the sequels '' Eld'' (''Fire'') and '' Nyckeln'' (The Key) (known collectively as the Engelsfors trilogy), were written t ...

. All three novels in the series have been translated into English. A Swedish film adaptation of the first book in the series, ''Cirkeln'' (English: ''The Circle''), was released on February 18, 2015. There are plans to film adaptions of the second and third books if the first film is a commercial success.

''The Circle''

''The Circle'' (Swedish: ''Cirkeln'') is the first book in the ''Engelsfors'' trilogy. The novel takes place in a fictional rural town, Engelsfors, in central Sweden, and follows a group of teenage girls with little in common who discover that they are witches. The girls, known as the Chosen Ones, are destined to save the world from an approaching apocalypse caused by an otherworldly evil ("demons"). In addition to the fantasy theme, the novel also uses tropes of

horror fiction Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. ...

, psychological realism and the

unreliable narrator An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility is compromised. They can be found in fiction and film, and range from children to mature characters. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in ''The Rhetoric of Fiction''. While unre ...

. The novel has been sold for publication in over twenty different languages, in addition to its native Swedish.

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...

released the English translation in the U.K. on June 7, 2012, and in other English-speaking countries during the summer of 2012. The novel won ''Bokbloggarnas litteraturpris'' which is awarded by major Swedish book

bloggers A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

, as well as '' Bokjuryn'', where over 30,000 Swedish children and young adults vote for their favorite books. It was nominated for the

August Prize The August Prize ( sv, Augustpriset) is an annual Swedish literary prize awarded each year since 1989 by the Swedish Publishers' Association. The prize is awarded to the best Swedish book of the year, in three categories. Prize In the years 1989- ...

youth award in 2011.

''Fire''

''Fire'' takes place about 10 weeks after the events of the first novel. It follows the same

like the first and further develops themes of

, psychological realism and an unreliable narrator(s). The plot also makes analogies to the effects of

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in a broader sense also includes ...

on Sweden's subarctic climate and the

group behaviour Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (''intra''group dynamics), or between social groups ( ''inter''group dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision ...

dynamics of political, religious and ideological extremist groups.

''The Key''

The final part in the series was published in English in the United States in October 2015. The novel concludes the story of the Chosen Ones.

References

{{Engelsfors 2010s fantasy novels 2010s horror novels Dark fantasy novels Fantasy novel trilogies Horror novel series Novels set in Sweden Swedish fantasy novels Swedish-language novels Urban fantasy novels Young adult fantasy novels Young adult novel series Rabén & Sjögren books Witchcraft in written fiction 21st-century Swedish novels