Book Review: Matti Laaksonen – Nach dem Sturm die Stille

Before I start talking about the book, here’s an important note: I’m writing this review in English, but the book is only available in German. German? Matti Laaksonen? Yes, German. Despite the Finnish (pen?) name, Matti is a German author and unfortunately the books are only available in German.

I’ve discovered Matti on Threads because we’re kinda in the same bubble – we both share a taste in music, in Finland and, obviously, my reading interests align with Matti’s writing. Queer YA romance? I’m all in for it. Even more so if the author is a queer nonbinary person with Annisokay songs in their writing playlist.

I’ve had Matti’s books on my wishlist for a while but didn’t know which one to start with. Good thing that Nach dem Sturm die Stille was a new release this year and Matti sold signed copies with quotations from songs of the writing playlist (guess who was hoping for an Annisokay song. Guess who didn’t get one.) It helped me decide that it was about time to buy a new book. And so I did.

The plot

The book focuses on Ruben and Kolja, two young men in their early twenties who both come with a big big backpack full of issues. On the one hand we have Ruben, who seems to struggle with severe anxiety. He lives in a very limited „world“ in a small (fictional) town in the Eifel – limited, since his anxiety keeps him from breaking out of his comfort zone. His life is pretty much centred around his flat and the local planetarium, which is both his workplace and kind of a safe space. His best friend Mo moved away several years ago and is about to marry the love of his life – and both Mo and Ruben obviously want Ruben to be a part of the wedding. Unfortunately, this seems very far away, since it would mean that Ruben has to leave his comfort zone to travel several hours through half of Germany to attend Mo’s wedding.

On the other hand, there’s Kolja. He’s the son of a baker family that runs their own bakery in Cologne. For him, his path always seemed to be fixed: He worked hard in the bakery to take it over one day. For him, the book starts with an attempt to get out of the daily routine for once to go on a trip he had to postpone several times due to his job duties. He makes it, and somehow finds his way into the planetarium Ruben works at. Their first encounter is striking for both of them, and Kolja promises to come back so that Ruben can give him a guided tour of the planetarium. Only that he can’t keep his promise, as his family calls him back to help them at the bakery again and Kolja returns to Cologne – and back to the routine that is getting harder and harder for him to endure.

They’ll meet again, despite all the hardships. And they’ll help each other overcome their struggles and find out what they really want in life.

The book in general is a soft slow-burn romance with a strong focus on mental health related topics.

The characters

The „cast“ of the book is as limited as Ruben’s universe. There’s Ruben and there’s Kolja – both are in my opinion well-written, round characters with a lot of depth and weight to carry. For me personally, Ruben was a true sweetheart – and Kolja sometimes drove me a little mad. The book skips between their POVs and being able to understand Ruben because I as a reader knew what was going on in his head made it sometimes a little hard for me to accept that Kolja did not always understand Ruben. Yet, their dynamics were really nice to read.

Besides those two, we get to meet Ruben’s „boss“ Karl, who’s been working at the planetarium already back when Ruben was a child and hence plays a very important role in Ruben’s life (partly because he’s one of the few people Ruben actually meets in person). Furthermore, there’s Mo and his fiancé Claire, who Ruben still feels strongly attached to (although he never met Claire in person). Despite the distance, Ruben and Mo kept up their friendship and Mo knows and, kind of, understands Ruben’s struggles. As a best friend, Mo is honestly doing a great job and I wish people like Ruben always had people like Mo in their life. Furthermore, there’s Ruben’s mother. Ruben’s mother obviously loves her son – and Ruben loves her mother. Nevertheless, their relationship is strained due to their past, which is also one of the reasons why Ruben’s little universe is so limited.

On Kolja’s side, there’s his parents who run the bakery. Especially his father is mentioned a lot. Their relationship is „special“ and Kolja’s father is – perhaps unknowingly – giving his son a really hard time. Also, there’s the bakery’s apprentice Sina, who’s trying her best to support Kolja. She’s sympathetic, but only plays a minor role.

My overall opinion

First of all, I really liked the way the book was written stylistically. For me personally, Matti Laaksonen’s style was easy to read. There was a nice flow, nothing lacking, nothing unnecessary. Yet I was struggling a little with reading the book because I felt my mind drift apart several times in the reading process and especially in the first half of the book there were a lot of parts that I had to read 3-4 times until I felt like my brain really picked up what was happening.

I assume it’s because for quite a big part of the book, you could say there’s not much happening. There’s not so super much activity. That’s partly because Ruben’s world is very limited anyway – and Kolja either has a hard time getting access to it, or has a hard time getting away from his own duties. We get a lot of insight into the minds of Ruben and Kolja and there’s a massive focus on their thoughts, feelings and struggles. It helps makes the characters seem round and understandable (and, to a certain extent, possibly relatable), so it’s not negative in any way. It’s just that in some parts I could possibly relate a little too much, so that the book kept inviting me to think about my own thoughts and feelings and struggles (which is also why I kept waiting for a while before I finally dared to read the book, because I knew I needed to be in the ‚right mental state‘ to read it).

The story between those two is beautiful and the slow-burn is well written. I always had the feeling that things in the book were happening at the right time, at the right speed. Although there was some kind of tension/attraction between Kolja and Ruben, the author gave their relationship enough time to bloom, so that both could get used to each other and explore. Which is something I want to point out as very positively because while this book kinda claims to be slow-burn, it just felt like it had the absolute right pace, while some romances just feel super rushed.

Quite often it happens that while reading a book, I furrow my eyebrows and think „This doesn’t feel quite right“ and while I had those moments where I was pretty much like „Oh Kolja, stop it“, everything still felt „relatable“ and just very realistic and I loved that.

For me, the second half of the book was also easier to read as it managed to keep my attention on the book and I guess that’s because there was a little more … action. No spoilers, so I’m not getting any more explicit here, but let’s just say that both Kolja and Ruben went out of their ways to develop further as people. And to get further in their relationship to each other.

All in all, it was a very nice read. And I cried a few times. I’m looking forward to reading more books by Matti Laaksonen, even without being baited with song quotes 😂