Where to Start with Elfgren & Strandberg
Sara Bergmark Elfgren and Mats Strandberg are a Swedish writing duo known for young adult fantasy that blends witchcraft, teenage isolation, and small-town claustrophobia. Their Engelsfors trilogy, set in a fictional town in Bergslagen and nominated for the August Prize in 2011, established them as one of the most striking voices in Scandinavian YA fiction.
Start here
The Circle
Sara Bergmark Elfgren & Mats Strandberg · 520 pages · 2011 · Moderate
Themes: witchcraft, friendship, small-town life, destiny
Six girls in a forgotten Swedish town discover they are chosen witches. A classmate is found dead. Something ancient is stirring beneath the surface of Engelsfors. The Circle is the book that launched the most celebrated YA fantasy series to come out of Scandinavia.
Why Start Here
It’s the first book in the trilogy, and it earns that position. Elfgren and Strandberg use the opening chapters to build a suffocating portrait of small-town life before tearing it apart with the supernatural. Each of the six protagonists gets her own voice, her own problems, her own reasons for not trusting the others. The magic, when it arrives, feels less like wish fulfillment and more like a burden.
This is the right entry point because it establishes the rules, the relationships, and the stakes. The sequels build on what happens here, and the emotional payoffs only land if you’ve watched these girls circle each other with suspicion before learning to trust.
What to Expect
A large cast that takes its time coming together. Genuine tension between the characters, not just against the villain. A portrayal of Swedish small-town adolescence that feels lived-in and specific. And a plot that accelerates hard in its second half, pulling the threads of six separate storylines into a single, devastating confrontation.
Alternatives
Sara Bergmark Elfgren & Mats Strandberg · 600 pages · 2012 · Moderate
The Chosen Ones survived their first battle, but the cost is only beginning to show. Fire picks up where The Circle left off and pushes every character toward a harder version of the question the first book raised: what are you willing to give up to protect the people you love?
Why Start Here
Don’t. Start with The Circle. This sequel deepens the world and the relationships, but it assumes you already know these girls and care about what happens to them. If you’ve read the first book and want more, this is where the trilogy gets darker, the stakes more personal, and the magic more costly.
What to Expect
Higher stakes and tighter bonds. The group dynamic shifts as secrets surface and loyalties are tested. Elfgren and Strandberg raise the tension without losing the emotional core that made the first book work. Expect a longer, more demanding read that rewards patience with some of the trilogy’s most powerful scenes.