Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
2004
472 pgs.
5/5
Move over Twilight, because you’ve just been blown out of the water! Carole McDonnell told me about this book a long time ago when I was reading Twilight…she said that a friend of her’s had recommded it and said that it’s a vampire love story…which it is kind of, but it’s certainly no Stephanie Meyer book. Oh no. There’s gore, sex, death, murder, mystery and a beautiful story underneath it all.
Lindqvist is a German writer who I hope explodes in the US! I’d love to see more and more of his books in print. Let the Right One in is a bit of an epic story told over the course of a few days. Young Oskar is a boy that gets picked on at school all the time. More than just picked on, he’s tortured at school and doesn’t make friend easily. One night, he notices a mysterious young girl playing on the jungle gym outside of his apartment and goes outside to meet her. He notices immediately that something isn’t normal about her. She smells funny to begin with. Her name is Eli. He and Eli quickly develop a sort of friendship, though he soon moves to obsessing over her and trying to figure out who or what she is. Though she is a 12 year old girl by appearance, he thinks she’s much more.
Meanwhile, there is what seems to be a serial killer on the loose. As the reader, we know that this killer is Eli’s housemate, a human named Hakan who seemingly has a thing for young boys. Bodies begin to turn up all over the small town and it seems that the killer is bleeding them. Other bodies are being found with their throats ripped open. And this is all just the very beginning of the story.
Lindqvist tells a tale that chills the spine at times, that’s truly terrifying at other times, and is surprisingly touching at moments. This is a smart novel, yet it holds all of the entertainment value that one could hope for. His character development is fascinating and he has the ability to make us love a character, feel for a character, or be repulsed by them. He doesn’t hold much back. At times he pushes the limit of horror novels, which I absolutely love.
This is a book that I’d highly recommend to any fan of supernatural/vampire/crime novels. It’s been made into a movie that looks fantastic and I can’t wait to watch it. What makes this book even more cool is that the title of the novel comes from a Morrissey song called “Let the Right One Slip In.” Lindqvist is certainly a cool dude and I can’t wait to read more of his novels.
Other Views and Opinions:
Reading Matters
Love Vampires
The Lair of the Undead Rat
Cynical Optimism
Ooooooh, Chris, you’ve made me want this one sooooo badly!!! I’m so seeing a point coming your way soon.
Have you seen the movie? I hear it cut out some of the more interesting plot points from the book, but I still really, really enjoyed it and definitely can’t wait to read the book!
My review of the movie: http://relatedreading.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/movie-let-the-right-one-in/
If you end up watching it, be sure to get the more recent release with the original theatrical subtitles, or watch it dubbed. The first US release had some rather crippled, horribly written subtitles.
Oops, I got so excited about telling you about the movie that I skipped right over the last paragraph of your post! I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.
I want to read this now – definitely add to my TBR list.
Oh! That movie’s based on a book? I’ve a friend who likes vampires to be written as… well, this from the sound of it. I saw the trailer to the movie a while back and showed it to her, but I’d no idea it was based on a book! (Never mind one you were reading.) So definitely passing the title and author onto her for her to check out!
(Me? I’m scaaared of it. No likee horror, no.)
Chris! We just saw this movie the other night and both of us really liked it! It was filmed in such an interesting way, and is quite a haunting story. I highly recommend the movie! And I didn’t know it was a book. I’ve added this to my TBR list!
I’m so glad you liked it. MUCH better than Twilight. More realistic. As others have said, the movie is very much worth it.
Ooooh … that is the creepiest trailer. Sounds like this book might be a bit too gory for me, but you’ve made it sound so good, I think I’m going to have to try it. Just the thought is giving me shivers
I just reviewed this one yesterday. I’m also giving away my copy if anyone would like to enter go here
http://readywhenyouarecb.blogspot.com/2009/04/let-right-on-in-by-john-ajvide.html
I think it’s terrific, though I’m going to disagree with you on love story and beautiful. It creeped me out from start to finish, which is what a vampire story should do. I’ve had it with nich vampires, myself.
Debi, Score for points!
You’ll really REALLY like this one 
Lily, I did see the movie and I did really like it but they did cut out some MAJOR stuff from the book!! And I can’t even talk about it here because it would spoil the plot of the book…but the book is definitely better
Vivienne, Awesome
I’m sure you’ll love it!
Shanra, Awww, you should check this one out!! It’s really fantastic and the writing is superb.
Robin, The movie was really good but they left out so many major things from the book!! If you liked the movie, I promise you the book is even better. It was a great movie though.
Melanie, Oh yeah…lol…much much better than Twilight. Such a fantastic book! And the movie was great but I was annoyed at what they left out
Susan, I don’t think it’s too gory for you…I think you’d really like it acutally!
CbJames, Ah, I’m disagreeing back :p I think it had a first love aspect to it, especially for Oskar…and he seemed to bring out something in Eli that she hadn’t felt for a long time. I also thought that the writing itself was beautiful…and it had it’s moments when the story itself was too…but it was nice and CREEPY and I wholeheartedly agree with you there!! That’s what a vampire story should be indeed!!
I really want to read this one. I was going to watch the film then Mariel told me the kid has a snotty nose the whole way through and that is one thing I just can’t deal with!!!
Scaaaaaaaaaary, Chris! I’ll wait for my friend to have read it and tell me whether it’s a book I should avoid at all costs or not. *wary of this* She’s very good at telling that, for all that we’ve a pretty dissimilar taste in books.
This just came available on the Watch Instantly section of Netflix and I cannot wait to grab a free, dark moment to watch the film. I have heard wonderful things about it. Glad the book was so enjoyable.
The movie looks deliciously creepy. I’m breaking my “no scary movies” ban to watch it on netflix sometime.
I watched the movie and only later found out about the book. I think I prefer to read about horror stories than see them in movies…I didn’t expect it to be so gory! I loved the young girl’s performance though, she has beautiful huge eyes!
I don’t know if it was very realistic (I think she would have been caught or at least discovered and pursued but the police in real life and the ending is veeery hopeful, but not realistic at all. Other bits were strange and unexplained too), but I think I want to read the novel to know the original story!
The movie was too much like a horror version of twilight with the characters’ genders reversed. Am I being too critical?
@rhinoa: AHAHAH! He so does! I was like “please don’t lick it off!”
Oh man. I am seriously dying to read this! I just know there’s no way I won’t love it.
Rhinoa, Oh yeah..there is a lot of snot :p
Valentina, All I can say is that the book is a million times better than the movie! But I did like the movie for what it was. They just left out so many big big things!! That kind ofaggravated me. And I thought the actress that played Eli was AMAZING! So advanced for her age!
Nymeth, Yep…you’ll love it.
Carl, You may want to read the book before you watch it! It’s much better and there are things in the book that are left out of the movie…but I just watched it on Netflix too! I love that feature
Dang! You got to it first. Now I really have to read it. I just keep finding myself returning to books written before 1970. Reading and re-reading them. Lit major’s rut, I think. A snooty prejudice against anything written in our lifetimes. Great review! -C
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