John Ajvide Lindqvist

Another tough read. A Swedish vampire novel, it again ignores most of the conventions, instead going for the jugular with some profoundly disturbing sexuality combined with merciless social realism. Horrible, horrific and heartbreaking, redeemed only by the touching friendship at its core, this is probably the Iron Dragon’s Daughter of vampire novels. Unromantic, unsexy, uncomfortable and brilliant.

Admittedly, it took me a few pages to get into Let Me In. Once I fell in love with Oskar and Eli I couldn't get enough of their story. Being a twelve year old sensitive boy, Oskar is the subject of daily bullying at school. He dreams of murderous revenge far beyond his sad and lonely years. At night he takes a hunting knife into the woods and repeatedly stabs trees, imagining the soft and penetrable flesh of his school yard enemies. Meanwhile, Eli is a mystery. With a strange way of speaking show more and no history to speak of, Eli fascinates Oskar to the point of obsession. He finds himself in love with a strange girl who only comes out at night, repeatedly says she neither a girl nor boy, and can solve puzzles she has never seen before in the blink of an eye. Who is she? Then the murders begin. Gruesome and strange, victims are drained of blood. Is Eli to blame?
A running theme through Let Me In is the absence of father figures. Eli has a fake father. Tommy has a fake step-father. Oskar's dad has divorced his mom and is living an alcohol-soaked life outside of town. I wanted to pay attention to the mothers for I hoped they would be the unspoken heroes of Let Me In.
Not so much.
As an aside, I appreciated the literary references of Plato, Dante, Pyramus, Thisbe, and King Minos. show less

This was not an easy book to read, but I will say that it was worth it. I read this for a local horror book club and was inspired to partake because I love the Swedish film. This book is a whole lot more graphic and includes more storylines than the film. This is the story of Oscar, a lonely bullied 12 year old boy and Eli, the seemingly young girl who moves into the apartment next door to his in their apartment complex in Blackeberg, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. On one hand, this is a show more story of friendship and found family, and on the other hand it is a horrors unleashed on a town when a vampire and its' seneschal move into town. But it is also existential horror, where the characters have to confront the horror of barely existing, in this seemingly joyless town amidst the backdrop of the cold war in the early 1980s. There are a lot of layers to this book, but it is not for the faint of heart. There are gruesome scenes, the thrall of the vampire child is a pedophile and is arguable the true monster of the novel, and there are numerous scenes of bullying and abuse. But I found this to be a compelling and important novel because it has a lot to say about existence, gender, conformity, and acceptance. show less

Oh dear. This writer is phenomenal. He managed to steal my sleep with Let the Right One In and he's done it again with this book. Even though the plot might make you think it's cheesy -people come back as zombies- you don't know the half of it. Entertwined with the whole undead thing -scary as hell- is a subplot as strong as the main one; and that is the one about what happens when you loose someone you love. The feelings, the rage, the sadness, the feeling lost as lost can be and the show more terrible realization that you'd do anything to have them given back to you. At any cost. In any shape. Really good book. Needless to say, this one made me go buy the rest of Lindqvist's books. Hello sleepless nights. show less