John Ajvide Lindqvist's Chilling Vampire Tale, "Let the Right One In"

aoifha: Amazing book. Slightly graphically disturbing but an amazing story.

There's something about the main character that makes you feel their pain.

United States on Oct 23, 2023

L. Brown: I just want to say upfront that I think the Swedish adaptation is a masterpiece. It’s just very different than the book in some key ways.

First, I wouldn’t say the power of this book is that it’s scary; it’s just really disturbing. The details about Eli and her “caretaker” and the lives they led before the start of the book play into much darker themes about child predators than got shown in the film.

Also, there are a lot more interesting undercurrents of queer identity that were not shown in the film at all. I won’t spoil it, but there are some major plot points that only got hinted at in the film but are on full display here.

But the book flags where the film was pretty elegant in its structure. And I don’t really think it’s scary, but some people will undoubtedly not mind it being so disturbing.

So if you like atmospheric horror that can get pretty disturbing, you will enjoy this.

United States on Jan 09, 2023

Monica K. Thompson: Full of twists and turns, characters come alive in this book. Some may find some of the subject matter offensive and off shoots too much. I didn't like certain aspects; however, this book held my interest and I felt it was tastefully portrayed. So far I would class author John Ajvide Lindqvist in with Stephen King. Plan to continue exploring this author's books.

Canada on Dec 27, 2022

Kindle Customer: Not as chilling as I expected but nevertheless was a good story. I thought it was more gory than anything else. I’ll still look in shadowy corners though!

Canada on Oct 13, 2022

Kate: This book describes the complex emotions of two groups usually ignored in literature: ostracised alcoholics and children who are a little bit different. Loneliness, exhilaration, love, despair and especially fear are described so evocatively. This alone makes it a worthy read.

Australia on Jul 26, 2018

Toni: A great story of romance with horror elements, but not too insulting like other "vampire tales."

Canada on Dec 16, 2015

Alan Indiana: This book has a lot to recommend it if you're into supernatural gore-fests. It's written well, and the translation is excellent. That's not where I had a problem with the book. One of my issues with the book is personal: I just can't stand reading stories of bullying. So there's that. My other issue is the climax (spoiler alert, but I'll try to minimize the give-away): it bothered me that Oskar isn't the one to save himself, that he needs a deus ex machina to save his life and finally end the bullying. This book I'm sure is very popular among young teen readers: both main characters are 12 years old or so. But the message it sends about how to deal with bullies (letting them have their way with you, or murdering them) is a troubling one.

United States on Apr 20, 2015

Lindsay: The story is by now well-known and covered in other reviews. I'm only going to add that I've been a vampire tragic since reading Dracula as a child and found this book to be a unique take on the genre. Good enough to make me read all of Lindqvist's published works. An entertaining, quirky storyteller, this guy.

But the ending? Wasn't it a little vague? Oskar sitting alone in a train compartment in charge of a large travelling trunk, having his ticket punched by the conductor. Leaving the "ever after" to your imagination.

Not good enough for many readers who contacted Lindqvist asking for a sequel. And got one, just a few pages, buried in a book of short stories.

Of course the police investigated Oskar's disappearance. The last person to have seen him turned out to have been the train conductor, so at first he came under suspicion. His story was that at the train terminus he saw not one but two children, a boy and a girl, sitting on a large box in the near-darkness of the far end of the station carpark, slicing each others' hands with a knife.

Exuding such an air of menace that he dared not approach them.

Many years later, in the late 1990s, a...

Australia on Dec 04, 2013

Shannon: 3.5 Stars.

WARNING: If you are sensitive to gore or topics such as pedophilia, this book is not for you. Various content throughout can at times be very intense and difficult to read. Please be advised of this fact before considering the book, even if you enjoyed the Swedish film version. The novel is MUCH DARKER.

With that out of the way, this is one of the few cases where I did see the movie before the book. I cannot attest to the Hollywood remake, but the novel, as expected, went into a lot more detail about the lives of Oskar, Eli, the drunken Chinese restaurant group, and even other side characters that were thrown out of the script entirely. I dove into the novel for backstory, and backstory I got. Learning about Eli, our lovely vampire, was the main highlight of the narrative that I was missing from viewing the film. Also to note is the situation regarding Oskar's parents, which added some more reasoning to why Oskar looks to be on the path of becoming a serial killer, or city thug at least. (I mean, for god's sake, he keeps a scrapbook of news reports regarding horrific crimes and plays pretend as if he was a murderer himself. THAT KID HAS...

United States on Oct 25, 2013

Mark: Full of hope and horror, John Ajvidi Linquist's Let the Right One In is an undervalued novel. There is so much in it that is so real, so good and so different from all the things around it that it is hard to do it justice.

More than just another sample of "fang-fiction," Let The Right One In explores the most familiar ideas of vampirism and sets the result in a run-down housing settlement populated by the lonely, unseen people in Sweden's socialist success story, by single mothers, juvenile delinquents, pensioners, policemen and alcoholics. It is a community of facelessness whose residents often share nothing but the walls and hallways that separate their living spaces and creates a perfect hunting ground for a creature composed of secret, evil need.

What differentiates Lindquist from the thundering herd of writers currently cranking out vampire fictions in print, movies and television is Lindquist's fearless walk down the paths where his ideas and characters lead him. His characters make sense. His setting makes sense. The inability of the community to react makes sense. His explanation of vampirism and its compulsion is believable without wincing as is the...

United States on Aug 18, 2010