John Ajvide Lindqvist's "Let the Right One In": A Gripping Novel of Love, Loss, and Friendship

Kindle Customer: Started of slow but when it picked up pace it was a great read. If you like vampire books it's definitely worth a go

United Kingdom on May 14, 2023

Paul Genesse: Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (English translator: Ebba Segerberg 2008)

Incredible and gripping vampire novel, one of the best books I've ever read in the genre, Let the Right One In, the international bestseller by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindquvist. Five out of five stars.

Before I read the novel, I watched both the Swedish and American versions of the movie, and then had to read the book to learn more about the fascinating characters. I was captivated and obsessed after watching the movies, both in the same night. I rented them from Blockbuster Video on Blu-ray, and they are available for purchase on Amazon as DVDs, On-Demand or Blu-ray.

The translator (Ebba Segerberg) did a fantastic job and I highly recommend this to Stephen King fans and vampire fans. Overall, the book is in the same vein as the Anne Rice vampire novels, but with a great new spin that I shall not spoil here. Lindqvist has a fresh take on the vampire mythos, but gives many nods to the traditions of the modern genre. It's a horror novel, and it is quite gory and scary at times, but in reality. There is also a fair amount about pedophilia, and murder. Few of the...

United States on Jan 17, 2013

P. Smith: I had never heard of this book, or of either of the films which have been made from it - one Swedish and a later American remake, I think. I'd given up on "Twilight" three quarters of the way through, being unable to understand what all the fuss was about - I found it slow and, quite honestly, not very engaging, despite assurances from everyone that it was "quite wonderful". However, I may try again some time. I therefore didn't think I'd be particularly interested in another book about vampires, but downloaded a free sample of "Let the Right One In" when browsing for books to read on my new Kindle. The complete book was being offered at an exceptionally reasonable price and the sample drew me into the plot sufficiently to encourage me to buy it.

I'm so glad I did! At first I was a litle worried that I might have made a mistake, and would find the whole thing silly and childish but I positively devoured the book, which works so well on so many levels. There's the vampire of course, who provides the basis of the whole tale, plus some very gruesome scenes which I had difficulty in getting out of my head for some time; there are extremely well-written and exciting sequences...

United Kingdom on May 29, 2011

becuille: Like many people, I read this book because I had seen - and loved - the film. Usually I would advocate reading the book before watching the film, but in the case of Let The Right One In, I think the reverse is probably a good idea. The film is ambiguous about many things (Eli's true relationship with Hakan, Oskar's relationship with his father, Eli's history etc) and the book will fill in all those gaps nicely.

I love vampire stories, but Twilight had me despairing that all the good vampy tales were gone. Let The Right One in proved me so very wrong.
This is a vampire story, yes, but with the protagonist being only 12 years old and more concerned with finding a friend in his lonely life, it takes on whole new depths. Oskar is an outcast, bullied mercilessly at school and dealing with an over-protective mother and an absentee father. Eli is a 220 year old vampire who also looks, and in many ways mentally *is* 12 years old too.
What follows is a truly heartwarming tale of friendship and trust in the midst of some pretty gut-wrenching horror - both things are balanced perfectly.

The only reason I've given 4 stars instead of 5 is because the rather large supporting...

United Kingdom on Apr 12, 2010

Annabel Gaskell: I've read quite a few vampire books recently - they have all been rather cosy or had a good sense of humour. But then they've been mostly aimed at teens and young adults. Then I came to the Nordic vampire novel  Let the Right One in , and found something truly dark and horrific that needed a strong stomach and nerves of steel. It is a real contemporary chiller, full of violence and gore, totally relentless - yet at its heart is a the redemptive relationship between a twelve year old boy and a 200 year old vampire frozen into the body of a young girl.

The book is set in and around an anonymous housing estate, built at the edge of a forest in the suburbs of Stockholm. We are introduced to Oskar, twelve years old, fat and geeky, who is the chief victim of the class bullies, and we immediately feel for him. But then we meet Håkan, a quiet newcomer to the town; but he's also a seedy forty-five year old in a raincoat and has 'serial killer' written all over him - he's carrying a cylinder of anaesthetic, and he's prospecting for a victim - it doesn't take long, and then it's horrorshow time! Meanwhile Oskar meets Eli, a strange young girl who only appears in the evenings in...

United Kingdom on Oct 26, 2009

Dr.Feelgood: Let The Right One In, the English translation of the novel Låt Den Rätte Komma In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, is a vampire novel that has as much to do with the rites of passage one young Swedish boy passes through as it does with the existence of the undead and their feeding practices. Oskar, a 12-year-old boy dealing the problems of verbal and physical bullying and the consequent incontinence he suffers from, is desperately in need of a friend. He takes refuge in his imagined alter ego - an unafraid Oskar who kills his tormentors - and takes out his anger by stabbing trees in the woods near his home. Then, one night, Eli appears, a girl of the same age who he soon discovers to be a 200-year-old vampire. Meanwhile, a series of strange killings are taking place in the neighbourhood.

The narrative cuts between the lives of Oskar and his blossoming romance with Eli, his teenage acquaintance Tommy, and a group of alcoholics and unemployed semi-drifters who are the victims of the attacks.
The story is, without doubt, riveting - but only really takes flight in the latter half. The author spends the first hundred pages establishing a background, which can often feel sluggish,...

United Kingdom on May 26, 2009

Whitt Patrick Pond: John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let Me In (aka Let The Right One In, depending on the edition) is absolutely one of the best novels of its kind that I've read in years. To attempt to categorize it as simply a horror novel or a vampire novel is not to give it its full due. The most apt comparison I can make is that it's something of a cross between Stephen King at his very best and, oddly enough, Henry Thoreau in that its characters all seem driven by "lives of quiet desperation".

For those of you who are wanting to read the novel after having seen the film version, there are a few differences from the film. It won't hurt to tell you that in the novel, Eli's guardian does not die at the hospital, and that there is another plotline involving other characters that was left out of the film entirely (it became irrelevant after the guardian's plotline was changed). But that said, you will not be disappointed. Everything that made the film what it was is in the novel and then some, with edges far sharper than in the film. The novel takes you in much deeper into the lives of the characters, where things are rarely black and white and even the most seemingly unsympathetic of them become at...

United States on Apr 02, 2009