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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Twelve-year-old Oskar is an outsider; bullied at school, dreaming about his absentee father, bored with life on a dreary housing estate. One evening he meets the mysterious Eli. As a romance blossoms between them, Oskar discovers Eli’s dark secret – she is a 200 year old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood.
Now a major feature film, Let The Right One In is a disturbing and brilliant reworking of the vampire legend, and a deeply moving fable about rejection, friendship and loyalty.
It’s 1981 and 12 year-old Oskar lives in a poor housing estate near Stockholm with his mother. Overweight and violently bullied, he leads a lonely existence in a permanent state of fear that’s left him incontinent. His only interest is in newspaper cuttings about murders and violent deaths and he spends his time pretending to be a killer. Then a new child moves into the flat next door with her father. Eli is a strange girl – ignorant of things like Rubik’s Cubes, Oskar only ever sees her at night on the estate playground and she never seems to feel the Swedish cold – even when she’s out in the snow in only thin clothes.
As the two of them become friends, Oskar’s confidence increases, but when he asks Eli to be his girlfriend, she reveals a secret: she’s actually a vampire who needs fresh blood to survive. As Oskar tries to come to terms with this, Eli is having problems when her guardian/helper is captured trying to secure food for her, leaving her having to hunt for herself and bringing her into conflict with a group of the estate’s residents determined to stop her.
John Ajvide Lindqvist’s original Swedish novel resulted in a successful Swedish movie (soon to be remade by Hollywood) and is a clever and surprisingly moving take on vampire myth, which has strong themes of loneliness, alienation and the power of friendship. Even if you’ve seen the film, there is a lot in the book that surprises – in particular the sinister tastes of Eli’s guardian (which forms some of the most uncomfortable scenes to read in the whole book), the relationships between a group of down-and-outs on the estate and a sub-plot involving an acquaintance of Oskar’s whose mother is dating a policeman investigating the deaths of Eli’s food.
Eli and Oskar’s friendship is subtly developed and forms a nice contrast with Oskar’s relationship with his over-protective mother and alcoholic father. At the same time, Lindqvist leaves the friendship open to interpretation as to whether there’s a degree of manipulation and mutual need in there as well. Mention should be made of the quality of the translation by Ebba Segerberg, which makes the read fluid and engrossing.
All in all, this is a wonderful horror novel with a strong heart and characters you want to root for, even if you suspect you shouldn’t.
The Verdict:
A tense, chilling horror novel with a core central relationship between the two central characters that’s subtly portrayed and open to interpretation, this is a brilliant an absorbing read and holds surprises even if you are already familiar with the movie adaptation.
Twelve-year-old Oskar is an outsider; bullied at school, dreaming about his absentee father, bored with life on a dreary housing estate. One evening he meets the mysterious Eli. As a romance blossoms between them, Oskar discovers Eli’s dark secret – she is a 200 year old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood.
Now a major feature film, Let The Right One In is a disturbing and brilliant reworking of the vampire legend, and a deeply moving fable about rejection, friendship and loyalty.
It’s 1981 and 12 year-old Oskar lives in a poor housing estate near Stockholm with his mother. Overweight and violently bullied, he leads a lonely existence in a permanent state of fear that’s left him incontinent. His only interest is in newspaper cuttings about murders and violent deaths and he spends his time pretending to be a killer. Then a new child moves into the flat next door with her father. Eli is a strange girl – ignorant of things like Rubik’s Cubes, Oskar only ever sees her at night on the estate playground and she never seems to feel the Swedish cold – even when she’s out in the snow in only thin clothes.
As the two of them become friends, Oskar’s confidence increases, but when he asks Eli to be his girlfriend, she reveals a secret: she’s actually a vampire who needs fresh blood to survive. As Oskar tries to come to terms with this, Eli is having problems when her guardian/helper is captured trying to secure food for her, leaving her having to hunt for herself and bringing her into conflict with a group of the estate’s residents determined to stop her.
John Ajvide Lindqvist’s original Swedish novel resulted in a successful Swedish movie (soon to be remade by Hollywood) and is a clever and surprisingly moving take on vampire myth, which has strong themes of loneliness, alienation and the power of friendship. Even if you’ve seen the film, there is a lot in the book that surprises – in particular the sinister tastes of Eli’s guardian (which forms some of the most uncomfortable scenes to read in the whole book), the relationships between a group of down-and-outs on the estate and a sub-plot involving an acquaintance of Oskar’s whose mother is dating a policeman investigating the deaths of Eli’s food.
Eli and Oskar’s friendship is subtly developed and forms a nice contrast with Oskar’s relationship with his over-protective mother and alcoholic father. At the same time, Lindqvist leaves the friendship open to interpretation as to whether there’s a degree of manipulation and mutual need in there as well. Mention should be made of the quality of the translation by Ebba Segerberg, which makes the read fluid and engrossing.
All in all, this is a wonderful horror novel with a strong heart and characters you want to root for, even if you suspect you shouldn’t.
The Verdict:
A tense, chilling horror novel with a core central relationship between the two central characters that’s subtly portrayed and open to interpretation, this is a brilliant an absorbing read and holds surprises even if you are already familiar with the movie adaptation.
