Book Report Friday: Let the Right One In

Let the Right One by John Ajvide Lindqvist is a book about vampires, but it’s not about your Twilight-type vampires. These vampires don’t wear designer clothes or drive fancy cars.

If you like your vampires to sparkle… this book is not for you.

If you don’t like it when characters get eaten… this book is not for you.

If you like your good guys to be very good and your bad guys to be very bad… this book is not for you.

Of course, if you like a well-concieved plot, believable character development and a more realistic world view… this book is more likely to be for you.

At its heart, Let the Right One In is a story about friendship. In this case, between Oskar, a picked-on 12-year-old with some serious issues and Eli, a vampire. Oskar’s issues are plentiful and pervasive. Social issues, daddy issues, anger-management issues, the list goes on and on. Oskar is a messed up kid. Which would probably explain why he becomes such good friends with a vampire. Because, let’s face it, on a scale from 1 to maladjusted, making friends with a vampire is pretty much off the charts.

Eli, the vampire, is 12… but she’s been 12 for a very, very, very long time. She doesn’t know how she’s survived as long as she has, but it might have something to do with being small and appearing vulnerable. Spoiler alert: Eli isn’t vulnerable. Not by a long shot.

The book encompasses quite a few themes and switches among several characters’ perspectives. Still, it’s a fairly straight-forward story: Boy meets girl. Girl is a vampire. There is much baring of fangs and chomping of necks. Cats don’t like vampires. Vampires like puzzles. Rather than sparkle, vampires burst into flames when exposed to direct sunlight. Basically, if you took a copy of Twilight and fed it into some sort of opposite-making machine, a copy of Let the Right One In would be spit out.

(So, now, you know that it’s well-written).

(Zing!).

I won’t delve too much into the plot or the themes, because why spoil the surprise? And the surprises are quite a doozy. I will, however, say that this book, like all well-written books about vampires, is quite graphic. If you don’t enjoy Patricia Cornwell novels, you will probably not enjoy this book. But, if you like a little bit of the macabre in your life and you want an easy read that’s not too fluffy, I would highly recommend check it out.

There are also two movies, a Swedish version and an American one. I haven’t seen the American version, but the Swedish film is quite good. I love the way it’s shot, with lots of snowy white scenes and little pops of red here and there. (spoiler alert: the pops of red are often blood. but sometimes they’re winter hats). It makes a few changes, but the spirit behind the novel remains the same. It’s streaming for free on Netflix, so it’s worth checking out.