I have no desire to see the film version of Let the Right One In, though that is not a condemnation of the novel, and the story certainly lends itself to such expression. Rather, the imaginative, horrific scenes that Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist paints, though oft touched with poignancy and pain, are graphic enough without cinematic representation.
Oskar, on the brink of adolescence in Blackeberg, Sweden, suffers at the hands of classmate bullies and struggles with strained relationships with his separated parents. The book opens with him obsessed with a nearby murder; a teenage boy's body has been found, drained of blood. Oskar dreams of carrying out such violence on the bullies who plague him.
Lindqvist composes short sections within each chapter, often opening with "he" or "him," leaving the pronoun antecedents unclear (at least initially). Thus he quickly reels in the reader: Is Oskar the murderer? And if he is, is he justified in killing? Are we rooting for a main character with a bloodthirst for revenge?
Meanwhile, a new girl, Eli, moves in next door to Oskar. Eli is a mystery. She ages (in both directions) and loses and gains weight in strange ways. She lives with a middle-aged man, but Oskar doesn't know what their relationship is. But her kindness, her skill with a Rubik's cube, and her interest in Oskar compel him to try to get to know her better, which is no easy task despite his ease at disappearing from his mother and his own house and their use of Morse code to communicate between a shared wall.
The reader will quickly discover who, or what, is the killer in Blackeberg. Certainly it is the hunt for that killer that drives the narrative. But it is also the awkward, tender relationship between Oskar and Eli and the host of well-drawn characters that will keep the reader turning the pages: Gosta, owner of prolific, genetically thwarted cats; Virginia, who becomes a vampire; Jonny, Oskar's sadistic tormentor; Hakan, Eli's...what, exactly?
Lindqvist uses the narrative to ask a host of unnerving questions: Who, or what, is Eli? Vampire? Boy? Girl? Both? And what if you have to kill to survive, if you have to drink blood to live? When is vengeance acceptable?
The novel is not for the faint-hearted. Here is bullying, acid voluntarily poured on a man's face, visions of castration, pedophilia, discovery of a severed head frozen in ice, a bathtub of blood, cats viciously attacking a woman...
Some sense of moral equilibrium, albeit bloody, is reached at the end, though I still had questions about several of the characters. I discovered that Lindqvist has written a short story, "Let the Old Dreams Die," that explores the further "adventures" of Oskar and Eli. I may have to read it. With all of the lights on.
Oskar, on the brink of adolescence in Blackeberg, Sweden, suffers at the hands of classmate bullies and struggles with strained relationships with his separated parents. The book opens with him obsessed with a nearby murder; a teenage boy's body has been found, drained of blood. Oskar dreams of carrying out such violence on the bullies who plague him.
Lindqvist composes short sections within each chapter, often opening with "he" or "him," leaving the pronoun antecedents unclear (at least initially). Thus he quickly reels in the reader: Is Oskar the murderer? And if he is, is he justified in killing? Are we rooting for a main character with a bloodthirst for revenge?
Meanwhile, a new girl, Eli, moves in next door to Oskar. Eli is a mystery. She ages (in both directions) and loses and gains weight in strange ways. She lives with a middle-aged man, but Oskar doesn't know what their relationship is. But her kindness, her skill with a Rubik's cube, and her interest in Oskar compel him to try to get to know her better, which is no easy task despite his ease at disappearing from his mother and his own house and their use of Morse code to communicate between a shared wall.
The reader will quickly discover who, or what, is the killer in Blackeberg. Certainly it is the hunt for that killer that drives the narrative. But it is also the awkward, tender relationship between Oskar and Eli and the host of well-drawn characters that will keep the reader turning the pages: Gosta, owner of prolific, genetically thwarted cats; Virginia, who becomes a vampire; Jonny, Oskar's sadistic tormentor; Hakan, Eli's...what, exactly?
Lindqvist uses the narrative to ask a host of unnerving questions: Who, or what, is Eli? Vampire? Boy? Girl? Both? And what if you have to kill to survive, if you have to drink blood to live? When is vengeance acceptable?
The novel is not for the faint-hearted. Here is bullying, acid voluntarily poured on a man's face, visions of castration, pedophilia, discovery of a severed head frozen in ice, a bathtub of blood, cats viciously attacking a woman...
Some sense of moral equilibrium, albeit bloody, is reached at the end, though I still had questions about several of the characters. I discovered that Lindqvist has written a short story, "Let the Old Dreams Die," that explores the further "adventures" of Oskar and Eli. I may have to read it. With all of the lights on.
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