Let the Right One In – John Ajvide Lindqvist

Let the Right One In is a vampire book quite unlike any other. If you are into the vampire world of Twilight this is not the book for you. Although the subtitle of the book is ‘A Vampire Love Story’, this is not the teen ‘heart aflutter’ romance that seems quite prevalent in contemporary vampire literature. It is a unique and very bleak story of friendship forged between a bullied pre-adolescent boy, Oskar, and the enigmatic Eli, a strange and mysterious newcomer who moves into the housing estate where Oskar lives.

The book also intertwines a number of sub-plots with other equally sad figures whose relevance to the story emerges slowly. This book has no happiness, no joy and makes for compelling but tragic reading.

The story itself is not just a story of vampires but of how life can be terribly unfair and is quite a commentary of social life and structure. From Oskar’s relentless and cruel bullying at the hands of his school peers to the despair of alcoholism and poverty. One of the hardest parts of reading this book is the inclusion of paedophilia. It is an essential part of the story line but one that is sickening to read. Although, at one point, I found the book pushed the boundaries of this part of the story into the nonsensical which was the only let down of this well woven story. I found it disgusting and totally unnecessary.

The entire paedophilia angle was dropped from the movie as it would have made it difficult for classification and, at times, would have been far too graphic for film. In fact the movie differs quite dramatically from the book.

Set in a poor housing district in Stockholm in the 1980s, the main story is that of Oskar, a small frail boy who is incessantly bullied and has no friends. He lives with his mother in a run-down housing estate and collects clippings of murder in a scrap book to feed his revenge fantasies. Meanwhile, the community is rocked by a brutal killing of a teenager in a nearby town in what seems like a ritualistic slaying – the boy was hung upside down and drained of blood. Because of this, Oskar’s mother will not let him go further than the estate’s playground where Oskar spends cold dark evenings with a large knife stabbing trees whilst pretending they are his tormentors. It is in the playground that he sees a young girl and her father move in to the apartment next door after dark. The next day he notices that all of the windows are papered over.

Eli, the strange new girl, approaches Oskar in the playground and he is both fascinated and repulsed by her. She does not seem to feel the cold, she only comes out at night, she is dirty and smells bad but they slowly forge a friendship as Oskar tries to learn more about Eli. He is also desperate for a friend and Eli is so very alone.

A sub-story surrounds a group of alcoholics who regularly meet and drink to lament their lives. Their existence is pitiful and their bond seems to be more based on their mutual alcoholism than that of true friendship although there is a love story of sorts with two of these characters. When one of the group disappears in mysterious circumstances it sets off a chain of events that is the catalyst to the lives of all of the characters colliding.

Let the right one in takes the vampire genre back into the dark and disturbing. Many vampire stories of recent years have over-sexualised vampires making them creatures of desire and their  undead lifestyles desirable. That is certainly not the case with this book. The vampire of this story, although does keep with much of vampire mythology, steps away from some of the more the clichéd characterisation. Although Eli cannot be in sunlight, cannot enter a home uninvited and feeds on blood, there are striking differences in her vampirism to many current stories including the unfolding story of how Eli came to be.

At times the story is shockingly gory and the constant bleakness of the surrounds and the characters does not make for a light read but it is a very well written and gripping story. The story unfolds like petals dropping off a dying flower rather than ripping from one action piece to another which allows you to see and feel the misery of the story.

That said, the friendship between Oskar and Eli is as beautiful as it is sad. They are both quite tragic figures in very different ways. They are outcasts and they are lonely and develop a mesmerising bond. Eli is not what she seems nor what you expect and it makes the story so much more interesting by veering away from what would be considered the norm for a vampire story.

Let the Right One In is not a book for the faint-hearted nor the impatient but the story will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

The US version of the book is also known as Let Me In.

I have also published this review on Book Review Babes

Similar Posts:

None Found

[ Report Post ]