Let The Right One In – Book Review

Bestselling Swedish Vampire Novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Oct 29, 2009

Let the Right One In is the story of a friendship between 12-year-old boy Oskar and a 200-year-old vampire trapped in the body of a 12-year-old girl.

Let the Right One In is a Swedish bestseller and has since been translated into English and also made into an internationally acclaimed movie. It follows the story of a bullied 12-year-old boy and the friendship he strikes up with the strange girl next door.

Oskar lives in a depressing housing estate in Blackberg, Stockholm with his mother. He is mercilessly bullied at school and spends his time shoplifting and cutting out articles and pictures of horrific events from the newspapers for his scrapbook. He fantasizes about killing those that pick on him but lacks the courage to even stand up to them.

When 12-year-old Eli moves into the apartment next door with her father, it is easy for her and Oskar to become friends, as they are both loners. Her father is not really her father, however, but a man whose job it is to obtain blood for Eli in the hopes of a brief moment of tenderness from her.

Oskar suspects that his new friend is not all that she seems because she doesn’t come out in the daytime, doesn’t eat and seemingly doesn’t shower all the time. She goes from looking haggard and sick to looking beautiful and healthy.

There is nothing clichéd about this vampire novel and a 200-year-old vampire trapped in the body of a child is as sad as it is scary. The setting is bleak which adds to the sadness of the characters in this novel which range from drunks, weird men that live with far too many cats, to glue sniffing teens and pedophiles.

This story goes from shocking and disgusting moments to ones that are tender and hopeful and Lindqvist has done an excellent job of making the reader care about characters, even some of the drunks, while other characters are truly disgusting.

The narrative flows beautifully and Let the Right One In is a true page-turner with a few surprises in the mix. It is more of a coming of age novel more than a vampire novel, focusing on the relationship that develops between the two main characters, Oskar and Eli, however there is still enough gore to satisfy the horror fans.

Some readers may find the occasional pedophilic scenes disturbing and there is a twist in the novel that the author attempts to explain, however, it feels somewhat unfinished and still leaves questions. Overall this is a fascinating, compelling story that is very difficult to put down. Highly recommended.

Let the Right One In was first published in Sweden in 2004 by Ordfont. It was translated to English and published in 2007 by the Text Publishing Company, and again in 2009 (ISBN978-1-921520-90-7). In 2007 it was made into a film of the same name.

The copyright of the article Let The Right One In – Book Review in Horror Fiction is owned by Roberta Goli. Permission to republish Let The Right One In – Book Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.