Filling in the Gaps review: Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
So! Middle of the night last night I finished Let The Right One In (which I refer to by it's English title, despite having read it in Swedish, it's easier that way), and I was dead fucking tired so I thought I'd save the review to the morning. After a night of restless dreaming about it -- no, seriously -- here we are.
This book is fucking amazing. If you like horror, you should read it. If you like vampires, you should read it. Hell, if you like BOOKS, you should read it. I was amazingly creeped out by the whole thing, and honestly there are not even that many deaths. It's kind of gory in some places, but in a way that just sends chills down your spine (my twitter feed and Facebook saw me flail all over the place yesterday, "THE EAR OH DEAR GOD THE EEEEEEEEEEAARRRRRRRR").
I think what I found most amazing is that you sympathize with these characters. Almost every single one of them, at least the ones that we actually get to see the world out of, all the POV characters, are all sympathetic in one way or the other, even when they do completely despicable things. For example, Håkan, the murderer at the very beginning, is a pedophile and completely pathetic, but even through the revulsion at what he's doing, I couldn't help but to feel for him, some shred of sympathy. And that, my friends, is a pretty fucking good quality to have in a writer. Lindqvist manages that, and I have no idea how. Even the bullies somehow make sense.
It is a very Swedish book, or at least I think so. There's that feeling of Swedish suburb, of 1980's, of the... brownness that the 80's never really managed to sweep away. The dark and the snow and the middle of Sweden with it's Stockholmness and whiny dialects. But it works for this book, and it keeps working it until I was so freaked out last night that I jumped a mile when the neighbors made a noise, convinced somebody -- vampires! murderers! -- was in my very dark living room.
So, yes. In short, read it. Now.
Grade: A
This book is fucking amazing. If you like horror, you should read it. If you like vampires, you should read it. Hell, if you like BOOKS, you should read it. I was amazingly creeped out by the whole thing, and honestly there are not even that many deaths. It's kind of gory in some places, but in a way that just sends chills down your spine (my twitter feed and Facebook saw me flail all over the place yesterday, "THE EAR OH DEAR GOD THE EEEEEEEEEEAARRRRRRRR").
I think what I found most amazing is that you sympathize with these characters. Almost every single one of them, at least the ones that we actually get to see the world out of, all the POV characters, are all sympathetic in one way or the other, even when they do completely despicable things. For example, Håkan, the murderer at the very beginning, is a pedophile and completely pathetic, but even through the revulsion at what he's doing, I couldn't help but to feel for him, some shred of sympathy. And that, my friends, is a pretty fucking good quality to have in a writer. Lindqvist manages that, and I have no idea how. Even the bullies somehow make sense.
It is a very Swedish book, or at least I think so. There's that feeling of Swedish suburb, of 1980's, of the... brownness that the 80's never really managed to sweep away. The dark and the snow and the middle of Sweden with it's Stockholmness and whiny dialects. But it works for this book, and it keeps working it until I was so freaked out last night that I jumped a mile when the neighbors made a noise, convinced somebody -- vampires! murderers! -- was in my very dark living room.
So, yes. In short, read it. Now.
Grade: A