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Swedish Literature

How-To Let the Right One In

3 min read

“Keep your relationships brief. Don’t let them in. Once they’re inside they have more potential to hurt you. Comfort yourself. You can live with the anguish as long as it only involves yourself. As long as there is no hope.”
― John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let the Right One In

In Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in), it’s year 1981 in Stockholm, Sweden. Oskar is 12- years old boy who lives with his single mother, his father is alcoholic whom he visits from time to time and he is relentlessly bullied at school.  He likes to read about serial killers. Soon, Oskar meets the girl next door.  But she’s odd. She’s never seen a Rubik’s Cube before. She wears dirty clothes. She only comes out at nights.

“-there was something in her, something that was…pure horror. Everything you were supposed to watch out for. Heights, fire, shards of glass, snakes, Everything that his mom tried so hard to keep him safe from.”
― John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let the Right One In

I was fond of the main characters, Oskar and Eli. They are not too heroic and they don’t have characteristics that you would like but the friendship they develop is beautiful. Also, even if Eli is far from being sparkling one…Human behaviour compared to Elis, I have hard time choosing which one is more terrifying.  I also found the themes very well thought. Yes Let the Right One In is a vampire story ..but it is also about bullying, child abuse, problems within family.

What I liked the most about this novel was how much it surprised me. Of course, in all books, you make some predictions (like about Eli) but in this one especially the ending was really “lovely”. I would recommend this book for adults who like this genre(horror).

I’d give this book 4,5/5 stars

How-To Read Let the Right One In
1. If you like the atmosphere of Scandinavian noir and you crave for even darker twist, this book is perfect for you. If you don’t like dark books or books that give  I would not recommend you any of the Ajvide books.
2. There are many genres to this book: Scandinavian noir, horror, thriller, mystery…And it’s a love story. You might read that (and you might guess it pretty fast in the book) that it is vampire story. It’s more Dracula than Twilight.
3. It’s creative and quality of writing is stunning. It’s pretty long, almost 500 pages. It has great levels of suspense but it isn’t the most suspenseful book I have read. Warning there is quite much violence & violence against children(pedophilia) in this book.
4. If you have difficulties to decide what Ajvide book to read next, read Little Star (Lilla stjärna).
5. Movie (Swedish movie) was (clearly) not as good as the book and I didn’t especially like it but I was hooked to finish watching it when I saw it on TV.

“Which monster do you choose?”
― John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let the Right One In

Buy the book: Let the Old Dreams Die on Amazon

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12 thoughts on “How-To Let the Right One In”

  2. This book was definitely an instant-fav for me. When I heard about it I was very VERY curious, and after reading it, I was left sitting there like, “WOAH. WHAT JUST HAPPENED. O___O”

  3. John Ajvide Lindqvist has a thing for GREAT creepy books. Let the Right One In is one of the best vampire novels in very long time. Also, a while ago I read his other book called Little Star (Lilla stjärna) … didn’t let me down either.

  4. John Ajvide Lindqvist has a thing for GREAT creepy books. Let the Right One In is one of the best vampire novels in very long time. Also, a while ago I read his other book called Little Star (Lilla stjärna) … didn’t let me down either.

  7. This book was definitely an instant-fav for me. When I heard about it I was very VERY curious, and after reading it, I was left sitting there like, “WOAH. WHAT JUST HAPPENED. O___O”

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