“The ‘other’ vampire movie” (Let the Right one in--book review)

Hi all,

Unfortunately, the town I live in does not have a movie theater close by that shows independent movies.

I really wanted to see “Let the right one in” because I’ve heard so much about it. Instead of making a long trip to the nearest big city, I did the next best thing. I bought the book. Written by Swedish writer, John Ajvide Lindqvist and translated by Ebba Segerberg , the writing style was strongly reminiscent of Stephen King ( though King wrote Salem‘s Lot“, the book is not reminiscent of this but rather King‘s use of a young boy (and even, girl) narrator in his many books and stories). Yeah, these are not your rich, dapper vamps. Instead, they’re a little closer to the “30 days of Night” version (have a death smell, cannot control their appetite , must kill each time they feed and morph into something less than human when they change). Except for Eli, the young teen vampire who, through her friendship with a human boy, remembers what it’s like to be human and longs for this mortal life.

Eli moves next to a preteen boy named Oskar who lives in a Stockholm suburb. He gets picked on by bullies at school and daydreams of becoming a mass murderer so he get revenge on them. Yeah, it’s not your run of the mill YA book (I don’t think it was written for teens) but for us adults, “Let..” is an excellent novel. Oskar meets Eli who smells odd and wears the same clothes night after night. He bangs on the wall next to his to ‘talk’ with her when she cannot come out. Oskar and Eli form a tenuous friendship where each one sees something that is attractive in the other. Eli sees her lost human childhood in Oskar while Oskar is drawn to the darkness in her that he has in himself.

The book deals with some heavier subject matter (pedophilia, murder, etc) but also raises some issues with regard to childhood, friendship and love. In Lindqvist’s vampire lore, once someone gets infected, ‘brain like’ cells grow next to someone’s heart and becomes their second brain. Therefore, the person ‘changes’ once they become a vampire and cannot be the same person they were beforehand. Even though the book was dark and disturbing (as was the ending), I do highly rec it for vampire fiction readers. Like many vampire novels “Let..” deals with love and the ability of the undead to love. Unlike most of the vampire novels today, it deals with the darker aspects of love and longing and wanting. And for that alone, it should be read.

Happy Holidays!
Christine Prebler

PS---Some cool stuff being released in Jan (Moonlight and The Tudors, Part II on DVD). And Springsteen's new album in Feb. I can't wait:)


PPS--I was watching the TNT series "The Librarian" (Judas chalice one, yes, and I think that the librarian Indiana Jones idea works well) when I saw an add for Tim Hutton's new program "Leverage". Did anyone catch Christian Kane on the show? He played the young, evil lawyer, Lindsey, at Wolfram and Hart on "Angel"