Product Description

Oskar and Eli. In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself. Oskar is a 12 year old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city's edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he's frightened. Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn't go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200 year old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood. John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel is a unique and brilliant fusion of social novel and vampire legend, a deeply moving fable about rejection, friendship and loyalty.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #632 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
A whiff of the new Stephen King. Don't miss it - The Times. A terrifying supernatural story yet also a moving account of friendship and salvation - Guardian. Some truly scary bits - will haunt your dreams. Best read by sunlight - Independent on Sunday. Lindqvist has reinvented the vampire novel and made it all the more chilling by setting it in the kind of sink estate we all know from the media. Immensely readable and highly disturbing - Daily Express.

From the Back Cover
Oskar and Eli. In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself.
Oskar is a 12-year-old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city's edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he's frightened.
Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn't go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200-year-old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood.

About the Author
John Lindqvist is a Swedish author, born 1968, grew up in Blackeberg, a suburb to Stockholm. He wanted to become something awful and fantastic. First he became a conjurer and came in second in the Nordic card trick championship, then he was a stand-up comedian for twelve years. John Ajvide Lindqvist has written great parts of the TV series Reuter & Skoog as well as stage plays and TV drama. Let the Right One In is his first novel

Customer Reviews

Let the right one in, let the old dreams die...

Let the right one in caught my attention because a film based on this book did win several awards and is now considered one of the best vampire movies of the past decades. So, before watching the film, I decided to read the book and I must say it took me by surprise.

The story is centered on the 12-year-old Oskar, a lonely kid who finds the perfect companion, a 12 girl who has recently moved next-door and turns out to be a vampire. But this is much more than your typical vampire story. It's a beautiful and disturbing tale describing the love, loneliness and violent reality of its characters. Also, as strange as it may sound, it feels very real and has some creepy moments that really stay in your mind.

I strongly suggest that you read this book and then see the original Swedish film (because there is an American remake on the way).

Quirky and original
I have only ever read three horror novels, two of which became too boring to finish (lumpen prose, clunky dialogue etc). As with one of the other reviewers I wouldn't classify this as horror, rather it is more of a fable that is set against the underbelly of Swedish society. The setting is a 'sink' estate and at the core of the novel is a highly unusual relationship between a boy and a girl (I'll say no more than this). The writing is crisp and fluent, and the story unfolds at a satisfying pace. The injection of Scandanvian humour gives the novel a sardonic edge. Highly readable, this is a very orginal take on vampires that focuses on human failings and the power of friendship.

A coming-of-age fable - with vampires
Let The Right One In, the English translation of the novel Låt Den Rätte Komma In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, is a vampire novel that has as much to do with the rites of passage one young Swedish boy passes through as it does with the existence of the undead and their feeding practices. Oskar, a 12-year-old boy dealing the problems of verbal and physical bullying and the consequent incontinence he suffers from, is desperately in need of a friend. He takes refuge in his imagined alter ego - an unafraid Oskar who kills his tormentors - and takes out his anger by stabbing trees in the woods near his home. Then, one night, Eli appears, a girl of the same age who he soon discovers to be a 200-year-old vampire. Meanwhile, a series of strange killings are taking place in the neighbourhood.

The narrative cuts between the lives of Oskar and his blossoming romance with Eli, his teenage acquaintance Tommy, and a group of alcoholics and unemployed semi-drifters who are the victims of the attacks.
The story is, without doubt, riveting - but only really takes flight in the latter half. The author spends the first hundred pages establishing a background, which can often feel sluggish, as the constant cut between narrative voices results in a plot which takes far longer to establish than it should. There are strange ticks in the writing - such as Lindqvist's tendency to italicise all his narrators' fragmented thoughts in a way that is almost artistic but more often irritating - and the author frequently strays into territory regarding Eli's past that leaves explanation or elaboration lacking and ultimately seems unnecessary.

The drive that the story maintains after the inital background compensates for the failed attempts at stylistic prowess. The constant plot twists, the developments in character relationships, and the new treatment of the ancient vampire fable keep the reader hooked. Ultimately a great thriller, but not nearly as art-house as the consequent film adaptation. There are moments of genuine beauty, particularly in the introduction and perfectly rendered conclusion of the text, and Lindqvist's writing is never garden-variety, of course, it just falls short of the stylistic beauty it aims for.