Let the Right One In: A Novel by John
Ajvide Lindqvist
Splendid, An Existentialist Masterpiece In Vamp Fiction
Let the Right One In Takes Top Honors at Tribeca Film Festival!
It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb
in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood,
the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is
personally hoping that revenge has come at long last---revenge for the
bullying he endures at school, day after day.But the murder is not the most
important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door---a girl who
has never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There
is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes
out at night. . . .

Sweeping top honors at film festivals all over the globe, director Tomas
Alfredsson’s film of Let the Right One In has received the same kind of
spectacular raves that have been lavished on the book. American readers
of vampire fiction will be thrilled!
Personal Review: Let the Right One In: A Novel by John Ajvide
Lindqvist
Normally, I find movie adaptations to be lacking, but in this case, the
director and screenwriters did a superfine job adapting it to film. I do
however caution potential readers to watch the movie first before reading
the book and not the other way around. At 480 pages there was just too
much to the book to fit properly on the screen, so the filmmakers chose to
take a very intimate approach to the story and decided to strip everything
away in favour of a tight focus on the psychodrama between Oskar and Eli,
which was in essence the heart of the story. Manichean theology divides
the world into two cardinal principles: light and dark or good and evil. God
dwells in eternal light, and the devil is consigned to darkness. Humans
have day and night to live in equally, where both good and evil can exist in
balance. This duality is borne out over and over again throughout the story,
specifically in Oskar's "darkness" and Eli's innately human capacity for
"light."
The remainder of the 480 pages was devoted to the town of Blackeberg
and more importantly the people of Blackeberg. There are varied side
dramas and converging plotlines. Every character involved is explored
deeply and with care: each character's emotional state of mind affects the
events in the story. There are a lot of human issues addressed in the work,
from basic human loneliness, to broken homes, single parents, alcoholism,
low self-esteem, juvenile delinquency ... The characters idiosyncratic
emotional responses to their surroundings and the events that unfold are
akin to the freezing and thawing of the landscape. What is hidden can't
stay hidden forever. The writing is thorough, uncomplicated, and we spend
a great deal of time in each of the character's heads - scenery excursions
are kept to a relevant minimum for affect. The gore, like the film, is also
kept to a minimum. The horror is life, the monster, an innocent
manifestation of its abuses. The book contains some shocking revelations
not found in the film, most of it quite disturbing -- so I won't get into plot
spoilers here -- and there is just enough vampire lore to keep the reader
grounded in the mythology without being cliché. This is definitely an
original and engaging story more so from a psychological standpoint than
a traditional horror one.
I discussed with a friend our very diametrically opposed viewpoints on the
expanding relationship between Eli and Oskar in the movie. After reading
the book, I was pleased to find that my assessment of their relationship
was the correct one. Their friendship was that of trust and respect. There

was no manipulation there, just a kinship of a sorts. Definitely worth the
four days it took me to read it. If you are a vampire nut like I am and are
sick to death of vampire cliché, then this book is for you. If you prefer pitch
black psychological drama then deviant and damaged is what you will get,
but hope is what you will find in the end.
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