Book info

• Title Let the Right One In
• Author John Ajvide Lingqvist
• Year 2004
• Genre Horror

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.

Thoughts

This was a really good read. Where vampires are all the rage at the moment, this was in a class of its own. It had the subtlety of Dracula, but equally the action, characterisation and even gore that you want of a modern book. I thought Oskar was a great protagonist, wide-eyed and innocent yet vengeful and conflicted.

The strands of the story wove together very well - the father and daughter that aren’t what they seem, the four friends who lose one of their own, and the group of boys bullying our hero. In the end, they all come together nicely, but I’ll tell you what - it’s Virginia I feel most sorry for.

Absolutely recommended, although can get a bit graphic in places.

Rating: 5 / 5