dramastef's Full Review: John Ajvide Lindqvist and Ebba Segerberg - Let Me ...
After watching the Swedish vampire movie, Let the Right One In, I was left with enough nagging questions that I went on a quest for the source material, John Ajvide Lindquest's debut novel, Let Me In (the American title was shortened).
Twelve-year-old Oskar is a bit of an outcast. He's mercilessly bullied but can't bring himself to do anything other than give in to their demands in order to end the torment a bit quicker (squealing like a pig is one of their favorite demands). He's had to invent what he calls the P!ssball in order to hide how often he pees himself due to these bullying sessions. He collects newspaper articles about murder and mayhem and steals from neighborhood stores in order to feel a momentary high.
Oskar strikes up a tentative friendship with a new tenant who appears to be his age and who also exhibits signs of being an outcast. Eli only comes out at night, often stinks and Oskar suspects that Eli wears clothes found in the trash. Without the benefit of washing them. Even after discovering that his new friend lives off of blood, and that Eli is responsible for numerous local deaths, after an adjustment period, Oskar finds that he doesn't really care.
The plot of Let Me In was faithfully followed in the movie adaptation, and yet with the addition of a few characters, and Lindquest's impressive talent for character development, I found all the answers I was looking for after the movie. And quite a bit more than I bargained for.
Lindquest treads lightly on some very ugly and dark subjects. Castration, pedophilia, revenge, murder, and childhood bullying are just a few of the things found in this story. Though the book is marketed as a vampire story, that's not what it really is. Eli claims not to be a vampire. Just someone stuck for 200 years at the age of 12, not dead, who lives off of the blood of others. So what is the story? I found it hard to classify. The character development in the first half dragged quite a bit. The few horrific scenes were too few and far between to make this a horror novel. The fact that one of the children would never age and the other really didn't learn anything precludes it from being a true coming of age novel.
Had Let Me In been faster paced, I think it would have had to sacrifice some of the character development that was present, making for a more exciting, but less interesting novel. Lindquest skillfully stayed away from so many of the traps and clichés easily found in debut novels, vampire novels especially. I found myself sympathizing with the amoral vampire who showed little remorse for the crimes committed in order to live. I truly despised the other main character, regardless of the fact that he was bullied.
I didn't have any problems with the translation by Ebba Segerberg from Swedish to English. There were a few oddities that had nothing to do with translation, but they were easily forgiven. When Oskar first meets Eli, he assumes that Eli is a young girl. Oskar refers to Eli with feminine pronouns. Eli's pedophiliac guardian always refers to Eli as gender neutral, using instead terms like "his beloved" and "his angel." After Eli's awakening into the immortal world is revealed, the gender pronoun changes when Elias is mentioned.
I am glad I found the book and read it. I only wish I'd read it before I watched the movie. It adds so much that couldn't have been included. Even on its own, if you have no interest in the movie at all, I highly recommend the book.
Already sold in ten countries, Let Me In introduces a startling new talent from Sweden whose work is creating an international sensation. John Ajvide ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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