Let The Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Let The right One In

Publisher: Quercus
Page Count: 513
Fiction Genre: Horror, supernatural, Paranormal, Thriller, Mystery
Dates Read: December 22-29, 2015

Reading Challenge: 2016 Topic Discard Challenge 
Topic: A child as the main character
Series: N/A

Good Reads Summary
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....

Review
This book has a good story, but it took me awhile to get into it.  The changing perspective between the older man and young boy was very confusing for me in the beginning; the changes in perspective felt clumsy.  However, Lingvist built such amazing characters that you just want to pull out of the book and love them.  The story as a whole and a wonderfully crafted piece of art.  I found the ending of the story a little heartbreaking, but I could not picture it ending any other way.  


Wait!  Wait!  There Are Movies?!?!
There are two movies based on this book.  One move shares the title of the book, whereas the second movie is titled Let Me In.  Let Me In is the English version of the book and Let the Right One In is the original Slavish version of the film, which stays more true to the book than the English remake.  In my personal, and not so humble opinion, while I like both movies, they are pretty much the same thing.  They have almost the same cinematography, but with different actors.  Though I do enjoy them both, I will aways recommend Let The Right One In over the English speaking remake.  My primary reason for this is that in the original film (LTR1I), the movie follows the mystery of the book and slowly pieces the story together.  In LMI, the movie starts in the middle of the mystery and you're pretty much told everything right away.

Ratings (based on a 10 point scale)
Quality of Writing - 9
Pace - 6
Plot Development - 7
Characters - 9
Enjoyability - 6
Insightfulness - 6
Ease of Reading - 7
Photos/Illustrations - N/A
Overall Rating - 3 out of 5 stars

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