Let Me In / Let the Right One In

2 VERSIONS OF BOOK / DVD COVER IMAGE


If you don't know, Let the Right One In (named after a Morrissey song lyric) is a Swedish film that was on many a top-ten list for 2008 (including my own). It is being released on DVD on March 10, 2009 (We've ordered already, Yeah!). We also have the book it was based on. Not knowing the book existed, I choose to read it after seeing the film, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it contains quite a bit more of the story than the film.

Taking a rather oblique look at the vampire story, Lindquist's debut novel is a meanderingly detailed narrative that follows an ensemble of slightly related characters (by family or just by physical location) set in a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden in the early 1980s. The main character of the novel (or at least the film) is a 12 year old boy named Oskar. One night, while he is outside stabbing a tree; pretending to murder the bully that fixates on him at school, Oskar meets someone his own age named Eli. She seems a bit odd, because, well, she's been about 12 years old for quite awhile...
Comparisons to Anne Rice are probably superficial at best: vampires and children. No gothic romanticism in the dreary, post-industrial winter of surburban Sweden. A book jacket blurb equates this to Stephen King. I'd say that's probably a good, broad comparison, though I'm not sure which Stephen King (probably not from Salem's Lot).
This is definitely not at all aimed at the Twilight crowd (though I liked both; vampires are vampires and love stories are love stories). Though, it's not just a vampire novel, but just as much a coming of age story (both about its adolescents and adults).
There are gory moments, and the suspense picks up quite a bit in the final stretch of the book, but it is a very disjointed narrative, switching back and forth between the various character storylines every few pages or so. The movie (scripted by the novelist), if you are wondering, is much more lean and takes a minimalist approach to the plot. I think that's what a lot of people found interesting about the film.
Slight character spoiler below:
There is a pedophilic angle to one of the characters (though, I guess, technically the child vampire is actually older than him). If this is too creepy a subject for you, you might not want to read the book. In kind, the movie centers around a developing "relationship" between 12 year olds, so if that is a concern, be forewarned.