BOOK REVIEW
Title: Let the Right One In
Author: John Ajvide Lindqvist
Genre: Fiction (Horror)
Reviewed by: David Broder
Let’s first begin with the understanding of two things: 1. I have, up until now, only considered Bram Stoker’s original Dracula as the only “vampire” book worth reading and 2. I saw both the Swedish movie and its American counterpart (Let Me In) before I read the book Let The Right One In.
Over the years there have been several types of Vampires. First the traditional demon and purveyor of evil, Dracula. Dracula was built on the gothic notion of a vampire. He was evil incarnate, he was a sexual predator and he predominantly victimized women to satiate his need for blood. He deliberately caused them to become vampires themselves who were subservient to his will and would often prey upon children, making them grotesque and horrid creatures. They were dead, or undead to be more specific and slept in coffins filled with the earth of their homeland.
Up until recently that pretty much defined the vampire. Regardless of who the story was about Stoker’s Dracula was the model. Then Anne Rice created LeStat. LeStat was a little more human but because of his immortality, he was philosophically a cynic and a rogue existing from one hedonistic moment to the next. He was a libertine, a cad and a bounder. Yet, he was charming and handsome.
More recently there have cropped up the genre of teen vampires. These stories, geared to the young reader audience have taken the typical teenage angst and projected onto the vampire existence, the ultimate outsider and misfit trying to fit in with the dating scene. What I have found in these characters is a pervasive narcissism and over dramatization of what it is like to be a young person. Besides the difficulty of being a vampire they also have to worry about zits and who they are going to the prom with.
But I recently watched the movie Let The Right One In which was based on the book by the same name. It was a Swedish film (as the novel was originally translated from Swedish as well). I could also describe it as a quiet film. I then read the book as I was fascinated by the story and the heroine of the story, Eli.
It is the story of Oskar, a boy, small for his age, who is continuously set upon by bullies and not occasionally. He is the daily target of cruelty that would crush even the strongest of us.
One winter night in 1983 while 12-year-old Oskar is in the courtyard of the condo where he lives with his divorced mother, he is approached by a young girl who had just moved in the NIGHT before. She begins their relationship with the pronouncement that she can’t be his friend, “that’s just the way it is.” The next evening, however, the two, Oskar and Eli, start a conversation over a Rubik’s Cube. Oskar notices however that Eli is only wearing a short sleeve shirt and jeans. She isn’t cold, smells funny and when Oskar asks her age she can only reply, “12 more or less.” The next night Eli shows up in the courtyard again with the solved Rubik’s cube and showered. Smiling, she asks Oskar, “Do I smell better now?”
Thus begins a close friendship, a romance if you will, between a lonely boy who is an outcast and a lonely girl who is a misfit as well. Of course as you can guess Eli is a vampire. But one of a different sort. In her world, vampirism is more or less like an illness. Eli, unlike traditional vampires like Dracula and LeStat is not dead or undead. She is a warm-blooded person like you and I, only that she needs the blood of the living to survive. She is remorseful of this. In one scene in the movie, she weeps after killing someone. She must kill them or they will become like her and she doesn’t want to let that happen.
There is a strange and terrible sadness about Eli which for the true romantic is quite attractive. When Oskar figures out Eli is a vampire he asks how old is she “really”. Eli says quite emphatically that she is only 12 but has been “12 for a very long time”. She lives a life that has no end and has no purpose. She’s been alive for centuries but has never been close to anyone. Oskar changes all that.
Oskar becomes her friend and confidante. He protects her, talks with her, one night when she shows up at his window and crawls into his bed, he shows her and allows her to show him tenderness. Ultimately she becomes his protector.
What makes the book and the movies so unusual for the genre is that the story is really a sort of character study. It focuses on the relationship between these two young people without the clichés one might find in the more teenage oriented versions or in the traditional versions. This is an adult story about two pre-adolescents who find themselves in each other and develop a bond that transcends Eli’s being a vampire.
The reader feels sympathy for Eli. She is after all a child but will never grow up and have a real life. She must live in the darkness, in fear of being discovered and in fear of the knowledge that everyone and everything around her will age and pass and leave her behind. But for now Oskar is her light.
I think if you are interested in this book, which is wonderfully written with a lot of detail, action and character, you should read it before seeing either of the movies. The movies differ from the book in that the story is a bit more complex, there are more characters with their own stories and conflicts, like that of the detective who is trying to solve a series of murders which of course are connected to Eli. There are a few twists and turns and the author moves Eli’s character in a direction that at once was surprising but for me somewhat disappointing. I really wish he didn’t add to Eli’s secrets this one in particular.
The movies have a simpler story, less dialogue and more mood, if you will. Also, there is greater focus on Oskar and Eli (Abby in the American version). In the movie version of the story Eli is a simpler character, more childlike and therefore more sympathetic. The ennui that surrounds her is more evident and emotionally affective. I enjoyed the book and the story but was moved by the film.
I highly recommend the book and the movies. Though they differ the story is engaging in both forms and provides something different from what you might expect from the genre.
David
