Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

75 reviews

johnsaysjulia's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Excrement, and Sexual harassment

cryscries's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I watched the original movie first before the book and after reading it I can say it’s pretty faithful to the source material. It was such an amazing read that I didn’t feel like it was 472 pages. It’s dark and emotional and I love the relationship that forms between oskar and eli. I loved reading all the different perspectives of people living in that town and how the events unfolded and connected. Definitely a really good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

I feel like the contents of this book ranges from moderate - graphic. There is a character who is attracted to eli named Hänkan - his perspectives can be very uncomfortable to read because he does go into a bit of detail about his attraction in the beginning of the book when he is somewhat introduced to attempting to r word eli towards the end of the book. Eli’s past holds a lot of trauma but does not glorify it in any way of anything it’s more character background of their past but can also be uncomfortable to read. Bits and pieces in the book talk about suicide and self harm from characters who are being bullied or depressed from oskar and eli— though Virginia is a tw for self harm because of what she is going through in the story.

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Despite being overstuffed, it has a lot of bite, and pathos. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Racial slurs, Excrement, Vomit, and Abandonment

There is a graphic scene of a young boy being castrated, and the pedophilia in the book is quite prevalent. The gender identity in the book will bring up a lot of issues in terms of representation of trans youth. Plus there is some scenes featuring unintentional urination.

linddykal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Gore, Pedophilia, Violence, and Blood

meereswogen's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

noble_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Succeeds in being properly scary, especially in the second half when all the action really reaches a crescendo. Creepy and uncomfortable.
The ending left a little to he desired in my opinion, open. I'll definitely pick up the collection of short stories which is supposed to include a sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

carrionkid's review against another edition

3.5

I enjoyed this book a lot, I only wish the author was a LITTLE less weird about kids. I don't think we needed an in depth description of a kid who keeps pissing himself deciding to stick memory foam on his penis which he calls "the pissball". That seemed unnecessary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

seawarrior's review against another edition

dark emotional

4.0

Let the Right One In is a winding, intricately planned horror story that examines vampire lore in a fresh way. At the heart of the novel is the understanding that life, death, love and everything else in between them feel different when you are young and adulthood still looms far on the horizon. 

While the first half of the book is rather slow-paced, I never felt that it was tedious to read. This pleasantly surprised me since I typically avoid books of this length. As the story progresses, we are introduced to a variety of characters whose lives start to converge due to Eli's innocent yet ruthless will to survive. Lindqvist provides a humanity to each of these characters, even the ones who are most despicable or only show up on a few pages. Any scene from Håkan's perspective was disgusting to read, though he is thankfully tortured throughout the narrative and never given a moment of peace. It was definitely rewarding to envision him growing more and more grotesquely wounded throughout the corse of the book. 

The second half of the novel was paced quicker, and by the last hundred pages I felt it impossible to put the book down as I prepared to go into work. Though horrific and mysteriously worrying, the book is given a satisfying ending in line with the themes of youth providing a film over the reality of violence and toxic romance. This was a unique, memorable horror story that deserves the international interest that has swirled around it since its release.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

abookishgoth's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Pedophilia, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death

derberner's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Blood