Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

63 reviews

fschmidt2001's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

One of the coolest vampire stories I've ever read, also perhaps the most disturbing thing I've ever read.

One thing I found especially interesting is the characterization of Elie - their gender expression was one of the fun surprises halfway through the book, but more importantly I like that theyre still 12, even though theyre a 200 year old vampire -pretty much all other vampire stories have their child vamps possess the mind of an adult, and it was interesting to see another expression.  Also the biology of the vampiric disease was FASCINATING!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Addiction, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Excrement, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Alcohol, Sexual content, Violence, and Vomit

kiwibird's review against another edition

5.0

One of the best and most disturbing books I've ever read. 

On the surface, it's a vampire novel, but once you look below this, it's really a book about the (perhaps unavoidable) evil of humanity and being an outsider in a society that wasn't made to accept you. It also had a lot of unexpected queer themes—deep down, the narrative of the main character Oskar is just the story of a young boy coming to terms with his sexuality. The character of Eli, the young vampire Oskar falls in love with, is also fascinating. The text refers to Eli intermittently as she and he, and though she insists multiple times that she's "not a girl", she still chooses to present herself femininely. It's very easy to read her as a transfeminine nonbinary character, even though these terms weren't commonplace when the book was written.

I don't want to say that this novel is completely unproblematic, especially when it comes to its queer representation. I won't go into much detail so as to avoid spoilers, but there are several harmful stereotypes employed in the narrative, and Eli's transness can easily be seen as something that was forced upon her rather than a choice she made. 

Despite these criticisms, I thoroughly enjoyed Let the Right One In and the way it grappled with heavy themes. This is definitely not a book for the faint of heart (be sure to check content warnings for this one), but if you're interested a good vampire story where the humans are the real villains, a portrait of 80s Stockholm suburbs, or a horror-genre exploration of growing up queer, you should pick it up. 

{Note: I read the original Swedish version, so I can't comment on how the English translation holds up.}

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pedophilia, Blood, Death, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Suicide, and Animal death

Minor: Racism and Alcoholism

amandalove2bme's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Violence, Child death, Murder, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Bullying, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Alcohol, Body horror, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

klimtsonian's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Gory, graphic, and gripping. Perfectly juxtaposes the mundanity and sterility of modern, suburban existence with the pervasiveness of horror in every form — from the systemic to the supernatural. The prose is straightforward and incisive, with some really stomach-turning descriptions that linger on the details just enough to get the point across without reveling in it. Even through it all, there’s a hopeful, tender core to the story: that there is someone out there for everyone, no matter how fucked up.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Torture, Murder, Sexual violence, Medical content, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Self harm, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Body horror and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Addiction

suneaters's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book is honestly kinda depressing. It felt like a lot of the bad things that happen are for shock value and add nothing to the story. Did we need Eli’s caretaker Hakan to be a pedophile? Just so we don’t, what, feel bad when he dies horribly? He’s already killing kids! It was so bizarre. And if we really do need it, why do we need his gross side quest assaulting some poor kid with no teeth in the bathroom? Just horrendous stuff. 

There were too many storylines that ultimately go nowhere (the drunks and Virginia especially and Tommy’s POV bits) and mean nothing. The story could’ve been condensed down to only Oskar and Eli. 

Speaking of, did we also need all the weirdness of Eli being stuck pretending to be a little girl to entice grown men to do things for him? And the castration flashback?

It seemed so…gratuitous. 

I wasn’t chilled by this book, just saddened and disgusted. Eli and Oskar’s relationship was very cute and really holds the book together, but there wasn’t really a great story here that makes wading through the muck worth it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual content, Bullying, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Rape, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Medical content

lperkins11's review against another edition

It got too disturbing...the scenes with Hakan, especially the sexual assault scene was just too much and honestly shouldn't have been in there. Don't know why people think this is such a great book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Rape, Sexual content, Murder, Pedophilia, and Bullying

Moderate: Alcoholism

teaandtales1's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.75

This is a really well-written book that I did not care for. There's dark and bleak and then there's this book. As an avid horror reader it takes a lot to make me want to skim certain parts of a book because it's just *too much,* but I felt the need to do that on multiple occasions. There was just so much in this book that didn't really need to be there, and in the process I felt the story dragging me down further and further into its well of darkness. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal death, Bullying, Gore, Murder, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Suicide, Sexual violence, Addiction, and Drug use

kyliesh's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

A book that I’ll truly think about for years to come and possibly a rare reread one day! I was completely immersed in the story and found that the author wrote several characters in such a way that you understood them through their complications. Very well written, intriguing, and unique.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Blood, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Gore, Murder, Bullying, and Pedophilia

athompson0429's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

This is a great coming-of-age horror that has a lot of interesting characters.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Gore, Pedophilia, and Toxic relationship

morebedsidebooks's review against another edition

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Murder, Blood, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Alcoholism, Animal death, Car accident, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Trafficking

Minor: Racism, Homophobia, Cancer, and Death of parent

Also contains scenes of genital mutilation and substance abuse.