Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

29 reviews

melosamatic's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Pedophilia, Gore, Death, Bullying, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcoholism and Animal death

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!

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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.}

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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

hauntedpostalworker's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, and Pedophilia

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

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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

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Rape, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Medical content

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. 

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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

morebedsidebooks's review against another edition

4.0

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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.

mafaichney's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Suicide, Animal death, Pedophilia, Murder, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Xenophobia

vlpfeiffer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense

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

3.5

I've been curious about this book for quite a while and finally picked it up. I had seen the movie when I was much younger and remember the atmospheric and tense vibes that really appealed to me. After struggling to get through halfway I watched the film again and realized I much prefer the film, which is a rare phenomenon. But watching it did get me to finish the book to finish the comparison. 

There were several arcs that seemed unnecessary and it seems that the filmmakers felt the same. Several characters I was forced to slog through with little to no connection to the plot until the end. And the relationship to Hakan, which

in the film was more mysterious and felt more like a genuine father/daughter or thrall situation turned into an unnecessarily disgusting portrayal of a pedophile who has latched himself onto this child vampire in an attempt to assuage his proclivities by way of justifying it through the lens of 'she's not REALLY a kid so it's okay'. All the while some of the most vile descriptions of sexual attraction and behavior towards children seemed unnecessary and just there to horrify. Which, duh, horror, but for my personal tastes was not a thread I was happy about.

 

Otherwise, things were neatly tied together with a hint of sweet justice for Oskar's antagonists and a deserved outcome for Hakan. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Murder, Torture, Animal death, and Animal cruelty