Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Let the Right One In: A Novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Ebba Segerberg

32 reviews

a_violentfemme's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• 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? No

4.75

I enjoyed this much more than I expected. It is certainly a slow burn but I couldn't put it down. I didn't rate a 5 as there were some jumps in the writing and on occasion I found myself a bit lost as to where things were taking place or the what period of time had passed. Overall the feeling throughout the book is bleak and there is something about the ending that made me feel cold. I felt similarities to Salem's Lot but I enjoyed this more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction and Alcohol

jully_bean's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

One of my new favorite books. So beautifully written and packed full of twists and surprises 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit, and Trafficking

hambo221's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Self harm, and Cannibalism

unpetitchat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

Minor: Alcoholism and Racism

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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Body horror

Minor: Addiction

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

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

morebedsidebooks's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

Also contains scenes of genital mutilation and substance abuse.

amoremeg's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.75

This book was hard to get through. The dialogue was difficult to follow and often felt jumpy or truncated or stilted. I believe (I hope) there was some elegance lost in the translation. There are no winners. I don't know if any of the characters are actually good people. Maybe some are trying but it feels like the impulse to act out always wins, the impulse to not communicate always wins. There are so many irrelevant characters who did not need names and backstories- they were only introduced at all to bear witness to some moment, to be a third person perspective. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Excrement, and Vomit