Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Let the Right One In: A Novel

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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suneaters's review against another edition

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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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teaandtales1's review against another edition

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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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kyliesh's review against another edition

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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.

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vlpfeiffer's review

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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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mirrorofneptune's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

An interesting take on the vampire genre but a little too much child endangerment for my liking

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