After reading "Twilight", I thought I would never read another vampire book again.

We’ve seen vampires evolve throughout literature at how they feed, how you can kill them and what their habitats are like; and to think they would end up SPARKLING IN THE SUN, made me lose all hope to the world of vampirism. Hopefully that concept of glitter dies out with the twilight fandom. When I came across "Let the Right One In" by John Ajvide Lindqvist, my curiosity peaked.

John Ajvide Lindqvist has been compared to Stephen King, Clive Barker and Neil Gaimon, (specifically those three writers), and it shows!!! Why? We’ll you’ll figure it out. I originally thought I approached this book completely blind until I realized back in 2011 they made a film called "Let Me In" which was based on the book, but I still refuse to acknowledge it was ever turned into a film because this book was ten times better. I would also like to say that this is an example of vampires done right.

Anyway here is the main plot:

Oskar is a 12-year old boy who lives with his divorced mother, and suffers daily torment of bullying. I would also like to point out that this is the most realistic depiction of bullying I’ve ever read, despite the supernatural nature of the book. Anyway, he meets a young girl named Eli in which they grow close. At the same time, there are a series of murders taking place in town by a person the locals called, "The Ritual Killer."

Oskar is a very two dimensional character, and his character of being a child is very well written. Whenever a writer tries to write a child they tend to make two mistakes. You either make him so realistic that it comes off annoying, or you make him so intelligent that he is just an adult in a little boy’s body. Oskar behaved like a typical 12-year old but had a level of deviance to him that gave his character an edge. Anyway, it is revealed that Eli is a vampire and the Ritual Killer is his guardian, Hakan, a human being. It is implied that while Hakan kills people to provide blood for Eli, in return, Eli performs sexual favors for him. There are other subplots which cross paths with each other, including a group of locals searching for the killer after one of their friends become a victim, to women being attacked and what it’s like for her to be turned into a vampire. I would go into greater detail about what happens but that would require additional spoilers. There is also a very shocking twist on Eli’s character that makes her and Oskar’s relationship more off-putting but interesting as well. The book follows a lot of characters, from Oskar, to Eli, to Hakan, to some of the locals and even Oskar’s bullies and all their story arcs cross paths.

There were two elements of the story I found the most interesting. The first was how vampires are explored in the book. In this book, Vampires can tell if a person is sick or what drugs their victims took by how their victims blood taste like. They can only heal themselves by drinking blood. Vampires also cannot enter a house of a person without being invited in. The second element was the grotesque nature of the narrative. There is a lot of grotesque scenes in this book that I can’t even describe for you. One scene involved Hakan pour acid on his face when he got caught by police leaving him horrendously deformed and then a scene involves him raping Eli. I would suggest all squeamish readers to steer clear of this book. Many of these scenes are described in such great detail, even I found myself cringing a bit. The book really plays with your emotions on many scenes.

Now to the less positive aspects of the book. I told you already how grotesque the book gets with its story and details and after a while, I found it working against me. There is a reason this book took me so long to finish. The first half of the book was just fine, but the second half of the book was where the problem began. Many scenes were so stretched out I kind of had to force myself to read parts of the book, also the constant shocking nature of the certain scenes coming at such short intervals had me constantly stepping away from the book for a breather. I am a fan of disturbing books, but I had a problem with how overwhelming the book became. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the shock value, but there was too much of it, it had me in a ways fatigued by the emotions I felt. Another flaw I had with the book with the dialogue. I know it sounds weird but I thought the dialogue was a bit too natural. Let me explain. When a person tends to be stubborn or refusing to cooperate you naturally find yourself repeating what you said several times in attempts to get your point across. That’s what I got here. There were conversations but the sometimes the dialogue got repetitive and lost my interest.

Okay, enough bashing this book, because I didn’t hate it as much as it sounds. What I loved about the book was also it’s emotions it inspired. Yeah, there is so much shock value, you might either become desensitized by the horror or just stop reading all together but that doesn’t fully mean the book didn’t have you on edge. You got the feeling of disgust towards Hakan’s devious behavior and thoughts, but at the same time you felt sorry for him because deep down, he didn’t want to go through with those murders. You also found yourself feeling sorry for Eli because clearly its more of a burden being a vampire then many may think, and you also feel a sense of compassionate awe for the bond Oskar and Eli develop. I actually found myself cheering for Eli and Oskar despite the other shocking twist about Eli. Also if anyone has been thinking that the twist was Eli was a vampire the whole time, no its not, the twist is much more disturbing.

Final thoughts. This book was certainly better than vampire books I’ve read. It gets overwhelming in the second half but, it’s still a very good payoff. The characters are very well written, the plot is complex but not confusing, and it does give an interesting take on the vampire lore. Regardless, I’m placing a warning sign for sensitive readers or anyone under the age of 13. Also I am going to keep my mother from reading this at all costs because she hates gore.

But these are just my opinions. Have you read the book? Do you want to? If so, I hope you at least can get through it. Comment below and get look out for another review!!!