50. Let the Right One In

* Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
   Cover design:  Satya Utama Jadi

At first I was a bit sceptical about this book. It’s a vampire novel by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist. The synopsis did not help to convince me at all. So I really don’t know why, in the end, I decided to give it a try. And I’m glad I did. It’s like no other vampire novels I’ve ever read. The story was gruesome, dark, and yet beautifully moving, heartwrenching, at the same time. It haunted me long after I finished reading it. I brought this book with me everywhere for a couple of weeks, reading several pages each day and  from time to time I put it down and thought, “What is it like to read it in the dark of winter?”The dreary, long winter in Blackeberg seemed to rise from every page and hovered in the air even as I read under the sun. Yes, that’s where it took place. Blackeberg, a working suburb in Stockholm, and the year was 1981. That’s where Oskar met Eli. Oskar was a 12 year-old-boy who lived with his mother in a drab apartment complex, he had no friends and he was always bullied at school; Eli was a little girl who lived next door with her “patron”, Håkan Bengtsson. Both Oskar and Eli were victims of circumstances, both are alone, and that’s why they became friends and took care of each other, even after Oskar knew that Eli was a vampire who lived on fresh blood.

          But this book is much much more than just a vampire novel. It takes on a lot of other subjects as well: human depravity, social problems, loneliness, the needs to belong, and many others. And eventhough most of the characters were twisted and social outcasts---Oskar himself was a sociopath in the making, Håkan was a pedophile, and the secondary characters were all hopeless drunkards---yet somehow you feel for them. And despite some horribly bloody episodes, there was also a lot of love, and some poignant moments, such as when Håkan thought of Eli as “Samuel Beckett’s eyes in Audrey Hepburn’s face”. Or in one of my favourite moments, when Eli and Oskar kissed and:

For a few seconds Oskar saw through Eli’s eyes. And what he saw was…himself. Only much better, more handsome, stronger than what he thought of himself. Seen with love.

It was also those lines that redeemed Eli in my mind. I was questioning her motives to Oskar. Surely she was just manipulating him, trying to turn him into another Håkan? But after those lines, no, she couldn’t have. She did love him.

          And oh… the movie was very good too---the original Swedish movie, I’m not so sure about the American remake.