Years ago I watched the film adaptation of this book, called Let the Right One In. As I recall, it was basically a feel-good story about a bullied boy who befriends a little girl who happens to be a vampire.
The book, on the other hand, was proper horror. The countless scenes of vampire brutality were not the worst parts. Instead, the most horrific acts were perpetrated by humans, and those are the scenes that I’m going to have trouble forgetting.
Set in the early 1980s in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden, the novel has a wide cast of characters who are all caught up in the drama. Every one of them is tragic to an extent, which only adds to the bleak feeling that pervades the book. This is a cursed place full of miserable people, and the arrival of a vampire amongst them seems fitting. Amazingly, I felt like all of these separate character arcs really served a purpose and came to a satisfying conclusion. That is tough to pull off.
This novel was excellent, but absolutely depraved in parts. I’m definitely going to need something lighter next.