Happy Monday World!

Did you have a good weekend?

I did a small Halloween-themed game night with several friends and also had plenty of rest and relaxation. I’m definitely ready for this week!

That being said, I finished reading another book. This time around it’s Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

Originally I watched this movie (the original, not the US version) at least a decade ago and absolutely loved it. So when I was deciding my Halloween reads I figured this one was guaranteed to be a good one. So what did I think?

Blurb:

It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last—revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day.

But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door—a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night….

GoodReads

The Review:

DNF at 41%

Unfortunately I did not finish reading this book and stopped at 41%.

I’ve loved vampires ever since reading Anne Rice back in high school. So it wasn’t much of a stretch for me to give this one a go. Sadly, I couldn’t continue on any further than where I got for several reasons, though I will say there were some positives to take away from my experience.

First and foremost, I did like Oskar and Eli as characters. I think that their interactions were strange and interesting, and that largely kept me going. Oskar is a victim of the bullies at school, and doesn’t really know what else to do until his life is changed by meeting Eli. Eli has plenty of mystery built around them, and I enjoyed that element.

That being said, there are a lot more POV’s than just Oskar and Eli, and I think overall these additional characters really slowed down the pace of the book to the point where I just wanted things to move forward. I do understand that they are a part of the story, but there’s just too much back and forth and it took me away from what made the book most interesting.

The plot was intriguing and I was already familiar given that I had watched the movie years ago, but I felt that it was extremely similar to the film, so much that I often wandered why I didn’t just watch the movie and be done with it. Don’t get me wrong, there are interesting developments and not everything is exactly the same, but reading it is just a different experience, one that I didn’t enjoy as much.

A central theme of this book besides bullying is pedophilia, and that also impacted my experience negatively. This theme was explored to an extent that made me uncomfortable, and I just don’t think a lot of people will appreciate that.

Overall, this book was interesting, but due to an abundance of characters, a slow-moving plot, and the unnerving theme of pedophilia I cannot recommend this book.

That’s a Wrap!

Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!

Have you read this book before? What did you think? Do you have a book recommendation similar to this one? Feel free to share in the comments!

If you’d like to see other reviews of mine, feel free to check out the book review section of my blog or my GoodReads. You can also follow my GoodReads reviews here. There are some great binge-worthy books on there!

Have a great day!

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