Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist starting February 18, 2023.

Found it!

So I went ahead and started the audio for this one. Chapter 1 (view spoiler)[ This kid is definitely going to be a serial killer when he grows up. Man he's creepy. (hide spoiler)]

^_^ I'm going to be a couple of days late, but I'm looking forward to it!

How do you like the narrator so far? I'm thinking of doing the audio too, hopefully be along Monday or Tues.

Hmm.. If I can make it work I'll try to squeeze this in!

Elizabeth wrote: "So I went ahead and started the audio for this one. Chapter 1 [spoilers removed]"

Started! Getting a little bit in before sleep... The audiobook doesn't say chapters in the contents, only Track 1, 2, 3 etc... I think this said Part 1, or Chapter 1-2 maybe... (view spoiler)[Man, poor Oscar has been dealt a bad hand... seems like family does drugs, incontinence problems, no wonder he has some weird predilections... daydreams that put him in power, give him revenge on his bullies... (hide spoiler)]

LOL Elizabeth you went to serial killer, I went to pity... you're probably right though...

I think I'm in chapter 6? Does the book have chapters? Track 8, maybe 2 hours in? Kobo's audiobook interface is pretty lacking--once the audiobook starts, it tells you how much time is left, but not how much you've gone so far... and it's hard to find the initial book page to see the time...

Anyway--It's interesting how raw and dark the story is--sex, violence, drugs...and all towards children too. All succeeds in building a slow feeling of horror... (view spoiler)[the back-and-forth between child Oscar and the murderous adult, the strange conversations with the little girl on both ends... (hide spoiler)]

I can't read those types of books .. You guys are stronger than me...

Audible has the chapters listed as the dates. I'm about a third of the way in (Friday 30 October is the chapter I'm in. A little over 5 hours) and I'm thinking of DNFing. I'm not enjoying this. I think this is going to be the first book in this book club I'm not finishing. I am interested about the young girl, but not enough to keep going. If you finish it let me know how it all goes.

My library has this titled as Let Me In... I wonder if there's a difference in translation? I can't see who translated any of the editions..

Tonari no Emily wrote: "My library has this titled as Let Me In... I wonder if there's a difference in translation? I can't see who translated any of the editions.."

I'm seeing that too--I imagine it must be a different translation. The audiobook said the translator at the very beginning, but it doesn't say it anywhere on the cover or the page information--which is criminal, in my opinion, since a translator's role is as difficult as an author's, if not worse...

Elizabeth wrote: "Audible has the chapters listed as the dates. I'm about a third of the way in (Friday 30 October is the chapter I'm in. A little over 5 hours) and I'm thinking of DNFing. I'm not enjoying this. I t..."

I can't blame you, Elizabeth... I'm definitely getting the heebie jeebies from all the nastiness in the book... none of the characters are likeable, and the sexualization of children is reeeeeally disturbing--without any police officer POV around to give us hope...

Most people in the book club pick sci-fi or fantasy when it's their turn. The one who picked this one picks those genres maybe 50-60% of time. Yeah this one was a miss for me and I know at least one other person. We meet March 4th, wonder how many of us will have actually finished.

Yes translating fiction is very hard I'd imagine!

And yeah the amount of pedophilia in this is gross... Finished Part 1 (Libby has the chapters as Parts 1-5 plus an epilogue. Not navigable at all really) I also don't particularly like the characters, but kind of intrigued enough in the story to continue. Hopefully we get more of the horror and less of the sexualization of children.

Nirkatze wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "So I went ahead and started the audio for this one. Chapter 1 [spoilers removed]"

Started! Getting a little bit in before sleep... The audiobook doesn't say chapters in the conte..."

I was going for pity at first, but without help/counseling I don't see Oscar growing up as a particularly good or even well-adjusted person...

I'm at 10:30/16 now, and it seems to be gearing more toward horror with a smaller sideplate of Lolita now... (view spoiler)[after the adult dude acided his face off, hopefully there won't be as much child sexualization... except for Oskar & Eli sexualizing themselves.... (hide spoiler)]

Still really disturbing though. I don't read horror really at all... but this isn't the first book club read that I haven't liked but will still finish... I'm trying to figure out what kind of story the author is going for, what their point in writing this was. I would like to think that no one goes around writing pedophilic vampire books just for fun.... and then making TV series out of them. What do people see in this story?

I do find the emphasis on the different senses interesting--a lot of sensory input, especially smell--more than I usually see in books.

@Emily--Oskar definitely needs help and counseling...

Into Part III now... it's getting more engaging... almost like a murder mystery for half the town, as they slowly wake to the fact that something is going on in their midst...

A lot of the story has been fairly cinematic. The scene with the ice--the way it switches between two different POVs and (view spoiler)[the final reveal of the dead body (hide spoiler)]--I wonder if the TV series do that exactly as the book? The acid discovery scene was simliar.

Oskar--redeemable? (view spoiler)[I'm glad that he fought back against the bullies--but of course, he got caught instead of the bullies. And the fact that he stopped, and felt horrible, and tried to help his tormentor, suggests that there is hope for him... but his mother's reaction... not talking to him at all! Just letting him go out and 'work out'--very strange. I have to wonder, if that is a 1980s attitude, or if it is a Swedish parenting thing, or if it is just this story. (hide spoiler)]

I keep thinking of the time period--early 1980s, with the Soviet Union so close to Sweden--and how the setting, what seems to be a small town in Sweden--affect the story. What in the story is specific to the times, or the place? I haven't noticed much yet--though the mentions of bomb shelters, air raid practice match with the time. I was pleasantly surprised by one conversation with a teacher--(view spoiler)[Oskar asks something like "What if the person you like isn't a boy"? And the teacher says something like "friends are okay... well, love is okay too, all love is okay, but we can't talk about that right now..." Which is fairly open-minded for the 80s, when AIDs started and people were fairly reactionary about LGBT folk, even as they were starting to make their voices heard more--but I don't know how other countries acted at this time. (hide spoiler)]

Blood pact--now getting a little more interesting. (view spoiler)[Eli will have to explain herself to Oskar... and that simple blood mixing will infect? More zombie-like than vampire lore... one bite infects/kills you. So no feeding and letting live then. (hide spoiler)]

Eli curiosity... (view spoiler)[Two bits--Eli's comment on "what if I'm not a girl" and "I'm not girl or boy" then the story about the beautiful boy hundreds of years ago makes me think that well, Eli is the beautiful boy, maybe a trans-girl? Maybe castrati? (hide spoiler)]

On Audio, I find it very strange that "Eli" is pronounced "Elay"

Somewhere in the middle of Part II when Eli comes in through the window (view spoiler)[ she had Oskar close his eyes.. she was naked and then Oskar didn't find any tracks or anything and was wondering how she got up to the window... Is she a turn into a bat kind of vampire???
Earlier she left behind clothes when she killed that one guy from the Chinese restaurant.... (hide spoiler)]

Re Eli (view spoiler)[ I was kind of thinking that too when she started telling that story to the old woman. (hide spoiler)]

Also maybe that's the Hebrew pronunciation of the name?
Edit: well not according to Wikipedia lol

Vampire stuff--somewhere in the middle of Part III--(view spoiler)[she has claws, and grows her teeth into needles by having them almost filed to points as they descend... she can sort of look at the sun, expose herself for a bit, but blisters, and supposedly extended exposure would kill her... (hide spoiler)] in vampire etc stories, I always find it interesting how authors define/redefine lore--what aspects the keep, what they discard, how they interpret things...

I also find it interesting--with the title of the book--(view spoiler)[how Eli has to ask to be let in to to people's homes, and the whole bit about not letting people in, as friends, to one's heart, and so on... a parallel between trusting someone who turns around and bites you, destroys you... or letting someone in who will destroy others for you... almost like that saying "friends help you move, best friends help you move bodies." (hide spoiler)]

A little more than halfway--9/16 hours in (view spoiler)[Hah. Eli, you are a vampire. Stop the denial. (hide spoiler)]

Finished Part III

Now that you pointed it out, this author does put a large emphasis on the sense of smell... I find that pretty interesting because I don't notice a lot of writers doing that. But the descriptions are pretty detailed and I think that can give scenes a fuller picture. Sense of smell is more important than people think and is linked to memory... Especially liked how he described Oskar's dad's smell.

I'm glad Oskar decided to (view spoiler)[give Eli another chance... And then had another little spat with weird wrestling? And confirmation I think that Eli is AMAB

I appreciate that Oskar was hurt/disgusted that Eli had to kill people to live.. I think there's hope for him. (hide spoiler)]

Also for someone who says they don't want to (view spoiler)[ infect other people, Eli sure is turning alot of people into vampires... I also appreciate different takes on mythical creatures.. Like a little create your mythology creature menu xD
Teeth-- fangs? elongated canines? normal teeth? all teeth sharpened? do they transform or always the same?
Source of food-- only blood? psychic?
Spread of vampirism-- a single bite? exchange of blood? do you need to bury the body first?
How to kill/injure-- (circle all that applies) fire, stake to the heart, holy water, sunlight, beheading, garlic, holy symbols, silver bullets
Super strength (rate 0-10 where 0 is none and 10 is Hulk) ___
Extras-- transformation? (is your vampire a little batty?) sparkly? mind powers? fast healing? ageless? super senses? threshold limitations? (hide spoiler)]

Oh and for some reason all the ceilings in this town have a lot of cobwebs xD

LOL Emily, I like your build-your-own vampire toolkit! Maybe add other physical characteristics too? Eyes, claws, etc--sparkles can go in there too... maybe even death effects? normal, dust, blood burst, etc....

For smell--there's so many times when (view spoiler)[the smell is the first thing that hits the POV character when faced with a vampire, or even the acid-murderer dude--Hadley?--sickly-sweet smell of decay, hospital smells, smell of blood--almost like a warning... this person isn't really alive anymore. Enough that it made me think of how our sense of smell has largely developed as a sign of danger, I think--rotten things, waste, chemicals--things that smell "bad" to humans are by and large things that can do harm to us... to a dog, they just smell interesting, but not an "ew, get away" smell... (hide spoiler)]

re: infection--(view spoiler)[on point about Eli not doing anything to even keep track of infection... is she

Deep into Part IV now, 13/16 hours, past Nov 8, I think was the last date I heard...

Still running into a lot of cinematic horror scenes. I find myself saying "ew. Ew. EW." a lot... and wow, the (view spoiler)[cats! Swarming the woman without any heed to their own survival... how it described the sound of the little bones... *shudder* (hide spoiler)]

gender--(view spoiler)[at this point, after Eli reveals their history to Oskar, Oskar's POV chapters change pronouns... makes me wonder what pronouns are like in Swedish... meanwhile, other chapters featuring Eli still use she/her--but none are from Eli's POV (EDIT: one from Eli's perspective uses he/him)--and Eli seems to prefer to present as female... it's an interesting conversation. For a child, robbed of physical gender traits both by violence and by time, locked in a body before puberty, and forced to eternal life... what would gender even mean to such a being? (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Ah yes perfect additions! :D

And yeah I found myself shuddering through ALOT of the book. Finished a bit ago. (view spoiler)[ Re cats, omg that scene made me cringe so hard! Those poor kitties! They went crazy though! I wonder what it is about vampires that would cause them to act against self-interest. There's history there! Can cats catch vampirism? Do they have a species memory of the disease spreading through other cats?

Re gender-- I found that interesting too... I'm not sure Eli had a preference, but maybe since Oskar started referring to her as him, he also referred to himself as a him too. Interesting to note about Swedish pronouns though. Quick search shows they have one analog to English for he/she: "han"/"hon". Recently "hen" has gained traction for gender-neutral... but that wasn't until around 2012. And Swedish has grammatical genders, but not in terms of masculine and feminine, but "common" and "neuter". Not sure what that really means though (hide spoiler)]

Ending (view spoiler)[ Good gods Jimmy/Johnny and gang are so cruel! The feud escalated wayyyy too quick. But damn did they pay for trying to kill Oskar. Avenging angel indeed. Seems like Eli did have wings.

And honestly Oskar and Eli running away together was kind of cute in a twisted sort of way... Maybe Eli will be able to live off "donated" blood like she tried out with Tommy.

(All they two syllable boys names ending with "-y" had me really confused)

I'm so glad Mr. Avila wasn't killed. He was the best adult in Oskar's life... The adults around Oskar left much to be desired. (hide spoiler)]

I just finished too--many of the same thoughts--(view spoiler)[OMG that little tidbit at the end, about the cats found in a field and "the only thing I have left of her is her collar" made me want to cry...

Really interesting about the gender & pronouns in Swedish... very curious what "common" and "neuter" refer to too...

And also did not enjoy Jimmy/Johnny. Seriously parents! And what a bunch of ne'er do wells. Remember when we were all discussing the likelihood of Oskar turning into a serial killer? His bullies would have been worse had they continued... I don't know if it's right to say they deserved it, because y'know, murder of 12 y/o's, but well, they deserved it... though I wonder if the kid who let Eli in survived or not...? The one who said "just please make it stop.."

Also very glad Mr. Avila survived. I wonder what he'll have to tell the police when he wakes up? One of the things I found very frustrating was how most adults seem to be blaming Oskar... and no one is looking into why he's acting out against this specific group of boys... he's getting all the blame when it should be them who are painted black...

Ending with the two of them running away together... seems a fitting ending, both for the story and for a horror book... I like your notion of Eli learning to live off of donated blood... (hide spoiler)]

Makes me curious to see the TV series(es?)... I do better with other genres in visual format than book format...

Re Ending (view spoiler)[ Only Jimmy and Johnny were killed. Their heads were torn off and left at the bottom of the pool. The other kids gave statements I think. And yeah I wasn't too pressed about those kids being dead.. Some of the things I say in this group, I swear xD

Or maybe Eli can hunt murderers and such? :D (hide spoiler)]

There's also a Swedish movie I'd be interested in.

For some reason I thought the Swedish version was also TV series... very curious about them all!

TY for clarification about the ending. I swear, I'm getting better with audio, but I still miss so many details.

I like your idea for Eli! (view spoiler)[Vampire Dexter! (hide spoiler)]

Oh wow the show (Showtime) doesn't follow the plot of the book at all...
And there's another film from 2010

I feel like that would be my solution if I were in a vampire situation :D

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Oh wow the show (Showtime) doesn't follow the plot of the book at all...
And there's another film from 2010

I feel like that would be my solution if I were in a vampire situation :D"

I often wonder why more vampire stories don't include non-human blood as an option... for all of Twilight's faults, it's one of the few I can think of that uses that as a plot option...

That's true! Most lore that includes it as an option it's not as good as human blood... The MC from Interview with a Vampire used rats for a bit, but it barely kept him going or something like that...

I honestly don't think I've read a lot of vampire books, or vampire media, now that I think about it. List of what little I can remember: (view spoiler)[Buffy the Vampire Slayer... blood bank bags... no animals mentioned I think?. Mercy Thompson series--no animals mentioned, but biting doesn't kill... vampires keep menageries of blood donors. Dresden... the different courts... I don't think bites were infectious or fatal, necessarily, but again no animals mentioned... Dhampir series... again, no animals, but I'm pretty sure people had to be bled to death for the vampire to get sustenance. (hide spoiler)]

Or at least, of stories where vampires actually had personalities on occasion and weren't just vermin bad guys to be exterminated...

Hmmm I don't remember blood bags in Buffy. But definitely in a show called Being Human...

There's a few scenes with Angel picking up blood bags, or blood bags in a fridge in Buffy... I haven't seen Being Human but it's been on my TBW for a while!

Oh! Just remembering a scene with Spike I think? Also I think Angel drank pig's blood too! Love that show :D

Being Human is pretty good. I watched some of the UK version and finished the US version.

Always nice to hear recommendations from folks whose taste I trust! I haven't been watching much lately though...