Let The Right One in by John Ajvide Lindqvist

[ceeeeg]

i am about 50% in this book and....

meh...i feel no sympathetic connection to any of the characters so far, not even Oskar, who i feel like i should have a natural affinity for...

i am not finding the writing style evocative, and where it is its evoking a lot of ewwww responses...

i don't want to risk spoilers, and i still have half the book to go, but it is very slow going because it is not holding my interest and i wander off into other things...gonna finish it out in hopes there is some wow! type turning point

[Susan]

Finished up this evening. Not sure how many stars to give it. I was hooked at the beginning and thought it was a good book but I found it a little strange overall. I did find the different relationships of the various characters were fascinating.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Finally finished. Spent all day trying to read my bloody book. Finished it and now have to go out so will pass on final thoughts later (better than last weekend when I had 5 pages to go on my book and my lift out knocked on the door!).

Quick one is, that wasn't the ending I was expecting...

[Sarah]

I wasn't totally expecting the ending either (view spoiler)[I knew that Eli and Oskar went off together because I remember that from the film - the scene with Oskar on train with a big case (which Eli is in) springs to mind - but I couldn't remember what lead up to it at all so all of that was a surprise. (hide spoiler)]

What did you think overall? Good? Bad?

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Oop sorry. Got sick and wasn't on much yesterday.

I really enjoyed it. It was dark and moody which I love. Swedish winter I think was the perfect setting for this book. Enough sun for issues, but mainly dark, cold, foreboding and eerily empty. I sort of kept forgetting that it was on the edge of Stockholm, and not a small country town in the woods somewhere.

It was creepy without being horrifying, which I prefer. And a really interesting and different take on the vampire story.

Cats (view spoiler)[ I'm terrible. I didn't mind the cats being killed by Hakan. The Virginia one turned my stomach though. Acid burning people's face off, fine. Description of cats bones breaking, apparently not. I hate cats (usually).

There was a great Book Club show that had Malla Nunn, Michael Robotham and Jo Nesbø on it, and I remember one of them telling a story about you could do anything to humans but as soon as you did something to a pet in a book, the hate mail and death threats started. It was a little insane, kill all the people you want, but stay away from the Lab. Now I feel like one of those silly people. (hide spoiler)]

Virginia and Lacke (view spoiler)[ so sad, but the only option. Good on her. Poor Lacke though. There was nothing else for him though, so I am glad in someways he was ended quickly after the hospital. He wouldn't have lasted much longer by himself I predict (hide spoiler)]

Basement aftermath (view spoiler)[ My understanding was that he/she was so weak she had to heal and it was close to dawn, and Hakan was safely locked away. She/he just had no idea about Tommy. That boy is seriously going to be f#$%ed up forever more. (hide spoiler)]

Ending (view spoiler)[ I was biting my nails through all of that. I thought that one of the other boys would do something. But I don't blame them for not. They were obviously insane. Good on Eli, I thought she had pretty much left already. It really played on the fact that it was more on a book about friendship and bullying than vampires in the end. That being said. I wasn't expecting heads literally rolling. I hope Eli looks after Oskar, and doesn't let him become like Hakan. Not a pedophile, just crazy in general. (hide spoiler)]