Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Let Me in

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Let Me in by John Ajvide Lindqvist

7 reviews

morebedsidebooks's review against another edition

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4.0

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amoremeg's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book was hard to get through. The dialogue was difficult to follow and often felt jumpy or truncated or stilted. I believe (I hope) there was some elegance lost in the translation. There are no winners. I don't know if any of the characters are actually good people. Maybe some are trying but it feels like the impulse to act out always wins, the impulse to not communicate always wins. There are so many irrelevant characters who did not need names and backstories- they were only introduced at all to bear witness to some moment, to be a third person perspective.

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sphinx_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A 3.5 or 4 stars.

With so many characters and happenings in this book, I tried my best to think what is the overarching theme. The best I have is that everyone has their own circumstances, some way grimmer than others. And while the lives of the characters here tangle in a mess, they end up the cause and effect, the reason for someone's pain, etc. - all of their actions stem from how they were taught around them and how their lives had been. They try to live comfortably or move forward in a way they know. For example,

Johnny (unfortunately so) follows his brother's footsteps because he looks up to the latter.

Lacke buries all what-could-bes through alcohol until it was too late.

Tommy, probably not over his father's death, can't agree with his mother having a new relationship so he thinks of rebelling or stripping himself away from the household instead.

Virginia... deserved so much more.

The list can go on, and the characters makes so much sense because of their narratives and backstories presented. (Except for Hakan, lol. Fuck him.)

My heart goes out for many characters but mostly for Eli and Oskar. Two kids who only want to find connection and play, just like any kids should without having to be bullied. Without having to be chasen around. With all the "flaws" the people see around them, they don't see it as such. They appreciate each other which is wholesome af in a very dark story as this.

There were so many parts that were difficult to read. I abhor the bullying (and all unspeakable things. iykyk) but what made me stay with the story are truly the characters. The characters, man. The characters.

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thefigtree's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

vampire horror but in a real-world way; it is

pedophilia and genital mutilation and bullying and abuse rather than angsty teenagers or adventure or itwv-silly-fun.

it's very dark and i think you have to aware of that going in to enjoy it at all. but it's so well written, it's atmospheric and sensory and the constant switches in pov work so well with the pacing.

the novel is uncomfortable to read and at many parts made me physically curl up and cringe but it's good and it's clever and i liked it. it definitely could have gone on for another 100/150 pages and been an appropriate length too (with a more fleshed out ending!!!!).

it's definitely going to throw you off if you go in for the vampires (or because it often gets advertised just as a 'lgbtq vampire book'), you have to be prepared for the content and how it's handled, but if you are it goes to show that when vampires are done well it really does work.

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