Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

14 reviews

morebedsidebooks's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Murder, Blood, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Alcoholism, Animal death, Car accident, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Trafficking

Minor: Racism, Homophobia, Cancer, and Death of parent

Also contains scenes of genital mutilation and substance abuse.

mccalab's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Alcoholism, Rape, Pedophilia, Bullying, Addiction, Child abuse, Self harm, and Blood

Minor: Trafficking

amoremeg's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Vomit, and Excrement

jbcrue's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Suicide, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Self harm, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Sexual violence, Violence, Rape, Animal death, Body horror, Medical content, Terminal illness, Vomit, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Excrement, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

elvenpanther's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

Lindqvist managed to write this in such a way, that despite being uncomfortable at how twisted much of this novel was, I was throughly engrossed and could not put it down. I enjoyed how he wove the story through the view points of several members of the community and how he tied all of those "individual" narratives together.
This novel was dark, and gritty, and explored so much more than "monster" trope. In a way, it focused on how monstrous people could be. How sometimes it's not what goes bump in the night that you need to fear, but instead your neighbor or your classmate. It explored broken people, broken families and broken children and their struggle to navigate the world when they feel alone.
I didn't really know what to expect when starting this, and yes some parts of the novel made me squirm, but overall I enjoyed it. I had watched the Swedish film adaptation after and I will say I appreciate how much more in depth the book went. It made for a much more complex and visceral narrative than the movie.
*As a warning, the book does strongly contain the topic of pedophilia*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Murder, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, and Medical trauma

Minor: Animal death

owlribbon's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Suicide, Violence, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

thefigtree's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Vomit, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia

cryscries's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I watched the original movie first before the book and after reading it I can say it’s pretty faithful to the source material. It was such an amazing read that I didn’t feel like it was 472 pages. It’s dark and emotional and I love the relationship that forms between oskar and eli. I loved reading all the different perspectives of people living in that town and how the events unfolded and connected. Definitely a really good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Murder, Blood, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

I feel like the contents of this book ranges from moderate - graphic. There is a character who is attracted to eli named Hänkan - his perspectives can be very uncomfortable to read because he does go into a bit of detail about his attraction in the beginning of the book when he is somewhat introduced to attempting to r word eli towards the end of the book. Eli’s past holds a lot of trauma but does not glorify it in any way of anything it’s more character background of their past but can also be uncomfortable to read. Bits and pieces in the book talk about suicide and self harm from characters who are being bullied or depressed from oskar and eli— though Virginia is a tw for self harm because of what she is going through in the story.

meereswogen's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Alcoholism, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Murder, Violence, Vomit, Bullying, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Pedophilia

noble_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Succeeds in being properly scary, especially in the second half when all the action really reaches a crescendo. Creepy and uncomfortable.
The ending left a little to he desired in my opinion, open. I'll definitely pick up the collection of short stories which is supposed to include a sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual violence, Gore, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Excrement, Medical trauma, Murder, Medical content, Torture, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Vomit, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Self harm