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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
I have come to the realization that I will never love another book by this author as much as Let The Right One In. However, Handling The Undead came close and this one was solid as well. After starting it and abandoning it in 2013, I tried again and this time I could hardly put it down. Not sure what book all the negative reviewers were reading. It certainly wasn't this one. Creepy and crazy!
This was a tricky book for me to both finish and review.
I first tried reading this a few years ago and stopped about halfway through.
The same thing happened this time around, but I kept going after a few weeks, because I figured out what the issue was:
Theres is such an enigmatic mystery that I wanted to learn more about her, about her origins and that NEVER happens, especially when the perspective changes to Theresa at that midpoint.
It was interesting to read about a born psychopath alongside a girl who develops into one, but again, this wasn't really explored.
Also, while I love the horror genre, violence just for the sake of violence doesn't really appeal to me, even if some well-placed ABBA music did give me chills...
I first tried reading this a few years ago and stopped about halfway through.
The same thing happened this time around, but I kept going after a few weeks, because I figured out what the issue was:
Theres is such an enigmatic mystery that I wanted to learn more about her, about her origins and that NEVER happens, especially when the perspective changes to Theresa at that midpoint.
It was interesting to read about a born psychopath alongside a girl who develops into one, but again, this wasn't really explored.
Also, while I love the horror genre, violence just for the sake of violence doesn't really appeal to me, even if some well-placed ABBA music did give me chills...
eh...again, very engaging writer...but NOTHING happens in the story until the last 20 pages. very frustrating.
Well, I don’t have much to say, other than this is one f*cked up book. And it’s amazing, I love it. This may have even bumped Let the Right One In out of the top spot as my favourite of his.
I had only read "Let the Right One In" before this, and compared to that book at the very least, Little Star is quite different. It seems to be a departure from his usual style of having many background characters, focusing primarily on only a handful of people this time. Only in the epilogue does he go back to that, but in a strangely lampshaded way, introducing people moments before they meet their gruesome end. On the other hand, the tight focus on Theres and Teresa felt a lot more intimate, but in a sort of claustrophobic, scary way that worked well with the tone of the book.
Overall I liked this book a lot and the suspense was enough to keep me reading, but I felt somewhat let down by the ending. I had wanted, perhaps naively, to know what was behind all of it. Who or what was Theres, why was she in the woods to begin with? I can see this as a sort of "humans are the worst monsters of all" statement but I don't think it really worked. Even if he doesn't usually refer to the supernatural things he's writing about by name (I don't remember if the word "vampire" was ever actually mentioned in Let the Right One In), it's usually easy enough to glean that from the description... Here, there weren't any of those clues along the way.
Anyway, I enjoyed it in spite of that. Pick it up if you like stories about outsiders, moral ambiguity, and aren't squicked out easily.
Overall I liked this book a lot and the suspense was enough to keep me reading, but I felt somewhat let down by the ending. I had wanted, perhaps naively, to know what was behind all of it. Who or what was Theres, why was she in the woods to begin with? I can see this as a sort of "humans are the worst monsters of all" statement but I don't think it really worked. Even if he doesn't usually refer to the supernatural things he's writing about by name (I don't remember if the word "vampire" was ever actually mentioned in Let the Right One In), it's usually easy enough to glean that from the description... Here, there weren't any of those clues along the way.
Anyway, I enjoyed it in spite of that. Pick it up if you like stories about outsiders, moral ambiguity, and aren't squicked out easily.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Finishing this book the same weekend of the Sandy Hook shootings was not a good idea. This is a dark, dark book that I could not put down. I was both horrified and intrigued by Theres but Teresa was the character that sucked me in and made me unable to walk away.
Första boken jag läste av Lindqvist, Människohamn, drog mig med fullständigt. Jag kunde inte sluta läsa, inte ens när jag behövde skynda till flygplatsen för att ta ett plan.
Vilken lycka att få samma känsla i denna bok! Det är så jag mindes det från när jag var liten när jag läste fantasyböcker och aldrig ville sluta. Ajvide har så fantastiska karaktärer. Lilla flickan Theres är helt underbar. Och Jerry, som jag tror är som skapad för att läsaren ska ha någon referenspunkt in i boken. Någon att identifiera sig med i en massa underliga karaktärer (säger jag som 33-årig man). Han blir också den jag hejar på.
Det är cool attityd i boken, det blir aldrig för sentimentalt, samtidigt finns det ändå mänsklig värme i bakgrunden. Jerry som tar sig an Therese t ex.
Men just därför känns slutet alldeles fel. Det borde ha slutat lyckligare. Det är ett helt meningslöst slut, skrivet och läst helt utan glädje. Det enda positiva man tar med sig är att Jerry äntligen lyckas i livet.
Ajvide är en verklig berättarkonstnär, det är kreativitet med stort K. Det är alltid svårgissat vad som väntar bakom varje hörn.
Jag älskar honom! Hade det inte varit för de sista 40 sidorna hade jag gett en 5:a.
Vilken lycka att få samma känsla i denna bok! Det är så jag mindes det från när jag var liten när jag läste fantasyböcker och aldrig ville sluta. Ajvide har så fantastiska karaktärer. Lilla flickan Theres är helt underbar. Och Jerry, som jag tror är som skapad för att läsaren ska ha någon referenspunkt in i boken. Någon att identifiera sig med i en massa underliga karaktärer (säger jag som 33-årig man). Han blir också den jag hejar på.
Det är cool attityd i boken, det blir aldrig för sentimentalt, samtidigt finns det ändå mänsklig värme i bakgrunden. Jerry som tar sig an Therese t ex.
Men just därför känns slutet alldeles fel. Det borde ha slutat lyckligare. Det är ett helt meningslöst slut, skrivet och läst helt utan glädje. Det enda positiva man tar med sig är att Jerry äntligen lyckas i livet.
Ajvide är en verklig berättarkonstnär, det är kreativitet med stort K. Det är alltid svårgissat vad som väntar bakom varje hörn.
Jag älskar honom! Hade det inte varit för de sista 40 sidorna hade jag gett en 5:a.
A lot went on in this book. I like Lindqvist's style, as he's pretty light on superfluous description, but I just didn't feel invested in Theres' journey by the end. It was fun in parts, and definitely pretty gruesome and graphic in places. I wouldn't use the word disturbing, as it always felt it was obvious that I was reading a work of fiction. Some of the violence was pretty comical.