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A review by res_curans
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
2.0
I'd seen the movie a number of years ago and I had liked it but not loved it - and then I read somewhere that the original English subtitles were botched, and that the re-tooled subtitles did the movie better justice... but I never got around to seeing that version. So, when I saw a copy of the original novel for 25ยข in the bargain bin, I picked it up hoping to get a better handle on the substance of the movie.
It's been a while now since I've seen the movie, but it seems like there's a lot in the book that didn't make it in. Which is actually ok. There are a lot of parallel plots in the book, some of them more interesting than others, and one that is particularly unsavory... I was okay with it all until the last 50 pages or so when it became clear that none of them were going to either (a) resolve satisfactorily, nor (b) that they were going to integrate with each other in a significant way. Most troublesome was that even the main storyline didn't resolve satisfactorily. We are essentially cheated out of the final payoff. And there were a lot of transitions/decisions that didn't make a whole lot of sense, and/or weren't clearly explained. It was too bad, because it's rare that a popular fiction book can hold me longer than halfway, so there had to have been potential there.
This was the author's first novel as I understand, so maybe he bit off more than he could chew. It could have been a good short novel if he'd just focused on the main story and cut out some of the unnecessary extras, but it's bloated into a near-500-page tome (with relatively small type). Sadly, I can't recommend. But I will say I'm still interested in watching the movie again, to see a more coherent version of this story, and maybe get some of the payoffs I was missing from the book...?
It's been a while now since I've seen the movie, but it seems like there's a lot in the book that didn't make it in. Which is actually ok. There are a lot of parallel plots in the book, some of them more interesting than others, and one that is particularly unsavory... I was okay with it all until the last 50 pages or so when it became clear that none of them were going to either (a) resolve satisfactorily, nor (b) that they were going to integrate with each other in a significant way. Most troublesome was that even the main storyline didn't resolve satisfactorily. We are essentially cheated out of the final payoff. And there were a lot of transitions/decisions that didn't make a whole lot of sense, and/or weren't clearly explained. It was too bad, because it's rare that a popular fiction book can hold me longer than halfway, so there had to have been potential there.
This was the author's first novel as I understand, so maybe he bit off more than he could chew. It could have been a good short novel if he'd just focused on the main story and cut out some of the unnecessary extras, but it's bloated into a near-500-page tome (with relatively small type). Sadly, I can't recommend. But I will say I'm still interested in watching the movie again, to see a more coherent version of this story, and maybe get some of the payoffs I was missing from the book...?