Book Review: Let the Right One In

So a few months back I had a strange experience online. I was looking for an older post I had written on the Justin Cronin novel, The Passage, and rather than combing through all of my old posts I figured it would be simpler to Google the terms bookmonkey, Cronin and passage. I did get directed to a post about the book The Passage (a great post-apocalyptic vampire novel, by the way), and it was done by Bookmonkey, but it was a different bookmonkey.

The weird thing was, even though this bookmonkey was from a different country, and was a girl, she was reviewing a lot of the same materials as me, and in one specific review, had done a book I had been meaning to do for a while now, John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In.

So last week I finally got around to reading this novel and you know what? It is pretty awesome.

Having spent last October reviewing Twilight, I've got to say there are a lot of easy comparisons; 1) both books feature a human starting a relationship with a vampire, 2) both films were released on the same day in North America, 3) Both book helped change my opinion on vampire fiction.

Let The Right One In follows a young boy named Oskar who is consistently being bullied by kids at his school, his parents are separated and life is not going to well for him. Then he meets the new girl who has moved in to his apartment building. Eli has some pretty strange habits; she only comes out at night, her father doesn't really act like a dad and her arrival is strangely timed with a recent string of murders.

Here's the thing about the book - it is really, really good. It works as a young romance, a horror novel and a vampire novel. I will say this about it compared to Twilight however; Twilight is an excellent gateway book for young adults to get into supernatural fiction, while Let The Right One In is pure horror - if you're not sure if you like scary stories, you might want to warm up with some other stuff first.

Not for the faint of heart - Let the Right One In is definitely on my must-read list for great vampire stories.

Twilight of Bookmonkey: Day 28 – The End

And after twenty eight days and thirteen posts my month of Twilight is drawing to a close. What amazes me is how little of the world of Twilight I have actually explored; there are still websites, cookbooks, contests, magazines, documentaries and dozens of spoof videos that I was hoping to get around to blogging about.

What have I learned from my experience in the world of Bella, Edward and Jacob? Basically the following five things.

5) Do not read the Twilight Saga if you like fight scenes – try reading R.A. Salvatore instead.

4) Do not declare yourself part of Team Edward in my hometown (which is decidedly Team Jacob) – My BFF Mike got me a Team Edward Backpack (it even has a picture of Robert Pattinson on it!) and I got nothing but dirty looks on my various outings throughout town.

3) My wife is a saint – she sat through half of New Moon and a bunch of Twilight while I watched and put up with the books as dinner conversation for the last month. Even I would have made me sleep on the couch by the second week.

2) The first and third books are the strongest. If you are interested in reading any of these books, I would honestly stick with the first one – they kind of go downhill from there.

1) If you would like to read some great Supernatural Romance fiction featuring a vampire, try the works of Tanya Huff or Charlaine Harris before you read these (the books are a lot more fun). If you would like to watch some great Supernatural Romance movies, check out Near Dark, The 1992 Dracula (yes the one with Keanu Reeves), or the Swedish movie Let the Right One In – all these films are darker in tone, but quite rewarding - and for the most honest look I have ever seen at how a Supernatural Romance with a vampire would actually end up, see Thirst (but not with any kids, or people who get squeamish around blood, or... well anyone who doesn't like horror, actually.) Which was such a surprisingly good horror flick it will definitely get a review next month.

This last month has been in turns, intriguing, revolting, disturbing, boring, frustrating, horrifying (in the good way – seriously by the time the scary scene happens in New Moon I was getting fearful for my sanity and that brief glimpse of horror did help me get through), and I suppose rewarding. Now when I complain about the series I can do it as someone who has put in the work.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

You Owe it to Yourself

You know what? I hate it when people tell me that they love vampire movies.

Especially when they don't mean it. Here's the thing, I LOVE Vampire movies, everything from the classic (Nosferatu), to the cheesy (Vamp), to the amazing but flawed (I Still say Near Dark is the best Vampire film you will ever see, IF you leave 20 minutes before the end), to the perfect (Let the Right One in), so when someone says that they are a Vampire fan I think we've got a lot in common.

But 9 times out of 10 what they mean to say is that they are a Twilight fan.

Now here's the thing, I've seen Twilight, and even though it has some pretty big flaws (They can't go out into sunlight because they SHINE!?!), I can understand that it is pretty popular right now.

So here is what I want all you Twilight fans to do:

Say that you are a HUGE Twilight fan. And you know what? if by HUGE Twilight fan you mean a huge Robert Pattinson fan, than say you area HUGE Robert Pattinson fan.

I won't be mad, honest, the guy is a teen idol in that emaciated, can't be bothered to do his hair and probably gets called "Miss" or "Young Lady" a lot, kind of way that is popular these days.

What I will get mad at is if you say you love Vampire movies when you don't really.

Look, it's the same thing as saying you're a huge fantasy fan because you own Lord of the Rings on DVD and still have all your old Dragonlance books from high school. If you haven't read any new fantasy written in the last five years, maybe it is better for you to say you are a big fantasy movie or classic Dragonlance fan.

In the end, here is what I want you to do. I want all of you to be the best fans of whatever you like that you can be. If that means Robert Pattinson, then fine, learn about the guy, check of the movie Little Ashes, or even dust off your Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire DVD. If you're a die-hard Dragonlance fan, pull those books down from your closet and give them another look, or maybe go to the use-book stores and pick up one of the more than 50 new Dragonlance tiles that have been published since 2000.

In the end what it comes down to is a little bit of effort - Right now my favourite show is Dexter - I'm a Dexter fan, but when I tell people that, I explain that I mean I'm a fan of the show - I've never gotten around to reading the novels, and you know what, as long as I'm clear about what I'm a fan of, that's alright by me.

Because in the end, you don't own your fan status to me, or your friends, or even to Robert Pattinson; in the end you owe it to yourself.