This book should come with a warning

*I'm going to break one of my rules and give you guys a tiny spoiler. This is also a warning for those of you who might be triggered by sexual assault. Even though I had seen both film adaptations for Let the Right One In I was completely unprepared for what lay ahead for me in this book. Whereas gore, violence, and death have little to no effect on me some of the themes in this book gave me nightmares. There are graphic depictions of pedophilia, male castration, sodomy, and rape. If you want me to give you the page numbers so that you can otherwise enjoy this novel I think I can make that happen.*

Now with that bit out of the way I can focus on the rest of the book. Let the Right One In is a unique spin on the vampire tale. There are several mini stories that converge on the two main characters: Oskar and Eli. Oskar is a bullied boy with a thirst for revenge. Eli is the mysterious 12 year old who moves in next door and bewitches Oskar almost immediately. Eli is also a vampire. (This isn't a spoiler because this is a vampire novel, ya'll. Someone had to be a vampire.) This is no Twilight. That isn't to say that there aren't romantic tones but it's completely different from Edward and Bella. For one thing, they're 12 year olds. For another...well I don't want to give that part away. Lindqvist is a fantastic writer (and since it's been translated I'm sure it's even better in Swedish). There are so many themes that are covered in this book: bullying, discovering your true self, alcoholism, drug addiction, abuse (emotional and physical), and true love just to name a few. And because I have some kind of masochistic streak I've just discovered that he revisited these characters in a short story collection titled Let the Old Dreams Die which of course I've just added to my TRL. XD

I decided to go in a slightly different direction after reading Let the Right One In and so next up is Ellen Degeneres's Seriously...I'm Kidding. From what I can tell this is basically Ellen's stand-up in book format. O_O