Reviews with content warning for Rape - So finster die Nacht

The gender stuff is. complicated. Mileage may vary on that front. Personally, I enjoyed this book, and while some of the vast array of interwoven story lines are less engaging or emotionally affecting than others, the central relationship between Oskar and Eli really works.

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jbcrue's review against another edition

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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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samtheoboeguy's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-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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elvenpanther's review against another edition

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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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nerdy_yinzer's review against another edition

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Extremely explicit descriptions of pedophilia - no thanks. It was on the recommended shelf at Half Price Books and I thought it’d be something akin to a Salem’s Lot kind of scary vampire book…my bad.

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cousinrachel's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The movie (Swedish original) had a much more "spare" plot with fewer characters and tangents--better for it, I think. My goodness, this book was all over the place--I think I read it about ten years ago but IIRC, 1/2 of the plot was about Oskar and Eli, the rest being side characters doing god knows what.

Also, the violence was gratuitous beyond belief, to the point of being ludicrous. My lord. Did we need that much information about the

alcoholic pedophile

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thefigtree's review against another edition

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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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