Reviews with content warning for Medical content - So finster die Nacht

Narrated by Steven Pacey.

The narration was a bit hard to follow, some of the accent choices for characters were random and distracting, and given that they did a good job pronouncing Swedish words and places I was confused! It wasn't always clear when the context changed which made the story hard to follow as we would change character often, and so I would lose the thread and get distracted - I'm disappointed I didn't enjoy it as much as other readers, I think this was why. I couldn't get lost in it.

It's disgusting, but gripping and interesting. The pace is choppy going from high drama to mundane quite sharply.
Sections start with quotes (which is a trait I don't enjoy) but I did smile to get a Bob Hund quote in there!

Content Warnings

salalamander's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.75

Content Warnings

jully_bean's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of my new favorite books. So beautifully written and packed full of twists and surprises

Content Warnings

fschmidt2001's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

One of the coolest vampire stories I've ever read, also perhaps the most disturbing thing I've ever read.

One thing I found especially interesting is the characterization of Elie - their gender expression was one of the fun surprises halfway through the book, but more importantly I like that theyre still 12, even though theyre a 200 year old vampire -pretty much all other vampire stories have their child vamps possess the mind of an adult, and it was interesting to see another expression. Also the biology of the vampiric disease was FASCINATING!

Content Warnings

kiwibird's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

One of the best and most disturbing books I've ever read.

On the surface, it's a vampire novel, but once you look below this, it's really a book about the (perhaps unavoidable) evil of humanity and being an outsider in a society that wasn't made to accept you. It also had a lot of unexpected queer themes—deep down, the narrative of the main character Oskar is just the story of a young boy coming to terms with his sexuality. The character of Eli, the young vampire Oskar falls in love with, is also fascinating. The text refers to Eli intermittently as she and he, and though she insists multiple times that she's "not a girl", she still chooses to present herself femininely. It's very easy to read her as a transfeminine nonbinary character, even though these terms weren't commonplace when the book was written.

I don't want to say that this novel is completely unproblematic, especially when it comes to its queer representation. I won't go into much detail so as to avoid spoilers, but there are several harmful stereotypes employed in the narrative, and Eli's transness can easily be seen as something that was forced upon her rather than a choice she made.

Despite these criticisms, I thoroughly enjoyed Let the Right One In and the way it grappled with heavy themes. This is definitely not a book for the faint of heart (be sure to check content warnings for this one), but if you're interested a good vampire story where the humans are the real villains, a portrait of 80s Stockholm suburbs, or a horror-genre exploration of growing up queer, you should pick it up.

{Note: I read the original Swedish version, so I can't comment on how the English translation holds up.}

Content Warnings

amandalove2bme's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

klimtsonian's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Gory, graphic, and gripping. Perfectly juxtaposes the mundanity and sterility of modern, suburban existence with the pervasiveness of horror in every form — from the systemic to the supernatural. The prose is straightforward and incisive, with some really stomach-turning descriptions that linger on the details just enough to get the point across without reveling in it. Even through it all, there’s a hopeful, tender core to the story: that there is someone out there for everyone, no matter how fucked up.

Content Warnings

suneaters's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book is honestly kinda depressing. It felt like a lot of the bad things that happen are for shock value and add nothing to the story. Did we need Eli’s caretaker Hakan to be a pedophile? Just so we don’t, what, feel bad when he dies horribly? He’s already killing kids! It was so bizarre. And if we really do need it, why do we need his gross side quest assaulting some poor kid with no teeth in the bathroom? Just horrendous stuff.

There were too many storylines that ultimately go nowhere (the drunks and Virginia especially and Tommy’s POV bits) and mean nothing. The story could’ve been condensed down to only Oskar and Eli.

Speaking of, did we also need all the weirdness of Eli being stuck pretending to be a little girl to entice grown men to do things for him? And the castration flashback?

It seemed so…gratuitous.

I wasn’t chilled by this book, just saddened and disgusted. Eli and Oskar’s relationship was very cute and really holds the book together, but there wasn’t really a great story here that makes wading through the muck worth it.

Content Warnings

More...