Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist

Oskar and Eli. In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself. Oskar is a 12 year old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city's edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he's frightened. Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn't go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200 year old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood. John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel, a huge bestseller in his native Sweden, is a unique and brilliant fusion of social novel and vampire legend; and a deeply moving fable about rejection, friendship and loyalty.

Genre: Fiction,Horror, Vampire, Swedish

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Year: 2007

Rating: 3/5

I had been wanting to read this book for a while and Carin from A Little Bookish was kind enough to send me her copy!

This is the story of Oskar and Eli. Oskar is 12-years-old. He is bullied at school and doesn't really have many friends. Then he meets Eli. Eli just moved in next door. She is his age and they both like puzzles. They soon develop a close friendship. The only problem is, Eli isn't like other little girls. She is a vampire. 

Eli lives with a man named Håkan. A former school teacher who was thrown out of his job when he was discovered to be a pedophile. Håkan loves Eli so he hunts down people who he can trap and drain of their blood, thus killing them, in order to keep Eli alive. One day, this goes terribly wrong and Håkan is caught by the police, leaving Eli all alone. Now she must find another way to survive. 

This was an enjoyable book. It was creepy, horrifying, gory and suspenseful. It took me a while to read, as I haven't been well and have had trouble reading (see previous post). I think I would have enjoyed it more if I came back to it later, when I was feeling a bit better. Instead I persevered. 

I enjoyed the character of Eli. She was complex. One minute she sounded like weird little girl, the next she was a cold-blooded killer. She really drove home the point that if you needed something to survive, you would take it. There was nothing sparkly or lovable about this little vampire. She was thoroughly creepy. Definitely not your typical vampire story, if your thinking about what is popular lately.

Oskar was someone I sympathised with. He was bullied mercilessly at school and was a typical victim. Weak, scared and kind of weird (he collected stories of murder out of the newspapers). Eli gave him the courage to stand up for himself, with startling consequences.

There were many other secondary characters in this book such as Oskar's tormentors, Tommy the older boy who lived in Oskar's building and Lacke, Virginia and friends; a group of old drinking buddies who are drawn into Eli's world. All of these characters make for a long and complex story with much going on at the one time. That said, it's still easy to follow. 

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good, creepy horror story. Although, this one definitely isn't for the squeamish.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Steig Larsson, is the final book in the Millennium Trilogy. I really enjoyed both, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who Played with Fire, so it was only natural that I needed to see how this trilogy was going to end.

Genre: Fiction, Crime
Publisher: Quercus
Year: 2010
Rating: 4/5

The Trial

Lisbeth Salander - outsider and apparent enemy of society - is charged with attempted murder. The state has also ruled that she is mentally unstable, and should be locked away in an institution once again. But she is closely guarded in a hospital, having taken a bullet to the head, so how will she prove her innocence?

The Enemy

Pulling the strings of the prosecution is the powerful inner circle of Säpo, the state security police. Determined to protect the secrets and corruption at Sweden's rotten core, Säpo is not an adversary to take on alone. 

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornetss' Nest

Only with the help of Mikael Blomkvist and the journalists at Millennium magazine can Salander avoid the fate that has been decided for her. Together they form a compelling and dynamic alliance. 

I was very excited to read this book. I really loved the first two books in this trilogy so when I got my hands on a copy of this book, and saw that it was a tome of a book at 743 pages, I was even more excited! I love big, fat books! 

This story, although interesting, was quite slow. The majority of the book revolves around Salander recovering in hospital, after being shot in the head. As she recovers the big bosses who work in the inner circle at Säpo (the people who gave Zalachenko political asylum) are doing what they can to make sure she is once again locked away in an institution, her human rights revoked. 

Blomkvist races against the clock to prove Salander's innocence, mental stability and capability to look after herself. He is joined by his sister Giannini, who takes on the job of being Salander's lawyer, and a police officer from Säpo named Figuerola, who knows nothing of this inner circle or Zalachenko. A woman who believes in justice and the law. 

Although Salander does not trust anyone, used to a life of abuse, disappointment and betrayal, she must learn to trust these people who are on her side, or face the rest of her life in an asylum.

This book, like the previous two, puts together a bleak view of the justice system in Sweden. It touches on the issues of human rights, loss of Independence, corruption within the security service, the lengths people will go to hide their mistakes and how unfairly society judge those that are a little different. This book takes a good look at the way women are treated by men and how modern society views the role of the female. 

Larsson does a great job of putting together the story, slowly unveiling pieces of the puzzle as the novel progresses. He also has a great way with his characters, Salander and Blomkvist really came alive not only in this novel, but in the previous two. All the characters in this trilogy are well fleshed out and Larsson does a great job of making his reader love or hate certain people. 

Although, not on par action wise with the first two novels, the final book in the trilogy does a great job of wrapping up a big part of the Salander story. It is quite obvious that there were meant to be more books in this series (I am pretty sure I read that Larsson was part way through the 4th manuscript when he died) and this story does feel like there is suppose to be more to it. There are things hinted at in this book that were not resolved and I am sure they were intended for another novel. I am disappointed that Larsson left this world so soon, before he could finish his Salander novels. She really is a character I have come to love. She is deeply flawed, and has her fair share of self-made problems, but she is gutsy and different. She never backs down. I think we all could learn a little from Salander.

The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire is the second novel in the Millennium trilogy by late author, Stieg Larsson.

This book follows on from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist again have a mystery to solve but this time the mystery hits a lot closer to home.

It all begins when Millennium magazine is approached by a young journalist who is trying to get his book published. The book is about the sex trafficking trade in Sweden and it names several prominent government officials as players. Of course, this is just the kind of story that Blomkvist lives for so he jumps on board, agreeing to publish this book in return for exclusive coverage of the issue. 

Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander has disappeared. For no apparent reason she has cut Blomkvist out of her life. That isn't to say she isn't keeping tabs on him, she is, through his computer. Salander is a talented hacker and can get past any security system. This is how she finds out about the story that Blomkvist is working on. A story involving a man she had hoped was out of her life forever. A man who destroyed her mother, her family and was responsible for her being institutionalized, abused and declared incompetent.

In an effort to find out what exactly Blomkvist is trying to do, Salander pays a visit to the journalist responsible for this story. Not long after she arrives, gunshots are heard and the journalist and his wife are found dead. With the murder weapon found at the scene and Salander's fingerprints on it, the police come to the conclusion that she is the person they are after. But she is nowhere to be found. So begins the manhunt for Lisbeth Salander. Refusing to believe she is capable of murder, Blomkvist and friends race again time to find Salander before the police do... or worse... the bad guys! 

Wow! Another great book from Stieg Larsson! Like the first novel in this trilogy, The Girl who Played with Fire is action packed, full of drama and has a mystery that keeps you guessing.

Larsson wasn't afraid to tackle sensitive issues with much discussion on sex trafficking, prostitution, child abuse, the corruption within the government and big business, the complexity of human beings, the abuse of power and the question of  taking the law into your own hands. 

Like in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Larsson looks at a society where men continually exploit women for their own gain, but in this case, his heroine is a woman who will fight back. Salander stands against the violence and oppression of those who abuse their power, to fight for all those women who are powerless.

The character of Salander is explored closely in this novel, we get to see her personality and values mapped out in great detail and her past is revealed which helps us understand why she is how she is. 

I don't want to go into this much more, because I am always overly conscious of ruining a part of a book for anyone.. but let's just say, despite her faults (and she has many), Salander is a very different, yet very interesting heroine. I really like her and can not wait to read the third book in this trilogy!!

These books are highly addictive and I recommend them to anyone who loves a good mystery or crime fiction novel! 

Rating 5/5

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a crime novel by the late author, Stieg Larsson. It is the first novel in the Millennium trilogy. I have heard nothing but good things about this novel, so I pickedit up on impulse while browsing the bookstore last week.

It begins with Mikael Blomkvist, a middle-aged journalist who publishes a magazine called Millennium, being charged with libel after printing an expose on a prominent Swedish industrialist. Looking for somewhere to escape to lick his wounds, Blomkvist readily accepts a job to chronicle the life of the head of Vanger Corporation, Henrik Vanger and to search for answers to a mystery that has been troubling the wealthy yet dysfunctional Vanger family for decades – who killed 16-year-old Harriet Vanger 40 years ago and why?

Blomkvist takes on this impossible job not thinking he will get anywhere with the case, but finds that a fresh eye can sometimes see things that have been missed. Soon he finds himself struggling with a mystery that goes so much deeper than anyone had imagined and his life may be in danger as someone in the Vanger family wants their secrets to stay buried.

Enter Lisbeth Salander, socially defunct yet blessed with a brilliant memory and keen detective skills. Salander works for a security company and has worked for Henrik Vanger previously. Can Salander help Blomkvist solve this old mystery before time runs out?

I think that Michiko Kakutani from The New York Times sums it up well when he says:

“Combine the chilly Swedish backdrop and moody psychodrama of a Bergman movie with the grisly pyrotechnics of a serial-killer thriller, then add an angry punk heroine and a down-on-his-luck investigative journalist, and you have the ingredients of Stieg Larsson’s first novel.”

This novel is an epic tale focusing on many different characters and five generations of the Vanger family. All of these characters lives intertwine in a complex web of mystery and intrigue.

I loved this book. At first, I struggled with the descriptions of financial journalism and the industrial sector, finding it quite dull. Those sorts of things don’t interest me. It was only when Blomkvist was hired by Vanger and begun his research into Harriet’s disappearance and most probable murder, that the story really got interesting.

Without wanting to give too much away, this story is full of twists and turns that I did not see coming and Larsson does a great job of taking the reader on the journey along with Blomkvist and Salander as they make their discoveries in this mystery. This book is a real page turner so be prepared to get some serious reading done, as you won’t want to put it down.

If you like crime fiction and a good mystery then I recommend you read this novel! I am definitely going to be reading the next two novels in this trilogy.

Rating 5/5