LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (John Ajvide Lindqvist) - June 18/09

The comparison I would make here is the book version of The Shining versus the movie version of The Shining. Both tell essentially the same tale, yet the book version is so much more fleshed out than the movie. Same case here. The film remains a haunting experience while the book definitely feels inspired by the work of Stephen King. There's an epic sensibility that was hardly evident within the film, as the movie focused almost entirely on Eli and Oskar (whose friendship remains the highlight within the book). But novelist Lindqvist offers up a whole host of subplots and subcharacters and generally develops them all to an equal extent. It's sort of an all-encompassing portrait of everyone whose lives are directly and indirectly touched by Eli's arrival. It's quite entertaining, sure, but it's never as engrossing as the movie. (It's also worth noting that the conclusion, featuring Oskar on a train with Eli in a trunk, is written so obliquely that it's easy enough to miss that Eli is in fact in that trunk.) *** out of ****