Sweded

It's official. I LOVE Swedish stuff. My adoration of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy is no secret, neither is how much I enjoyed the Swedish movies it spawned (I'll reserve judgement for when I actually see the Americanized version). There is a very simple, straight-forward style that I really appreciate, especially considering the often complicated plot.

On this blog, I also praised a Swedish horror/thriller film called Let the Right One In. What I didn't realize, until recently, is that the movie was based on a book of the same title by John Ajvide Lindqvist. I found it browsing at a book store in Erie and picked it up. It was great. Quite a bit more chilling than the film, even. Much like Larsson, this author did not mince words. He was concise and matter-of-fact. It read less like magical realism or fantasy than naturalism. There wasn't any grand melodrama, but there was real feeling. The main character, a young boy, is constantly bullied and suffers greatly. His only solace is a new friend whose secret is so terrible that the word for it is only used a few times throughout the entire story.

The horror of what occurs and the repercussions to everyone's actions are terrible. If the movie had been half as graphic as the novel, I don't know that I would have made it all the way through. Because of the style of the writing, I could stomach the gore. It really was terrible and wonderful all at once.