I just finished reading it, and was wondering if anyone else had read it? I liked it a lot, though I had some questions.
So…Eli is really a boy who had been…castrated? (I gathered from that flashback sequence that someone had cut his penis off.) Which would explain why Hakan was so attracted to Eli–he was mostly into little boys. But Eli looked so feminine, apparently.
Also, at the end, Oskar’s not a vampire, is he? I just figured the two were running off together. I felt happy at the end, though I guess if you think about it, isn’t it just going to turn into another Hakan/Eli situation?
I finished it a month ago. I read it after seeing the movie and I also loved it.
I’m positive Eli was a castrated boy. This is only implied in the movie but it’s pretty explicit in the book.
Oskar wasn’t a vampire at the end. I think you’re right that she was grooming him to be her next Hakan. At that point he was emotionally dependant on her. (Perhaps I should put she and her in quotes.)
One interesting thing stated in the book is that there were very few vampires as most people killed themselves rather than live as a vampire. Virginia’s story was pretty harrowing. The only people who stayed as vampires were a few sociopaths and one confused castrated boy. I liked that Eli was an unapologetic mass murderer and basically evil, but she did care for Oscar and it was possible to feel some sympathy for her.
Who was it who castrated Eli and why? From googling, it seems vampire hunters. Just seems an odd choice, instead of the old stake through the heart.
Also, maybe I’m expecting too much realism from a book, but why does everyone get so surprised to learn Eli was a boy? Are most pubescent males that androgynous? The book makes a point of saying how cute and attractive Eli is when “she” has fed. And at least one person who sees “her” (I think Virginia?) thinks she’s the most beautiful female child she’s ever seen, right before the attack.
I thought that part about the vampires nearly all killing themselves was interesting. After all, they were quite monstrous. And man, I think that image of Hakan as a mindless zombie-like vampire will give me some serious nightmares tonight.
ETA: I also liked how Eli asked Oskar if he wanted to be a vampire and he pretty much has to say no, and Eli’s like, “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” Nice contrast to, “Oh, Edward, please make me a beautiful, sparkly 'pire!”
I think it was a vampire who castrated Eli and turned him. I’ll check in the book. I recall it’s a little ambiguous what happened but I think the only way you become a vampire is when you’re turned by a vampire. I’m pretty sure the nobleman was a vampire who for some reason turned Eli rather than killing him outright.
Zombie vamp Hakan was pretty scary. I wish he’d been in the movie.
It’s definitely the anti-Twilight. Vampires are evil, though Eli has her sympathetic side. But the book doesn’t let you forget she’s a murderer. I don’t think there’s an animal blood option, or else she would have taken it when she was starving.
Eli was definitely a boy. I thought it was interesting how even after that was revealed, he still preferred to be seen as a girl. When told to pick something out of Oskar’s closet to wear, he finds an old dress instead. There’s definitely some confusion there. ( I don’t remember this being implied in the movie. I know there’s a very brief crotch shot, but I thought for sure it was a vagina. I interpreted Oskar’s reaction as just the typical response of a pubescent boy seeing his first female nudity.)
How is Eli pronounced? With a long e? I honestly can’t remember from the movie. If it is with a long e, that’s a big hint to Americans that she is a he.
The scariest thing about Hakan was that he never died. Even at the end, when he’s just a mashed up pulp of flesh, something’s still keeping him alive. I don’t think that poor little town has seen the last of its troubles.
Googling let you down here. According to the novel, Eli was castrated by the Lord of the land his family lived on, 200 years ago, in the ritual that made him into a vampire.
As to how to pronounce “Eli”, in the movie, when Oskar asks her name, her reply sounds like “Eli” with a long “L” sound. Oskar repeats the name as a question and uses the pronunciation with a long “E” sound. To my ears anyway.
Also, in the film, when Oskar peeks as Eli is changing into one of his Mother’s dresses he briefly sees her pubic area which has a black horizontal scar. Though its very brief, it looks more like a too low cesarean scar than anything else. It doesn’t look like a vagina, in that the vagina is an internal organ and is not visible at that angle.
That’s an odd ritual to become a vampire. Do we know why? Or are we not suppose to know?
In the book, Eli bites Hakan and sucks his blood and he dies but because his head isn’t turned around, he comes back from the dead. But he’s this mindless (also, pretty much faceless) zombie-vampire who just walks around killing what he encounters because he’s trying to find Eli. Then Tommy runs into Hakan and beats the crap out of him. He’s on the ground when the police get there and he’s still twitching a little, despite the beating.
ETA: Zombie Hakan also has a boner all throughout. Shudder.
I don’t know of any other vampire fiction that details such a ritual. I’d guess that author John Ajvide Lindqvist intended this to be a particular perversion of the vampire Lord who infected Eli and not an all encompassing addition to vampire lore.
On the other hand, speaking of vampire lore, the novel and film is supposedly the first time the consequences of a vampire violating the ‘invitation rule’ has been depicted.
Cool. Any thoughts on why Eli made such a good girl? I would think that most guys who were castrated, even at that young an age, would still look like boys.
Yeah, that was disturbing. All the description of what it was like to violate the rules were (the way Virginia felt when she went out into the sun before she realized what was wrong with her, the feeling of being weak from not eating because of how repulsive the way of getting said blood is, the invitation rule violation). It definitely didn’t have the feel of, “Look, being a vampire is COOL!” that so many others had. I mean, yes, there was the strength but there were so many extreme limitations.
I liked that it could give a vampire POV but not have it be, “Ooh, isn’t it awesome?”
Haven’t read the book, but saw the movie two weeks ago on Netflix’s site, and was TOTALLY ROCKED!
According to wikipedia, some flashback scenes of how Eli was castrated & vampirised were filmed but not used.
I get the idea the vampire-lord was supposed to be some Gilles-de-Rais type.
I preferred that the movie did not explain Hakan. I like the possibility that about 50 years ago, a lonely bullied pre-teen Hakan met & fell for Eli, and so it went.
As for Oskar being the new Hakan, though? I can’t see Oskar ever being the type to just kill innocent bystanders for Eli. Maybe if he went into a line of work giving him access to blood supplies? Medical or mortuary?
I gotta love any movie where a scene of decapitated & dismembered kids makes me smile.
I am thinking that I gots to get my hands on that book.
Apparently Elias was just a very feminine looking 12 year-old boy. I would speculate that he choose to live as a girl to make himself appear more sympathetic to victims or anyone else he had to deal with to get something he needed.
The forum for the film at the Internet Movie Data Base is very active with 15 pages of discussion by very rabid fans (and a few detractors) who, since the film’s release, have analyzed nearly every conceivable aspect of the film and much of the novel. You might want to check over there if the film and the story interests you.
That’s a cool idea. Yeah, the book definitely did explain. He was drinking a lot and had lost his job and I think also had been in jail for pedophilia. (They make it VERY clear that Hakan’s a pedo, for boys.) Then one day Eli came to him and sat down and said something like, “You’re going to stop drinking and you’re going to live with me,” and that was that.
I can’t see Oskar killing anyone for her…but I’m sure Hakan never thought he could when he started. He hated doing it, and only did it because he loved Eli so much. I think that Oskar could be manipulated. After all, since Eli killed for him, he was probably in her debt to some degree.
ETA: Thanks, randwill, will do so. Sometimes I’m a bit wary of IMDb boards, though. They’re not quite the SDMB to put it mildly.
In the movie, Oskar is portrayed as a deeply screwed-up kid who’s close to killing people just for the hell of it. Doesn’t seem at all a stretch that he’d kill for Eli.
Plus he sort of tries to burn down the school at the end…
With a little nudge from Eli, he could be Hakan redux!
Plus in the book, he’s not as elfin/effeminate looking the way he was in the movie. (Haven’t seen it, but that’s what I have been told/what I’ve seen in pics.) Book Oskar is overweight and not nearly so cute. It’s not such a stretch to see him one day becoming like Hakan.
Did the book explain what was going on with Oskar and his father? I’ve only seen the movie once, and my quick impression was that Oskar’s father was a drunk who cared more about drinking than he did about Oskar. Is that it?
That’s for sure. And some young troublemakers do turn up on the IMBD LTROI forum. But the bulk of the conversation is very enlightening and entertaining and at least one member of the film’s production team (andreas-263, who worked on some of the CGI shots) pops in from time to time with some juicy behind the scenes information.
I think that was the same deal in the book. There’s only one bit with the dad. Oskar goes to spend the night with his father and he’s also kind of hoping his father will ask him about the incident where he hit the bully on the ice. (His mother sort of hints that he should talk to his dad.) Then they start playing tic tac toe at night and Oskar’s really hoping the dad will bring it up at some point. But his dad’s friend comes in, they start drinking, and Oskar feels pretty left out. So he just leaves, calling his dad and telling him that he’s left, and then spends the night with Eli.
I read somewhere that in the movie, his dad’s gay but I don’t think he was in the book. I guess the main deal was his father just didn’t really care about him. No one really understood him, except Eli. And possibly Mr. Avila, the PE teacher.
There is nothing in the movie that indicates that Oskar’s dad is gay. Some viewers get a ‘gay vibe’ from the looks the two men exchange. But the screenwriter and the director have said that is not what they intended and were surprised that anyone (mostly Americans) thought that the men were anything but hard-core alcoholic drinking buddies.
Sorrowful drinking buddies was how I interpreted it when I read it, too. Like the dad’s clearly an alcoholic and while he enjoys playing with his son, it’s a pretty superficial relationship. He’ll hang out with Oskar but he’s not going to do any real parenting, like really deal with what’s wrong in his son’s life. And when alcohol is available, that’s what his main focus is. And sure, he’ll get maudlin and cry about being a shitty father, but he’s not going to try to change.
But then when I was googling for movie reviews/info on the book or book, I found people talking about the dad’s homosexuality and started wondering if something went way way way over my head.