After watching the Swedish movie this book is based on, I thought it was an intensely creepy film and promptly got the book to check out the full story. I figured that the planned American film version would be a pale shadow of the original because there's no way that a Hollywood movie studio is going to show that messed up tale in it's original form to audiences in the U.S. Little did I know that even the Swedish producers didn't have the collective nutsack to give us the full story on how goddamn twisted the book is. 
 Set in the early '80s, it features a 12 year old boy named Oskar whose alcoholic father and overprotective mother are divorced. Oskar is an outcast and is badly bullied by other kids in his class, and he's developing a pretty good case of homicidal rage because of it. In fact, he's well on his way to becoming the kind of guy who dances around his basement while screaming at his latest victim to put the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again. 
 Before Oskar completely turns into Buffalo Bill, he meets Eli, a deadly vampire who appears to be a 12 year old girl. Oskar and Eli strike up an unlikely friendship that's almost a pre-adolescent romance, but things are going off the rails around them. Eli's version of Renfield is a creepy pedophile who is jealous of their relationship and can't be counted on to keep Eli supplied with fresh blood. When Eli's need for food makes her sloppy, the results are victims and traces that threaten to reveal her. Juvenile delinquents, Swedish alcoholics, a strict cop, a jar of acid and a herd of cats all collide in a variety of terrible ways. 
 This is a gloriously gruesome and disturbing horror novel that would probably cause Stephanie Meyer to have a stroke if she ever even dared to hold a copy of it in her hackish little hands. Like the best horror novels, the gore and monsters aren't the scary parts, it's the way that the 'normal' people treat each other that will really haunt you.