How has ltroi affected your life?

[Phobos]

Just curious to learn about the different LTROI experiences.
In all of the years after reading the novel and watching the film waht are you thinking?

Has LTROI changed you life in any way? Do you, for example approach people with mor emphaty?
Or do you think of LTROI as an interesting novel and nothing more?

I mean all the effort and love that went into "once bitten" are extraordinary, i doubt it´s that often that true fans honour a novel with such terrific work.

hope to hear from you

[ltroifanatic]

Yes,it has changed how I see myself and other people.I think I'm a more considerate person and braver than I thought I could be.About the same time I was infected the doctors discovered I had a life threatening condition.So onto the medical carousel I hopped.I took the novel to every appointment,every procedure and every stay at hospital.It comforted me.It gave me hope when I thought there was none.It gave me courage when I needed it.I stopped thinking of "me" and started to think about the people who where going through the same terrifying experience.LTROI has made me a better person.Not so selfish and much more considerate.I could say that having the illness made me so but it really was the beautiful story of selfless and unconditional love shown by the children to each other that did it.

[artredfield1999]

The character of Eli is one character that has changed my perception of many things, In the beginning, I used to antagonize him, I used to condemn his actions and his poor attempts to justify his acts, but as the years passed I begin to feel pity for him, his homosexuality is one of the most interesting characteristics of the character, is defined personality is another remarkable aspect about him, is such a complex and tragic character that I can not feel anything but a strong sense of concern, concern about his actions and existence in the civilized world.

[Phobos]

Yes,it has changed how I see myself and other people.I think I'm a more considerate person and braver than I thought I could be.About the same time I was infected the doctors discovered I had a life threatening condition.So onto the medical carousel I hopped.I took the novel to every appointment,every procedure and every stay at hospital.It comforted me.It gave me hope when I thought there was none.It gave me courage when I needed it.I stopped thinking of "me" and started to think about the people who where going through the same terrifying experience.LTROI has made me a better person.Not so selfish and much more considerate.I could say that having the illness made me so but it really was the beautiful story of selfless and unconditional love shown by the children to each other that did it.

that's pretty intense... For me, it just hurts to see Eli in despair. So i try to become a better person and keep my demons at bay. Besides i talked at kTw about LTROI, maybe i infected them as well....

[intrige]

I found LTROI the movie during the summer in-between my living nightmare extreme bullying sutuation and coming into a new school and a new beginning. My experiences were stil fresh and my mind so flexable and longing for love and didn't really know much about myself. I found this and clung to it for dear life, as the bullied child, as the genderless ambigous withdrawn person, as the hopeful love that was the center of the movie. It all impodied me in a way so I used it for a long time, as sort of a defining trait I carried along with me. To help me identify how I felt about things and what I wanted and needed. As I have grown older that dependency has faded and now a nostalgic familliar fondness remains. It used to inhabit so much of my headspace before, now it is more like a lingering love that stays there over years and years. I don't exactly know how it changed my life, because how I now have come to know myself diveloped independetly to the impressions I got from the movie,and the book. The most important things that is, like my sexuality, gender identity and my strengths and weaknesses and trait and preferences and all that stuff. But I do know it helped me through a hard time of self discovery, loneliness and perspective.

Now I am an adult with many of the things one has and does as an adult. It seems so long ago when I first saw it. I am almost like a different person, but not quite. My facination with the tween ages psycologically is still there. I have the love I used to long for, I am not bullied, I have all the things a person need to move forward from hardships. Yet a small part of me is still a little sprout of a teen who wide eyes watched the movie and dissapered for 109 minutes. Or was it 108? Thanks to LTROI I found the book, and JAL's other books cauht my intrest. I started reading and writing stories like fan-fictions here on the forum and little things only for myself. I found I liked it and to this day I do wish to at least publish one book in my lifetime.

I think I saw it at just the right time to be so utterly ingulfed in it. Infected by it, as we say. And looking back it is actually really interesting how that worked. I don't know what it did, but it did something. A chain reaction of sorts in all directions. yet at the same time lingering in the background of big life events and changes. It's hard to explain. But it has done alot. Lots and lots.

[Ash]

Tolerance, or more correctly, "acceptance" are also the things I got from the film/novel.
I work with kids Eli's age and would often give them a blast for the stupid, immature things they did. Since LTROI I'm still flabbergasted by their antics but my frustration no longer match the words I say. I'm somewhat surprised I find myself responding in a calm and considerate manner when previously I'd be tearing strips off them.
It could be the LTROI factor or just me getting older, but I reckon E&O have made me a better person. While I can't change the stupid things kids decide to do, I can change my view of them and response to them.
If that is as a result of JAL, then I thank him for it.

[dongregg]

Between loving the film and interacting with my friends on the forum, I assuage my aching loneliness.

I don't externalize my feelings. It's just how I am. I can be lonely in a crowd. But having lovely friends with a similar passion for a story of such beauty and grace is the anodyne I have always yearned for.

[PeteMork]

Actually, I owe my entire fiction-writing career (such as it is) to LTROI. My 'Novel' right here on the site is over 1000, 8.5X11 pages when printed out. My current novel, unrelated to LTROI other than by inspiration, is about 520 pages and still isn't quite finished. I'm also considering a sequel.

In short, the heart of this story ( ) has altered my life to the point where my hobbies have now been reduced to writing and drone-flying. And since I am now retired, I have plenty of time for both.

[dongregg]

Actually, I owe my entire fiction-writing career (such as it is) to LTROI. My 'Novel' right here on the site is over 1000, 8.5X11 pages when printed out. My current novel, unrelated to LTROI other than by inspiration, is about 520 pages and still isn't quite finished. I'm also considering a sequel.

Oh yeah. That. My passion for the film and my interaction with forum members inspired me to start writing fiction--one short one long. "When I Am with You," the film from Eli's perspective, and Set Me As a Seal upon Your Heart, a 370-page post-LTODD sequel. I'm pretty sure that there's more to come.

[be-me-a-little]

So glad to have found this site and this community celebrating this incredible story again! I was part of the Be Me A Little fan community right around the time Let Me In first came out in the US, not sure if anyone else remembers that community... anyways!

Reading how this wonderful story has changed many of your lives brings tears to my eyes.

I first read the book when I was 13-years-old. I had never read any other story that resonated with me so deeply.
I was (and still am) a very small, very skinny, pale, dark haired girl, who at that time was constantly trying to avoid the relentless bullying I faced on a daily basis by other children. Needless to say, both Oskar and Eli seeped their way into my heart immediately.

After I read the book I was completely obsessed, I saw both films and continued to read any work of Lindqvist's that I could get my hands on.
I feel that his stories raised me, and helped me through every dark moment in my life. His story helped me accept my differences, and even embrace them! The story has kept me company throughout my adolescence and continues to be an obsession of mine!

I still read Let The Right One In and Lindqvist's other novels and stories religiously. And I have seen both films more times than I can count.

It warms my heart to see how this book and its films have created such a beautiful and loving community!