For the past few years now, John Ajvide Lindqvist has become one of my favorite horror authors. The man made his name a few years back with his most well known work, Let the Right One In. A classic story of a bullied 12 year old boy befriending a vampire. The novel became so quickly beloved that it earned two feature length adaptations of both Swedish and American origin. Much has already been written about Let the Right One In. Hell, I've even written about it here on this very blog. However, not much has been written about his follow up novels. To date, I’ve read almost everything that has been translated into English.
But there is one novel of his in particular that continues to stand out in my mind. That being his 2010 novel, Little Star. A brutal and, at times, darkly funny satire aimed at the Teen Idol sensation. Little Star is an examination of what can go wrong when idol worship is taken to its extremes. It just might also be the best work he has written thus far. Yes, I’d even put it above Let the Right One In.
Little Star tells the story of two teenage girls, Theres and Teresa. Theres is indeed a very peculiar young woman. As a baby, she was left for dead in a plastic bag out in the middle of a Swedish mushroom field. However she is discovered by a man named Lennart who just so happened to be out picking mushrooms in the field. Lennart notices the baby in the bag and breathes life into her only to discover something shocking.
As the baby cries out, he notices a single pitch perfect note within her cry. Being one part of a former one hit wonder pop-duo, Lennart instantly notices the pitch-perfect notes and decides to take the baby back home to his wife. His wife who just so happens to be the other half of that aforementioned one-hit wonder pop-duo.
Back at home, Lennart decides he will keep the baby down in the dark cellar. He does this as a means of keeping her pure and clean from the outside world for he plans to harness her raw musical talent. His wife Leila is far from pleased with this but has long since resigned to her husband's domineering ways and doesn’t dare argue. As time goes on, the baby girl grows up with no real knowledge of the outside world to speak. Two things are for certain though, not only does she develop into a strikingly beautiful young girl, but she also develops the singing voice of an angel.
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| Fan Art belongs to scarletgothica.com |
To keep her from wandering outside and arousing suspicion or curiosity, Lennart makes up a story that there are big people and there are little people. The big people want to eat the little people. If she wants to stay safe then she needs to stay hidden in the cellar. Naturally, this warps her mind leaving her in a constant state of paranoia. After this, she begins to clutch to an electric drill as she sleeps at night for fear of the so-called big people.
As Theres grows older, her only real contact with the outside world is through Leila and Lennart’s middle aged son, Jerry. Jerry has a number of mental issues himself based on his own tortured upbringing at the hands of school bullies. Realizing her for being as much an outsider as he is, he takes an affectionate liking to the girl.
Naturally things go horribly wrong as Lennart’s plan backfires on him. Theres eventually snaps and brutally kills Leila and Lennart with her trusty electric drill. Jerry comes to pay his parents a visit one day only to discover his parents dead on the ground. He quickly decides to take Theres out of the house and back to his apartment in order to protect her.
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| Fanart Source HangingRabbit |
Meanwhile, in a nearby working-class suburb, we meet the other girl. We learn about Teresa from birth up until she enters those awkward teenage years. Her mother doesn’t quite understand her while her father doesn’t have much time for her thanks to a new promotion at work.
As a child, she had difficulty fitting in with the other kids. She does eventually make one friend. A boy named Johannes who quickly grows to adore her like a little puppy dog. For a while, the two become inseparable. It can be said that while he adores her, she still kind of keeps him at arm's reach based on her own peculiarities. But as the two enter puberty, their friendship begins to fracture as Johannes starts to gain the attention of the new pretty girl in school. Meanwhile, Teresa goes the other way as she gains weight, develops terrible acne and becomes entirely self-loathing.
Heartbroken and alone, Teresa begins to withdraw into herself. Her only outlet for her pent up frustration being through the internet as she begins to master the art of trolling under anonymous accounts. She also shows a flair for writing poetry as she spends her days writing on a site where users can submit amatuer poetry. It’s here where she first captures the attention of Theres. Theres encourages her to keep writing her poetry and from here the two quickly strike up a friendship. Leading to the makings of a very dangerous and destructive partnership.
The thing that fascinates me most about Little Star is that it is the one book of John’s that actually deviates from his usual formula. The usual formula of a Lindqvist book is that of the ordinary coming into contact with the other and watching how it plays out. Little Star doesn’t strictly adhere to this formula and instead tells the story of what happens when the other meets the other.
Neither of the girls are supernatural beings. Instead, they are clearly two very mentally disturbed girls who eventually coax the worst out of each other. Two very important themes emerge from this parallel story. One being the argument of nature versus nurture. And the other being the dangers of idol worship.
One of the major questions asked in the novel is what makes a psychopath? Theres is very much a one dimensional character. She doesn’t really kill out of malice rather she kills out of both what she perceives as self-defense and curiosity as to what is inside the head of another person. At a young age, Theres grows obsessed with a portable CD player gifted to her by Lennart and asks him as to where the music comes from. Lennart tells her that the music comes from inside people's heads for lack of a better answer. This leads to Theres dismantling her one prized possession for no other reason than to find the music within. As she grows older, she is constantly complimented for the amazing power of her singing voice. Lennart and Leila express nothing but love for that voice of hers.
Therefore when she kills Lennart and Leila, it’s not really out of malice, rather she opens their heads to try and find the quality of ‘love’ inside of them. Other than this, she also has an intense mistrust of adults in general thanks to the lie fed to her by her surrogate father. Jerry tries to correct this later on but that deep seeded suspicion of the big people is something she will most likely cling onto for the rest of her days. In many ways you could argue she is the product of nurture as her actions are purely based upon her sheltered upbringing. She knows no better than what she has been taught.
On the other hand, Teresa had a very painstakingly normal upbringing. While misunderstood by her parents, they are still very loving, attentive and trying their best with her. Unlike Theres, she grew up with an understanding of right and wrong. She has a full understanding as to how the world works. And yet, there is still something not quite right about Teresa.
She doesn’t show outward emotion and is very obsessive about certain things. There are hints here that she is somewhere on the autistic spectrum as she is painstakingly logical. For instance, as a little girl, she doesn’t understand why the other kids would want to play make believe as she is very logical and to the point. On that point, both Theres and Teresa share this hint of autism as they both have their own traits. For Theres, one of her traits being she does not like to be touched. Eventually when Teresa meets Theres, she becomes almost entirely possessive over her as their friendship grows. Little by little, Teresa’s true nature is revealed as we watch her moral decline into becoming a full blown psychopath.
The pair then become an internet sensation as Theres records a song with lyrics written by Teresa called Fly. The song quickly becomes an overnight sensation on Youtube. As is described in the book, Theres singing voice has a certain hypnotic quality about it. At first, I believed this to be a hint of the supernatural as is typically the case with all of John’s previous works. But on further reading I don’t believe this to be the case.
Rather the song and it's awkward lyrics become an anthem for the equally lost and confused. Supernatural power is replaced by the simple strangeness of celebrity status and how all it takes to speak to the lost is to play on their deep seated insecurities. Theres has a wonderful voice that can draw you in, but it’s just as much Teresa’s words that hold an equal amount of power. Further playing up that singer-songwriter dynamic between the two.
So what motivates them exactly? Why is Theres so desperate to have her incredible voice shared? I guess the answer is that she’s still searching for that quality of ‘love’ expressed to her by Lennart and Leila. Her motivations aren’t driven out of anything material, rather they are simply driven by her search for that certain quality inside people's heads. The same motivation could be said of Teresa. That Teresa is ultimately just searching for love and acceptance in which she misguidedly finds through Theres.
When the song blows up in popularity, Teresa becomes so deeply depressed that she is committed to a mental hospital for a brief stay. Her depression comes from the fact that she no longer feels like the song belongs to the both of them anymore as it attracts the attention of more lost young girls. One day, she goes to visit Theres only to find Theres interacting with another girl thus she breaks down completely as she believes that she is no longer important to Theres. This goes back to her very possessive nature over Theres in general. But on a side note, it is also maybe a sly comment on the nature of an artist letting their baby go out into the public. I think the key to this is that neither are searching for fame; rather they are simply searching for ‘love.’ In this moment, Teresa feels that ‘love’ and affection shared between them is being snatched away from her.
Eventually they find themselves the leaders of a group of outcast teenage girls. Teresa comes to realise that none of these girls pose a threat to her shared bond with Theres and begins to accept this wolf pack of sorts. The one common thread all of these girls have is that they are entirely lost at a delicate time in their life. Some of them were abused. All of them feel overlooked and discarded. They’re deeply insecure and desperately yearn to be noticed. The same insecurity that maybe drives young girls to sexualise themselves in front of web cameras.
As such, they all become hopelessly devoted to their idol as they feel she is the only one they can truly identify with. There is also certainly the factor that Theres seemingly knows exactly what to say to all of these girls almost as if she were a crazed cult leader. She is the one person that understands them the best. Or perhaps the real truth is they simply are what they are and all it takes is a little bit of nurturing to coax it out of them. A little bit of nurturing delivered by a voice that can melt hearts and crush brains while at it.
All of which leads to a gruesome massacre orchestrated by these girls. Lindqvist’s writing captures the awkward and painful teenage years of a teenage girl so wonderfully well that you would almost believe he was one. He truly gets inside these girls' heads and finds out what makes them tick. Jealousy, insecurity, anxiety and the strive for finding love and acceptance remain at the heart of this dark fable.
With Little Star, there exist some parallels to his debut novel. Loneliness remains a key theme through both novels and much like Oskar finds himself attracted to the first person to understand him, so too does Teresa fall for Theres. As too does the search for identity and love come through in both novels. However, unlike Oskar and Eli, where Eli’s blood lust is simply driven by a need to survive, Theres and Teresa’s bloodlust is entirely senseless to everyone bar themselves. Hence their ‘love’ becomes one of a ver perverse and destructive nature to everyone that crosses their path as they become the Alphas’ of their dedicated wolf pack.
Come the end of the novel, Teresa does try to justify their actions with a final letter that she sends to the media. “You will ask why?” she writes before answering her own question with a simple “BECAUSE! Because we were once nice little girls. We once screamed and wept on cue. We worshiped ourselves when you made us stars. We bought ourselves from you.” Making Little Star an entirely fascinating case study into the minds of two thoroughly disturbed individuals and what happens when they find one another.
-Daniel M
