Little Star by John Ajvide Lindqvist

With Let the Right One In, John Ajvide Lindqvist marked himself as one of the newest and brightest in the horror world. His second release, Harbor, cemented his status and now Little Star proves he's a force to be reckoned with.

Lennert and Laila Cederstrom aren't well know. They had one near-miss of a hit decades ago and left the spotlight behind. Now, Lennert makes a living writing songs for others and Laila spends her days hobbling about the house and trying to avoid Lennert's rage. But when Lennert comes home with a baby, everything changes for the couple. Lennert found the child abandoned in the woods. The first thing he noticed, though, was that the baby seemed to be singing. From day one, Lennert insists the child will not be spoken to. She's to live in their basement, cut off from outside influence. In fact, she's more an experiment for Lennert than anything else. They call her Little One. Years later, the girl -- now called Theres -- is entered into a national singing contest that's televised around the country. From her living room another girl is immediately drawn to Theres. The two become friends and what follows is more horrific than anyone could imagine. 

Though the shocking end is inevitable, I still felt a bit steamrolled by the brutality of it! Like Let the Right One In, the characters in this book struggle to fit in. Theres, because of the circumstances of her early years, is awkward and different, but her new friend, Teresa, is a pretty typical teen.

There's never any explanation about Theres's abandonment or her seemingly peculiar talent. For me, it made the book that much more interesting. I sympathized with Theres and wondered what if throughout the whole story. And of course sympathizing with her makes the ending that much more horrific!