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If you like it better it's because you've missed the point of the story, that being loneliness and isolation. Oskar and Eli are not lovers, they are kindred spirits.
Eli is forever trapped as a pre-pubescent child, his sexuality never developed despite being centuries old. Oskar is too young to be homosexual or heterosexual. Reading sexuality into it is for fuckwits.
Indeed the book does go, a small way, into describing how Eli became a vampire and how he was castrated. Further, in the book Eli's adult partner is a paedophile who is obsessed with Eli and feels having a romantic relationship with her is fine (i.e. Eli the girl) because, although physically a child, Eli is in reality much older than anyone else. But physically and mentally Eli is still a child, Eli does not want a lover but wants an assistant and, having met Oskar, a friend.
So the story is about Eli and Oskar finding and accepting each other. Oskar is a bullied boy with an obsession over violent murders, Eli demonstrates the strength Oskar needs to over-come the bullies. The fact that Eli is actually a boy and Oskar has no problem accepting this, it's fundamental to their relationship. Eli dresses, speaks and acts like a girl so it essentially doesn't matter in terms of their pre-pubescent romantic relationship because there is no sex involved.
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