The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2008: Once you start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there's no turning back. This debut thriller--the first in a trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson--is a serious page-turner rivaling the best of Charlie Huston and Michael Connelly. Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo. --Dave CallananReviews
I wanted to give my thoughts on the book. There are many other reviews that describe how I feel about the book, like Lee Goldberg's review here "Cliche-ridden, exposition heavy dud"
The most fascinating thing I found about the book was COFFEE. WOW do the Swedes like coffee. The author mentions coffee on every page in every context he could.
Would you like a cup of coffee
Please put on a pit of coffee
Blomvkist was having a cup of cofee as he read his notes
At the cafe he sat watching outside as he had his coffee
They warmed up the cold coffee at 11pm and discussed the matter
COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE
Oh about the real topic of the book. Yes the book has some pretty violent and graphic material but, don't many books? What's so special about the heroine? She's a hacker - BIG DEAL.
The main male character seems to be a Don Juan type and he has to try and have sex with any woman he comes into contact with? All men in this book come off as sadists and women haters, but I guess that's ok since the real title of the book in Sweden was Men Who Hate Women.
As for the whole murder mystery, I find it quite implausible, once the whole mystery is revealed, that the murders could go on for so long without no one knowing anything into the matter. It seems HIGHLY implausible something like this could have gone on for so long. In the end, maybe I am just out of touch with this book.
You really need to read all reviews especially the highest-rated negative review. I agreed with that negative review more than the highly positive one.
Frankly, I'm quite shocked women love this book so much. I won't even bother reading the next two books in the series. I have no desire and there are many other books I'll want to read.
This is just about one of the best books I have ever read. I love the character development, the slow build of the story-yes that's right-SLOW-but the story of this magnitude takes a bit of time. This is not for people that have little patience or need everything spoon fed to them. The story is great and part of the charm is the time and care that Larsson took in familiarizing the reader to all the characters. It is like an adult version of the game CLUE but far more interesting and complex. The first 300 pages or so are setting everything up-once you get past that things really start to pick up. This is not for kids or the faint of heart. This is a very dark tale that will, if you truly give it a chance, you are sure to love. I was a bit sad once it was over-but happy to have two other books to look forward to in the series.
Well, let me say this is THE very first time I have every submitted a review of a book. So why am I doing this? Why I am I taking a few moments out of my precious lifetime to do this? Because I thought it was such a dismal, boring, sophomoric book and I can't begin to understand why the world thinks it's so great! I had to start over from the beginning of the book four times to be able to gather enough energy to finish it. I was determined to read the whole dull thing because of all the attention it has received. I wasted my time.
My advice - skip this one.
The only mystery regarding this book is the buzz. The heroine is a cardboard cutout of a pierced-tattooed-goth-biker-hacker (the most talented in Sweden, says the book), who, as we're often reminded, isn't anorexic; she just looks like she is (yay! best of both worlds!). We're told that maybe she could be a model, if only she wasn't so darn rebellious! Sparks fly (unconvincingly) when she encounters the hero, perhaps due to some hidden book character chemistry that we're not privy to. She stutters, she stammers. She doesn't know what's come over her! Could he be a worthy opponent to her superior intellect?
More sinister is the graphic violence of the rape scenes--it seems quite obvious that the writer got off writing them. Other amusing passages involve detailed, fetishized descriptions of Apple computers. The self-righteous "progressiveness" of the tone gets tiresome, as the book attempt to conceal its own misogyny.
I am not one to not finish a book. So I bit the bullet and rolled my eyes for about five days. I'm happy to put it behind me.
I picked this fine piece of literature up on a whim after noticing that my local library had over six hundred hold requests for it. Though my initial interest was sparked by little more than wanting to know what all the fuss was about, I can safely say now that I'm glad that small amount of interest was all that it took for me to make this purchase.
Larsson immerses the reader in the lives of Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist, and Lisbeth Salander, an investigator in her own right. In the wake of a libel-related scandal, Blomkvist accepts an offer from industrialist Henrik Vanger to escape the busy streets of Stockholm and investigate the disappearance of Vanger's niece, Harriet, who has been missing for several decades. Blomkvist isolates himself in the fictional town of Hedestad and begins his investigation.
Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander, the book's namesake, has her own struggles to deal with. Originally tasked with performing a routine background investigation on Blomkvist, Salander finds herself increasingly interested in his new course of action in Hedestad. The two eventually come face to face after Blomkvist realizes his need for a research assistant and seeks her out. By the end of this harrowing tale, this pair of talented investigators have not only uncovered the reasons behind Harriet's disappearance, but have also struck back at the libel suit Blomkvist had been plagued by.
The story is fresh, the characters are interesting, and the entire book is a page-turner. A must-read for mystery fans, and highly recommended for anyone who simply enjoys good fiction. While the book itself isn't too long (running around 600 pages), it is a longer read. One of the most interesting parts of this story, and undoubtedly one of the most time-consuming tasks central to understanding the text, is connecting it's various themes (corruption, misogyny, etc.) to the lives of the central group of characters. All in all, this book is well worth the money you'll spend buying it, the time you'll spend reading it, and all the hype it has generated.