REVIEW - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson
Product Description(Amazon.com)
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
# Paperback: 600 pages
# Publisher: Vintage Crime / Black Lizard (June 23, 2009)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0307454541
# ISBN-13: 978-0307454546

MY THOUGHTS: This is my book clubs pick for November. It has also been on my TBR list for ages. So when the chit chat at book club came around to this book, I jumped on it. I must say I was a little disappointed when I started reading the book. It's really slow and filled with so much info I got lost at first. Then finally it got going. What was confusing was all the info about Wennerstrom. But I really enjoyed the book. It is written with every detail that could possibly have to do with the story line plus more. Now I've got to read the other 2 books in this series. They will go on my TBR list. The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson

MY RATING: 5

Review-The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I choose to read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo because I liked the name. I didn't really know it was about. I don't read reviews so I was surprised when I discovered that it was a crime novel. I usually don't read crime novels but I gave it a try anyway. It took me about 200 pages to actually get interested in the book. Then I was hooked. I really liked Lisbeth and Mikael. Both character were so interesting. I'm not sure I've "met" characters like that before. There is graphic violence and graphic sex. But it's important to the story so it didn't bother me. I could put the book down once I got engrossed in the story.  I'll definitely be reading the next two books.

Jen's little update

I've finished one more book on my list! I've spent the summer buying a house/fixing up said house/moving into same, so reading has unfortunately fallen down my list of priorities...also now I can't find the books I want to read, since they're all in boxes. Soon I'll have organization again, and I'll post more often.

This past week I finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's a slow-burn thriller--took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I really wanted to know what happened. There are some parts to this book that are not for the squeamish: there's some sexual abuse, gory details about murders, and some truly ugly (personalities, not looks) characters. The first part of the book is *not* about the girl with the dragon tattoo, so at first you wonder where the title came from. But Larsson ties the plot threads together very nicely, so it all makes sense in the end.

Since this is a translation of a book originally published in Swedish and I'm not Swedish myself, I missed some of the references, and had to actually look up what the nickname of one of the main characters meant. And I had no idea where most of the places were--obviously I didn't learn my Swedish geography! I noticed that this book had an ending a la "Return of the King"--just when you thought everything was wrapped up, there are still fifty pages left! But it works, somehow. Larsson answers questions you forgot you had from the beginning of the book and leaves you wanting more. Luckily, he turned in two other manuscripts before he died, so your cravings can be satisfied.

If you like murder mysteries, give this one a try. Of course, you're not even sure if there *has* been a murder at the beginning, which is part of the fun.