Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

331 reviews

kxl_knight's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

Well written, terrifying moments with small senses of hope and humor.

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kissezmusic's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

i would like to start this by saying i am not normally a fan of mystery books. i like a good mysterious book but mystery as a genre never really interested me and that held true here as well. it was by no means a bad book, hence the 3 stars, just not for me. i did end up spoiling it for myself by accidentally seeing something on a wayyy later page, i saw one of his emails to her, which really took the little enjoyment i had by that point (probably around page 140 at that moment) out of it completely.

there are 2 slightly on page non-consent scenes and one almost non-consent scene, which i did not know about, i knew nothing about this book going into it; please be careful with that. also this book has a very liberal use of the r slur derogatorily (one character slightly uses it to 'jusify' an action), so please keep that in mind.

i didn't very much enjoy the pages and time in the book after the central mystery is done, it was very boring to me just reading about office politics and such.

this is all just my personal opinion so please take it with a grain of salt. if you want to read this, please do! the translation feels very smooth and had i not been told there was a translator, i would've thought this was written in english originally.

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michbro27's review against another edition

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3.25

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shaydavies's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

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arellareads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is the first book I’ve listened to via audiobook, so this probably influenced my experience, but I was having a hard time following all the characters and plot points at first. I actually read a synopsis after each chapter just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything since the book is very dense. The story doesn’t start picking up until a hundred pages in or so, when the mystery takes hold — at that point I started getting hooked on the crime drama.

Despite the slow start, this book gets extremely dark and disturbing mid-way through as the mystery behind the girl with the dragon tattoo comes to light. It’s a heavy read, with a complex, intellectual plot line about social tensions surrounding the fascist Nazi regime, family economics, domestic violence, serial murders, sexual assault, and systemic abuse and oppression against women (many of these scenes are graphic).

It’s a very meticulously crafted story and I value the planning that had to go into this. However, the writing is very explanatory and matter-of-fact, leaving little breathing room. I’m assuming some of the style was lost in the English translation, but this made it challenging to get through. It wouldn’t be my usual choice, but I can appreciate the serious issues this book tackles.

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