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A review by auroara
Verblendung by Stieg Larsson
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
The journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by the entrepreneur Henrik Vanger to investigate the mystery of his family for a year: the sudden and traceless disappearance of his niece Harriet. He suspects several of his family members of having done something to Harriet. To be able to examine all the records, Mikael asks the security expert and hacker Lisbeth Salander for help. But in doing so, they get themselves into danger…
The Millennium series by Stieg Larson was on my "I would like to read this someday" list for a very long time, mainly because I liked the US adaptation, which was released in 2011. Unfortunately, the book did not meet my expectations, but disappointed me on multiple levels instead. The pace of the story was too slow, the characters inauthentic and unapproachable for me, the plot too confusing. But let's start at the beginning:
The Millennium series by Stieg Larson was on my "I would like to read this someday" list for a very long time, mainly because I liked the US adaptation, which was released in 2011. Unfortunately, the book did not meet my expectations, but disappointed me on multiple levels instead. The pace of the story was too slow, the characters inauthentic and unapproachable for me, the plot too confusing. But let's start at the beginning:
The characters
Mikael is an economic journalist and a major part of the initial plot includes his revelations about the Wennerström group. I found everything that had to do with Wennerström boring, as it was absolutely irrelevant to the actual plot - yes, there is a slight overlap, but this aspect of the plot was completely unnecessary and only dragged the story. Mikael is called "womanizer" quite early on, and this attribute is underlined several times throughout the book. To be honest, all the scenes gave me the feeling that the author projected his fantasies onto his main character. Ugh. Actually, these two things are everything that represent Mikael: journalist and womanizer. That's it.
Lisbeth is seen as "different" and "not normal" by everyone else because she has piercings and tattoos and her social skills are limited. She describes herself as a "freak" and is aware of her otherness. On the one hand, Lisbeth has some autistic traits (communication problems, little understanding of feelings or social relationships, special interests, photographic memory), but on the other hand she is manipulative, cunning, deceiving - that doesn't match. For me, it was just inauthentic. It felt like her whole character was put together to fit into the story. Multiple times throughout the book, it is hinted that Lisbeth has been sexually abused as a child, but it is never discussed in more detail. Her mother is mentioned a few times and Lisbeth visits her, but nothing about her character or the mother-daughter relationship gets explored.
Overall, there is no character development except that Mikael and Lisbeth develop something similar to a friendship. I couldn't identify with any of the characters or build a bond with them. Because of that distance I couldn't really immerse myself into the story.
Pacing and story lines
The pacing is so slow, I would have dnf’ed the book if I hadn't watched the film years ago/the book wouldn’t be that popular. Due to the sheer mass of story lines and characters, it takes a very long time to learn about Mikael's actual assignment. Only after halfway through the book (!!!) he discovers something in his research, and it takes a few more chapters until he and Lisbeth meet at all! The investigation of the murder series and Harriet's disappearance is suspenseful, yes. But it takes up so little space within the story that I was simply disappointed. It was too easy - everything can be explained by a series of coincidences, pure luck and Lisbeth's talent in hacking. This makes the plot and the revelation of the mystery unbelievable.
Many things are touched upon or characters are introduced that take up a lot of space in the plot, but are totally irrelevant in the end. Why waste so much time with that? There are so many story lines, why add additional ones that don't matter for solving the mystery? In the end, these red herrings end abruptly without being explained in any way.
Male Gaze & Torture Porn
When Lisbeth first appears as the first woman in the story and her appearance is described, it is immediately clear that the book was written by a man. Unfortunately, the male gaze is so evident throughout the book that I found it disturbing. In addition, despite her "otherness" Lisbeth is permanently portrayed as appealing and attractive (although it is mentioned several times that, relating to her body, she looks like a 12-year-old girl - this is worrisome), while all the other women characters are very cliché and "typical female". Also, no one has a problem with having sex with strangers.
There is an explicit rape scene during which I wondered why this description is even part of the book. Is it necessary to write about this? Why, pure shock factor? For me, there's no rational reason why the rape happened at all. It should probably point out that some men are assholes and
For the amount of misogyny in this book, there is definitely a lack of elaboration, reflection and social criticism. I also think it's bad that
Summary
Of course, it wasn't all bad. The first chapter immediately caught my interest and the case around Harriet's disappearance is fascinating. I wanted to know what happened. The investigation of the serial murders was also exciting. Nevertheless, the negative impressions outweight the positive ones. The actual case takes up too little space. It is swallowed up by the confusing side stories. Because of that, I was very disappointed in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and I will not continue the series.