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A review by joinedfrays
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Quite an interesting book. This book isn't for the faint of heart as many of the crimes mentioned (yes, crimes plural) are described in an extremely detailed and brutal manner. If you're looking for a good crime/thriller read and themes of rape, incest, and sexual abuse don't bother you, I'd say this book is an alright read. The summary doesn't give you enough of a picture of how brutal some of the content of this book is.
Let's start with the positives. The writing is pretty good. I felt engaged throughout most of the book and read more than 400 pages of it in one day because I just had to know what happened next. Stieg Larsson has a talent for getting readers hooked.
The characters. They're far from likable, but in a way that still keep you interested.
Our protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist, is a bit naïve and believes there's a reason for everything. He can't keep his hands off of women sometimes, and his wife divorced him for infidelity. He neglects his daughter. He's not assertive when he needs to be, and too assertive when he doesn't. He keeps his on-again-off-again sorta-girlfriend (who is also his boss) out of the loop regarding the events in this book, and despite exposing financial criminals for their bad morals, he has minimal hesitation for stooping to illegal methods.
His assistant Lisbeth is also very flawed. She's deemed incompetent by the state, despite being very smart, because of her behavior. She doesn't like building emotional connections with anyone. She rarely speaks. She has a warped view of the world that makes her a very interesting character to read about; it's implied this this is due tosexual abuse, potentially originating in her childhood . She does work only on her own terms or for money and does it in highly illegal ways (hacking). The people who employ her don't know how she gets her information. I find that the characters, despite being unlikable in some aspects, are easy to root for.
The mystery itself was largely unpredictable and clever (in my opinion). It hooked me almost instantly.
The negatives are few but important to consider: I wasn't sure what to think of a man writing a story that revolves heavily around thesexual abuse of young women . Some parts were handled well. Some parts were strange. The ending dragged on a bit and I felt that especially towards the end, Lisbeth's body was written about too much for me (seemingly without a point). I didn't need to hear about her breasts every two seconds trying to get to the end. I was reading for a thrill.
The book is written in a very impersonal way. The characters are referred to almost exclusively by last name, with some exceptions (mainly in the Vanger family; there are so many Vangers it would make for a horrible experience.) It reads almost like a newspaper report, which I think is a stylistic choice as the main character is a journalist and his assistant does personal investigations, but makes the book a bit difficult to get into. I think many other reviewers share the same sentiment.
I found the main twist very sudden and I felt it was written in a more rushed manner than the rest of the book. It didn't hit as hard as it should've. The last part of the book as a whole suffers from worse writing, unfortunately.
Overall: a fun read. Unsure if I'll read part two, though.
Let's start with the positives. The writing is pretty good. I felt engaged throughout most of the book and read more than 400 pages of it in one day because I just had to know what happened next. Stieg Larsson has a talent for getting readers hooked.
The characters. They're far from likable, but in a way that still keep you interested.
Our protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist, is a bit naïve and believes there's a reason for everything. He can't keep his hands off of women sometimes, and his wife divorced him for infidelity. He neglects his daughter. He's not assertive when he needs to be, and too assertive when he doesn't. He keeps his on-again-off-again sorta-girlfriend (who is also his boss) out of the loop regarding the events in this book, and despite exposing financial criminals for their bad morals, he has minimal hesitation for stooping to illegal methods.
His assistant Lisbeth is also very flawed. She's deemed incompetent by the state, despite being very smart, because of her behavior. She doesn't like building emotional connections with anyone. She rarely speaks. She has a warped view of the world that makes her a very interesting character to read about; it's implied this this is due to
The mystery itself was largely unpredictable and clever (in my opinion). It hooked me almost instantly.
The negatives are few but important to consider: I wasn't sure what to think of a man writing a story that revolves heavily around the
The book is written in a very impersonal way. The characters are referred to almost exclusively by last name, with some exceptions (mainly in the Vanger family; there are so many Vangers it would make for a horrible experience.) It reads almost like a newspaper report, which I think is a stylistic choice as the main character is a journalist and his assistant does personal investigations, but makes the book a bit difficult to get into. I think many other reviewers share the same sentiment.
I found the main twist very sudden and I felt it was written in a more rushed manner than the rest of the book. It didn't hit as hard as it should've. The last part of the book as a whole suffers from worse writing, unfortunately.
Overall: a fun read. Unsure if I'll read part two, though.