A review by clemthecat
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
I must be missing something, because I didn't really enjoy this book. I've heard how widely successful it's been, so I decided to see what the hype was about. I was disappointed.
I understand the text is translated from Swedish, but I find the writing very bland... It isn't great writing in my opinion. A lot of info dumps on unnecessary/uninteresting backstory. The characters feel two dimensional, and in dialogue they all sound the same. Blomkvist was a boring man that slept with lots of women and went for runs and made lots of coffee. Cool. Salander was supposed to be "not like the other girls" but I just found her to be this stereotypical "goth girl" "hacker" persona and it was a bit cringey. I felt the author could have fleshed out the characters further. I just couldn't sympathise or relate to anyone.
The plot wasn't that enticing to me. Perhaps it's just not my thing, but I wasn't quite drawn into the mystery, and I was not shocked by any of the revelations. I feel there was far too much narration and not enough actual ACTION. I think that could have made the story much richer.
Not a very satisfying read for me. It's easy reading, finished in only a few days, but just wasn't my cup of tea. I don't think I'll read the sequel, just because I wasn't impressed with this one.
I understand the text is translated from Swedish, but I find the writing very bland... It isn't great writing in my opinion. A lot of info dumps on unnecessary/uninteresting backstory. The characters feel two dimensional, and in dialogue they all sound the same. Blomkvist was a boring man that slept with lots of women and went for runs and made lots of coffee. Cool. Salander was supposed to be "not like the other girls" but I just found her to be this stereotypical "goth girl" "hacker" persona and it was a bit cringey. I felt the author could have fleshed out the characters further. I just couldn't sympathise or relate to anyone.
The plot wasn't that enticing to me. Perhaps it's just not my thing, but I wasn't quite drawn into the mystery, and I was not shocked by any of the revelations. I feel there was far too much narration and not enough actual ACTION. I think that could have made the story much richer.
Not a very satisfying read for me. It's easy reading, finished in only a few days, but just wasn't my cup of tea. I don't think I'll read the sequel, just because I wasn't impressed with this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Dementia, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual content