I tried to read this and it was just terrible. Then I gave it to Dani who pretty much will read anything and she never finished it. Big kudos to you for even finishing this thing!

Those Larson books just suck suck suck.

I'm glad you reminded me of the sausage AND liverwurst. Hilarious!

I'm glad I'm not alone with jumping off the bandwagon on this book.

Part of it is that there are three different plots that seem to have nothing to do with each other through the first half of the book. The second half of the book starts to pull them together, and the last quarter moves very fast as it all falls into place and leaves your head reeling. If you want a mini synopsis of what happens makes it so good, just ask. I could give you a few hints. I was curious. I didn't pick the book; it was given to me as a gift.

I'm really trying to give this book a chance... I believe it was page 127 or something when something SLIGHTLY interesting happened... now I'm stalled again at 196... boring and too much financial journalism mumbo jumbo...

Give it chunks of 90 minutes at a time. It helps move past the duller financial parts. It does drag at the beginning, especially about his court case. But hang in there. It does get better.

THanks -- I will keep pluggin' along! =)

hahaha! I got totally slammed for saying the same thing. Guy. Can. Not. Write. really want a refund.

agree agree agree...just nice to see others who didn't like it as well. "WHEN I FINALLY FINISHED" (because it took forever) I wondered what I had missed.

Almost poked both my eyes out during the first 200 or so pages. My friends kept egging me on. Finished it last night. I will say there are some pretty good shockers. I mean, after reading myself to sleep for so long on this one, the shockers were really pretty shocking. I recommend you slog through the next 50 pages. Around page 250 (paperback edition) it starts to get more interesting. I did think the ending felt kind of rushed, if you can believe that! Good luck! (And don't be afraid to pick up a People magazine every now and then...there's no shame in reading the tabloids anymore!)

Had to laugh at your comment. I just finished saying almost exactly the same thing to my husband, and I just asked a few friends why I should keep reading it (these are friends who RAVED about it.) I'm about half-way through and was ready to take the book back to the library. Given that even more people here are saying to hang in there, I guess I will. But there better be some BIG payoff! :)

only made it to about page 40 before I decided it's really not worth it to absolutely hate and not enjoy reading the first part of a book just to hope for any reason to continue...your comment was hilarious and thank for pointing out the bad writing. I never made it to the breakfast passage but you're completely right.

I recently asked the same question on Facebook and not one person could give me a concrete answer, they all said "it gets better". I'm currently on page 193, still hating it and it is only through sheer stubbornness that I am plowing on. It is a struggle....so I am wondering the same thing: WHY do people love this book? I would truly love to know....

i loved this book. If you thought this was boring, try reading "The Life of Pi." After attempting to read that book, almost no book is boring.

Oh jeez, I got an awesome recommendation from a friend on this book and just ordered it. I will keep my fingers crossed that my take will be opposite yours but....your review seems fair and honest and not meant to falsely praise or, in this case, dismiss the high kudos this books has received. Thanks for posting your review, just wish I would have read it 2 days ago :)

I don't thik you are missing anything, you have just taken a different reaction to the style of writing. It is the grotesque sexual and sadistic images which put me off, but not enough to detract from the book itself

Yeah, I had a similar experience reading this book. Everyone recommended it but it was full of bad writing and caricatures instead of characters. Even the character of Lisbeth that he spends so much time does not come alive for me. Do not think I will read his other books.
The trailer for the new movie starring Daniel Craig has a scene that is considerably better written than the book.
Blomkvist: They [referring to his notes on his laptop] were encrypted
Libeth [book version]: I can download a software from the net that can crack Word's password protection
Lisbeth [movie version]: Please...

Sarah wrote: "i loved this book. If you thought this was boring, try reading "The Life of Pi." After attempting to read that book, almost no book is boring."

Are you friggin' serious??? You need to take some introductory philosophy and literature courses. Look up allegory and metaphor in the dictionary. "The Life of Pi" has inspired groups dedicated soley to studying the meaning of that book. It won The Booker prize for Christ's sake. I am sorry but, yikes. You could not be more wrong. What an insult to such a stellar stellar book.

The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo only inspired rage in me at being duped by the rave reviews.

This book was a big stinky turd. Dry as a popcorn fart, bad writing, totally unlikeable main characters, shrill preaching about sexuality, and plot devices that were felt forced and unbelievable. Larsson seemed oblvivious to the moral contradictions in the book.

That whole part about the picture was so bad. After six months he makes this breakthrough observation that no one previously noted that whatshername was obviously sullen and looking off into the distance. Wtf? It felt so contrived. There were other moments like that.

I also found off putting the extremely casual liasons and attempts to normalize deviant behaviour if one holds the requisite views on other issues. (I'm thinking about the ridiculous out of the blue insertion about Berger's trolling BDSM clubs in the '80'. It's only weird if one is also a Nazi and homicidal. Then it's bad.)

There are so many valid criticisms of this book that it feels like a chore to go on.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way!

I worked at Borders until it closed and work at another book store now. Whenever people ask for my opinion of this book I say the same thing: "It's not my taste, but a lot of people seem to really enjoy it." I can't come right out and say it's one of the most boring books I've ever read, and let's be honest, if you tell me you're looking for a mystery novel, I'm going to tell you about the best sellers (because I'm not big on the genre); I want to get a sale. The guy who mentioned that they were asked to push the books was being extremely honest, but I can tell you without hesitation that their backroom was bombarded with copies of this book. Some people honestly seem to like it; my supervisor would read it compulsively.

I'm glad there are so many that hated it as much as I did, and I think it's the first time I've ever felt as if the movie was better than the novel.

Jessica wrote: "I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way!

I worked at Borders until it closed and work at another book store now. Whenever people ask for my opinion of this book I say the same thing: "I..."

I agree with you. I liked the first two films but hated the book. But the last film led to another question. How much punishment can a girl take? Brutally raped, beaten, shot (I think) buried alive,? I actually laughed when she got out of the grave. I just asked myself "Really? This is what people like?"

It's ok, I don't understand either. I think the issue is that Larsson once saw a girl get raped and he has this idealistic view of women being always wronged and always perfect, and maybe sees himself as some self-sppointed advocate for women's rights or something. Being a woman, even I have to call bullshit on the series.

Also, I wish he'd stop having sex with everything on two legs with a vagina. It's not only off-putting but unrealistic.

I gave up at page 175 on the softcover. Too many Vangers to keep track of, and no real desire to keep them straight. I've read this far only to learn that some girl died a bunch of years earlier, an old guy pays a journalist to try to solve the murder, and there is a strange lady investigating the journalist. And none of them are particularly interesting characters. At page 100 I said, I'll try to persevere. At page 150, I said, I'll give it another shot. And now I'm throwing in the towel. I know the most I'll get out of it is perhaps an interesting plot twist. Why bother?

Brilliant review really. If I hadn't seen the Swedish film I don't think I would've bothered reading 'til the end. I'm so glad I joined goodreads because you're not always pandered to read the same old well publicised garbage. But then again, some people genuinely like Twilight... The world is a mystery to me.

I managed to keep going to the end, but with a fair amount of skimming. Even putting some of the clunkiness down to translation issues, the general structuring + infodumping were pretty deterring, and Our Hero is Marty Stu feminist male chick magnet crusading journalist (sigh).

Saw the US movie version at the weekend, which gets over the stylistic and vast swathes of prose that do nothing issues, but there's still a structure problem.

I find it incredibly boorish, poorly written, and unable to keep my attention; like another book I too got sucked into reading....Twilight...which I didn't find amazing either!

Damn. I love this. We should make a cocktail club of anti GWDT book, and we can dog it all night long.

I LOATHED this book. It was the most boring pile of words I've ever read. That example you gave in your review was it in a nut shell!

I would LOVE to understand why people love this book. It was horrendous.

Cheers!!!

Thank you.

Exactly. Couldn't of put it better.