The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1) in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Aug 26, 2010 Emma rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: translated-to-english, fiction

I was extremely glad to finish this book. From the first page until the last I found it truly laborious reading. There has been so much hype about this book, so many people reading and raving about it but nowhere in its massive 500+ pages did I discover why.

Admittedly before starting The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I knew that it was not my kind of book – crime books and thrillers are about the only genres I never read. I also have no head for or great interest in the corporate world and so was I was extremely glad to finish this book. From the first page until the last I found it truly laborious reading. There has been so much hype about this book, so many people reading and raving about it but nowhere in its massive 500+ pages did I discover why.

Admittedly before starting The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I knew that it was not my kind of book – crime books and thrillers are about the only genres I never read. I also have no head for or great interest in the corporate world and so was completely bored with the relentless details of the entire financial histories, business dealings and structures of companies and businesses. A lady on the train who saw me reading this book and gushed about it assured me this was all necessary to “set it up for later on”.

I persevered but the writing style continually annoyed me. I know I was reading a translation but I don't think these things suddenly appeared in the English version. It seems every time a new character is mentioned they are followed by a long, dry, impersonal-sounding biography of their life up to that point. They are then confusingly referred to alternately by either their first or last name. A room, house or office cannot be entered without a complete description of its history, design and layout and an inventory of everything within it, right down to the paper clip supplies or bookmarks in the drawers. Meals, outfits and every movement of characters were also often spelled out with such frustrating detail. It seems too that so many companies got free advertising out of this book; barely an object is mentioned without its capitalised brand name. It’s a Canon camera, a Corolla with automatic transmission, not to mention “the new Apple PowerBook G4/1.0 GHz in an aluminum case with a PowerP.C. 7451 processor with an AltiVec Velocity Engine, 960 megs of R.A.M. and a sixty-gig hard drive. It had BlueTooth and built-in C.D. and D.V.D. burners.” (Page 184 if you don’t believe me). There’s also a point, when describing which actual computer program the disgraced journalist Blomkvist is using, that the address of the website is given where you can apparently download it for free.

There was a potentially interesting mystery of a girl gone missing 40 years ago, but this seemed buried towards the back of the book and even then was so often bogged down and interrupted by these seemingly irrelevant descriptions and asides that I never felt “hooked” by what may have happened to Harriet Vanger and how other family members may have played a part. When the truly disturbing discoveries of what has been going on are made I still did not feel moved or that they had an impact. Maybe because none of the characters appealed to me and I’d completely lost interest in it by that stage.

I’m a bit confused by my reaction when everyone seems to think this book is such a compelling read but I can’t even think of one thing I liked about it to end this review on a positive note – sorry!
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Dec 09, 2008 Jaime rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2009, thriller-suspense

This is a book I almost gave up. I listened to it on audio, and a few hours in I felt like I was still listening to background and set-up and was anxious for the story to get started. Thankfully, once it got rolling it was a snowball I couldn’t stop. Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander are very interesting characters… very alike in some ways, polar opposites in others. I spent a great deal of time wondering how their stories would be tied together, and I wasn’t disappointed when they eventuall ...more

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Dec 22, 2008 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, mystery

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Well... okay. I have mixed feelings about this book. It was really hard for me to get into this book at first. I started reading it around Christmastime, and then set it down. I finally came back to it this month!

The prologue was actually rather interesting. It gave enough of a hint of mystery to capture my interest and make me want to figure it out. Unfortunately, the next section was slow. I did like how the chapters were divided up by date - that helped keep the timeline going for me, with ev Well... okay. I have mixed feelings about this book. It was really hard for me to get into this book at first. I started reading it around Christmastime, and then set it down. I finally came back to it this month!

The prologue was actually rather interesting. It gave enough of a hint of mystery to capture my interest and make me want to figure it out. Unfortunately, the next section was slow. I did like how the chapters were divided up by date - that helped keep the timeline going for me, with everything that was going on. At first, I had a hard time figuring out why I was supposed to care about Mikael, Lisbeth and Armansky and everyone else they encountered. Obviously, all of them are related in some way, but that wasn't clear until later on in the book. For a while, the two storylines - Mikael's and Lisbeth's - are occurring simultaneously, and while that's a perfectly acceptable way to write a book, I didn't find it useful this time. It was useful to get a background on Lisbeth before she was introduced to Mikael, but until they were actually introduced, I was frustrated by the fact that their stories were intermingling.

The "twist" of the story was rather predictable as well (but then again, a lot of other mystery plot lines are as well, just because so many stories have been written). I was not surprised that Harriet was alive, to be honest. The rest of it was somewhat of a surprise: the murders by Gottfried and Martin. The murders were clearly done by someone in the family, or Harriet wouldn't have been so shocked, but the rest felt so forced. The sexual abuse of both Martin and Harriet, Martin's attitude towards the kidnappings and murders. There were no reasons offered as to why these two characters were the way they were. Martin just enjoyed killing (no, really, he said that. not sure of the exact quote, but yeah - wtf?). It certainly made for an interesting family, and definitely explained why Harriet would leave, but I just wasn't blown away.

Lisbeth, as a character, was probably the most interesting of the bunch. I grew to like Mikael, too, although I thought his relationship with Erika was strange, and his relationship with Lisbeth even stranger. There didn't seem to be any build-up to the relationship at all. It just happened, and we were supposed to take it like it was the most natural thing in the world. Okay, maybe they really were attracted to each other, and God knows I'd probably sleep with an attractive man if I had to be stuck in a cabin with him for a long time (provided he wasn't a jerk), but it still felt awkward. Although perhaps the reason it felt awkward was because they both were a bit awkward. Maybe it makes sense. It didn't resonate with me, though.

All of the financial lingo was weird, too. I'm no expert in the world of finance, so there were a lot of terms and scenes that I just didn't understand. The whole part where Lisbeth was transferring money into accounts? I guess the point was to make sure Wennerstrom was shut out from his money, and it was actually really interesting to see Lisbeth utilise her intellect in a different way, but again, I just didn't really get it.

All in all, an interesting premise but I'm not sure it was executed well. The best parts of the book were when Mikael wasn't going after Wennerstrom, or dealing with the Millennium magazine stuff, but when he was trying to solve the mystery. I wouldn't want to plod through the 465 pages again any time soon. ...more

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Nov 23, 2009 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, thriller, bookclub, 100best21stcen

I read this business-class thriller on my honeymoon. The graphic depictions of violence against women (though infrequent) made it rough going for a bit- but overall, this is one of the most well-crafted books I have ever read. The mystery is thrilling, and even when you sort of know what's going to happen... you don't really know. I am not sure I loved the two key protagonists, but in the end that's not the point- they were incredibly human, with human temperaments and fallacies. The story is fi ...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Courtney rated it it was amazing

Really really fantastic book. It had a good, if long, intro and when I hit the middle, I couldn't stop reading. I plowed through almost 400 pages last night. No joke. i just wanted to hear how it ended. I can't wait to read the next book. ...more

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Dec 15, 2010 Melissa rated it really liked it

I am officially addicted!

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Feb 26, 2010 Ann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Page turner from the very beginning, and never once went where I thought it was going to go. Definitely going to read the rest of the series, which were all apparently published after the author died...also, the main character is continuously reading mystery novels throughout the book and those might be fun to tackle as well.

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