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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)

Stieg Larsson,

Reg Keeland (Translator)

Start date: March 1, 2012

Finish date: March 31, 2012

Discussion: Former Group Reads

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Former Group Reads

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By Rea , Ghost · 9 posts · 20 views

last updated Oct 26, 2013 12:24PM

* Beauty and the Bounty Hunter by Lori Austin (September 2013 Group Read)
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last updated Sep 01, 2013 07:24AM

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What Members Thought

Dec 02, 2010 Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller-mystery, winter-2011-12, thriller-suspense, classics, good-fiction, permanent-library

I first read THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Christmas week of last year while in Illinois celebrating the holiday with my family. I wanted to see if Stieg Larsson’s novel withstood the test of time; and it most certainly does! I had originally thought that the novel began slowly, but it is necessary that we get to know the “ruined” finance journalist, Mikael Blomkvist. His loss of the libel suit against the ultra rich financier, Hans-Erik Wennerström is imperative to the main plot line to the b I first read THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Christmas week of last year while in Illinois celebrating the holiday with my family. I wanted to see if Stieg Larsson’s novel withstood the test of time; and it most certainly does! I had originally thought that the novel began slowly, but it is necessary that we get to know the “ruined” finance journalist, Mikael Blomkvist. His loss of the libel suit against the ultra rich financier, Hans-Erik Wennerström is imperative to the main plot line to the book. If he had won the suit, Herr Henrik Vanger couldn’t have gotten Blomkvist’s interest in the disappearance of his niece decades ago. Facing a hefty fine, a leave of absence at Millennium Magazine, and a 3 month prison sentence, Blomkvist needs money and a flexible schedule. Though intrigued by Herr Vanger’s story about his missing niece, Harriet, and the fact that the old man has been receiving a framed single dried flower on his birthday Vanger clinches Blomkvist’s services by promising the journalist ammunition to bring down Wennerström. Under the guise of writing the history of the once very prominent Swede family, Mikael begins the year long assignment.

Blomkvist realizes that he needs help with his investigation and needs an assistant. Enter the very young looking waif, Lisbeth Salander. The 24 year-old with numerous piercings and tattoos (that includes a tattoo of a large dragon) has done her own investigation of Mikael Blomkvist. She is an egimia to all who know her, especially to her older employer at the Security firm. Her deep investigating tools are a photographic memory and that she is one of the world‘s premier hackers. She has a story of her own that is revealed in the course of the novel and will dish out her own brand of justice to those she believes deserve it. This girl whom is a ward of the Swedish state abhors violence against women and more so against those individuals she allows herself to become close to her. And there are many in the dysfunctional Vanger family who richly deserve her kind of justice.

Larsson has created more than your typical crime novel; he has crafted a deliberate calibrated mystery with the suspense of a thriller with enough violence that a true thriller enthusiast enjoys. But the violence is not gratuitous. It has its place within the multilayered plotlines. Unfortunately, violence against women has been happening since the morning of time, but Larsson brings a modern cautionary tale to the subject. Many reviewers have said THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is a great character study of flawed individuals, and it is true. We readers become enamored with some, cringe at others while ultimately caring for almost all of them. I am saddened that we will not get more Millennium books since Stieg Larsson died in 2004.
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Dec 12, 2010 Mlpmom (Book Reviewer) rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle-books

I honestly don't know what I thought about this book. It was very hard to get into and when it finally did pick up it still seemed like it had pages of useless information that really didn't need to be put there.

I figured out who was the bad guy and pretty much knew what happened to the missing girl way before it was exposed in the book. I think I would only rate this book a 3.5 at most. ...more

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Feb 22, 2011 Lindsay rated it really liked it

This book started off very slow.
I found the beginning boring and I almost stopped reading.
My friends urged me to keep going.
Once I got half way through the book I couldn't put it down.
It's a murder mystery with an ending that surprised me.
The plot is inteligent and the book is extremly well written.
I would recommend this book to all interested in a Mystery/Drama.
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Aug 25, 2010 Marion Maclaine rated it did not like it

Shelves: should-have-been-favourites, judgement-day, film-better-than-book

I read this book.

Correction. I raced through this book fiercely like lisbeth slander on her motorbike. If I had read it aloud I would be dead. Full stops aren't pause enough to get through the hyped, cliché cluttered dialogue and overly sensationalised, predictable action.

Go ahead. Read it. It will blow your mind. Then you will never think about it again.* A bit like hollywood blockbusters. Or child birth. Until you read the next one. And the next one. Then you can read something else.

*Correct ...more

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Sep 15, 2010 Sharon rated it really liked it

This was a departure from what I usually read. Over all I really enjoyed this book. Lots of action and a very strange and damaged heroine, Lisbeth. Boy, she has had it tough. But the story doesn't start getting good until about half-way through. The first half is spent on character building, which is okay, and story building, which got long and a little out of hand. I will be reading the next one just to find out what Lisbeth is going to do now and to find out more about her. ...more

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