From the Bookshelf of Basically Books!…

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

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 68 topics — 2,678 comments total

Former Group Reads

* Reckless by Amanda Quick (September 2013 Group Read)
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)
By Rea , Ghost · 2 posts · 8 views

last updated Sep 01, 2013 07:24AM

showing 3 of 3 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jun 18, 2012 Leonard rated it liked it

Shelves: crime-mystery

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo explores the mystery of the Vanger family and has an intriguing plot worthy of a thriller. However, author hasn’t developed the main characters Mikael and Lisabeth in depth and they are less interesting than the Vanger family members. At around the same time, I read Carlos Ruiz Zafron’s The Shadow of the Wind and the writing in the latter was much more enjoyable than Stieg Larsson’s novel. I read the English translations of both novels, so the difference could res ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 19, 2011 Andre T rated it liked it · review of another edition

Overall I enjoyed the book, however I think the hype surrounding the series unfortunately has a way or raising expectations that doesn't let one enjoy a book for what it is, an above-average mystery novel, with some issues with it's narrative structure but employs a very unique female "detective" character.

I liked the locked-room mystery, or in this case, locked-island mystery, of the disappearance involving a 16-year-old girl which required a lot of digging around, by the two protagonists, into Overall I enjoyed the book, however I think the hype surrounding the series unfortunately has a way or raising expectations that doesn't let one enjoy a book for what it is, an above-average mystery novel, with some issues with it's narrative structure but employs a very unique female "detective" character.

I liked the locked-room mystery, or in this case, locked-island mystery, of the disappearance involving a 16-year-old girl which required a lot of digging around, by the two protagonists, into the history of a very disturbed but powerful family, the Vangers. Lots of intrigue to be had and I loved the setting of the Swedish countryside, with it's inhospitable weather in winter and how the transformation into spring and summer really, in that cold part of the world, is really a joyous occasion. Seasons plays an important part of everyone's lives there, unlike here in California, which is almost always sunny, something that we take for granted here.

I also liked the two main characters, the down-on-his-luck but still intrepid journalist, Mikael Blomqvist, who is endearing and apparently quite the ladies man, and also, the real star of the show, the punk-rock attired, tattooed Lisbeth Salandar and her uncanny ability to piece together seemingly disparate pieces of information to reveal larger patterns and clues to solving mysteries. Learning about someone like her, someone who has inability to connect with people, theorized by Blomqvist that she may have Asperger's syndrome, is very enlightening and how other people will often misjudge her or in the case of the book and from the perspective of crime, seen as the perfect victim.

Interestingly, I just saw the Swedish movie adaptation and the film humanized Lisbeth a bit more, giving her the ability to make wry jokes, which the book version of Lisbeth is unable to do, but because we are privy to Lisbeth's thoughts in the book, but are not able to do so in the film, so a lot of her actions would remain a mystery unless they tone down the stoicism a bit, and let the character give some subtle emotional cues, so I can understand why this was a necessary change in the film. In the book, we can connect with Lisbeth despite her stoic nature because we know how she feels -- the book tells them to us -- and more importantly, that she does feel despite showing any outward emotion, but in her world she must analyze human behavoir like a puzzle, in order to know how to properly respond to people. People are a mystery for her on a daily basis, so in some ways, she is solving puzzles all the time and makes her the perfect detective.

What I didn't like in the book was the juxtapostion between the financial plot thread, the battle between Blomqvist and a wealthy but corrupt CEO, and the Vangar family mystery. The switching between the two plot threads was a bit jarring at times and I was definitely more interested in the Vanger mystery rather than the financial one. The author, Steigg Larrson, a former journalist himself, seems to get on his pedestal a bit too much on his thoughts about financial journalism and it's duty to expose corrupt companies, but perhaps this topic is more timely than ever. I'm curious to see how David Fincher's take on this film will address that issue.

I liked it enough -- I devoured it in one weekend -- that I'll most likely read the next two books in the trilogy. In terms of plot, I've read better mystery novels, but the ending was surprising to me and the combination of the Swedish setting, and also the use of the unique character in Lisbeth, with her antisocial behavior and puzzle-solving coping mechanisms, elevates the book above your average crime thriller novel. Not without flaws, but an engaging read.

...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 24, 2011 D.g. Gass rated it really liked it

Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was one of those books that I purchased and read because of the hype from the movie. Not only was I intrigued with it because of the movie, but also because of the original title, “Men Who Hate Women”. The novel turned into one of those books that I couldn’t put down when I started reading it. The characters complex; the story at times, dark and violent. Despite the translation from Swedish to English, the story flowed through each transition. Li ...more

Like · see review

Dec 21, 2012 Jess Mountifield rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: added-2012, read-2013

Not as good as I thought it would be. Slow to get to the point and fairly slow even pacing except for a few bits where it seemed to suddenly mention something out of the ordinary and slip it in like it was just another fact of the story so far, despite them being important things.

Like · see review