From the Bookshelf of ~Can't Stop Reading~…

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

Stieg Larsson,

Reg Keeland (Translator)

Start date: September 1, 2012

Finish date: September 30, 2012

Discussion: Current Group Reads

Why we're reading this: September novel
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What Members Thought

Jan 29, 2012 Mickey rated it liked it · review of another edition

I'll try to express my feelings about this book without sounding like too much of a literary snob. We'll see how well I do.

One of the most jarring things about this book is simply that it has a different frame of reference than what I'm used to. As an American, I'm used to a certain portrayals, reactions, and understandings. This book comes from a different place. It's like a person who is used to big blockbuster Hollywood movies seeing a quirky indie film. There's a sense of novelty in the mos ...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Xdyj rated it really liked it

Shelves: q, rtw, poc, o, l-f-ar-af-s

A fast-paced mystery with well-written, likable characters who are loyal to the cause & to each other.

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Mar 27, 2012 QuietIdea rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, books-with-adaptations

If your edition of this book is any thing like mine, it'll be decorated with rave reviews from critics who throw about words like "thrilling" and "sexy" and "addictive". These critics were clearly on the take.

This book's only saving grace, is its characters. I love flawed characters and this book had plenty of them. Mikeal Blomkvist, adulterous and a bad father, yet tortured by morals. Lisbeth Salander, no morals, frequently victimized, hacker extraordinaire. Not to mention the rapists, murderer If your edition of this book is any thing like mine, it'll be decorated with rave reviews from critics who throw about words like "thrilling" and "sexy" and "addictive". These critics were clearly on the take.

This book's only saving grace, is its characters. I love flawed characters and this book had plenty of them. Mikeal Blomkvist, adulterous and a bad father, yet tortured by morals. Lisbeth Salander, no morals, frequently victimized, hacker extraordinaire. Not to mention the rapists, murderers, anti-semites, and traitors. Unfortunately, most of the character arent fully developed until halfway through the story and by then you're bored bonkers, waiting for the good stuff to happen.

The book starts - skimming over important things like character introductions - by presenting you with a character dialogue about another character dialogue. Basically this story starts by having a character you don't really know tell you a story about a guy he didn't really know, giving him insider information on a crook named Wennerstrom. Which had the potential to be fascinating but wasn't...because for much of this the conversations are purely factual sentences with no personality shining through. You simply are asked to take an unknown character named Blomkvist, at his word simply because he's the main character...which you could do, but you are also asked to take a long lost friend on his word about his inside info to shady undertakings, which is in itself shady. Confused yet? Because that's just firs 60 or so pages.

So you read on, thinking this Wennerstrom thing could get interesting when the reality is, Vanger family is about to offer up an entirely different and unrelated mystery. Bye-bye Wennerstrom. Thanks for boring me. Hello, new slightly less boring people.

Was the book "sexy"? No, not really. If your a rape fetishist, maybe. Because a central theme of the story, is men who hate women...which in turn leads to some pretty angry men doing god-awful things to unsuspecting women. Mikael Blomkvist is a womanizer - at least I can give him his props for being upfront about his need for casual sex as his character begins to develop long at last - who does have sex throughout the book but its really not sexy, because its merely hinted at...Which means the writer could have just mentioned his characters sexual proclivities and moved on with the story and saved the ink but I digress on that matter.

Was the book "thrilling"? It was about as thrilling as a early 90s episode of Law&Order, when those writers were still unsure of just how far they'd be allowed to take crime on tv. It was very analytical, which would probably have served better if the leading man was a detective instead of a reporter. One seen has him carrying a conversation with a serial killer, and all I can think is: Is this it?

Addictive? Not even close. There was no suspense forcing me to keep flipping pages, to convince me to forsake eating and sleeping to find out more...If anything I found other activities to help me avoid having to read the story... Including watching the movie which was fantastic! Cool music, fight scenes, sex scenes, a mystery that made you half afraid to look at the evidence being pieced together...

And there was a solid plot. with great clues. and no question was left hanging that shouldn't have been (eventually the Vanger family mystery gets solved, and the character decide to solve the Wennerstrom thing too). But there were too many facts, too soon and too little personality in characters who -according to the facts- should have been overflowing with it. too many facts slowed down the progression of the story and plot twists that arrived were gifts to break the monotony than actual surprises. I'm very sad to say that this story could have gone a lot farther with a lot less...I wanted to like it so badly but couldn't.

Will I read the next one? I'll probably wait, see the movie first and then decide if its worth it. ...more

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