The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1) in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Feb 11, 2010 Debra Harrison rated it really liked it

I was turned off at first by the unusual, long names and unkown cities but got past that and really enjoyed the book. I am now hooked and must read the other books by this author. The female lead character was refreshingly "curre3nt" with her tattoos and attitude. Excellent book ...more

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Feb 09, 2010 Marty rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Excellent, well written story. The plot contains several lines that are of equal interest. Once involves the disappearance of a young girl, and another the story of a corrupt business man. Also in the mix is a mystery girl that is an enigma. Since there is a follow up book, The Girl Who Played with Fire, I will seek this out. I usually nix any book that continues on but this was a stand alone story that never dragged or contained fillers.
Extremely well written/translated, it places you in the ac ...more

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Apr 16, 2010 Gina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, suspense, mystery

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Mikael Blomkvist, early forties, a finacial journalist and part onwer of the magazine, Millennium, has just been convicted of libel against industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He'd rather take the conviction and jail sentence than fork over the name of his source. To protect the magazine, he steps down.

Lisbeth Salander, 24, has been a ward of the state since the age of thirteen. Under a guardian, her life is pretty much topsy-turvy. While a brilliant hacker with a photographic memory, she is em Mikael Blomkvist, early forties, a finacial journalist and part onwer of the magazine, Millennium, has just been convicted of libel against industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He'd rather take the conviction and jail sentence than fork over the name of his source. To protect the magazine, he steps down.

Lisbeth Salander, 24, has been a ward of the state since the age of thirteen. Under a guardian, her life is pretty much topsy-turvy. While a brilliant hacker with a photographic memory, she is emotionally shut down. Questions asked that she doesn't want to answer remain unanswered; she clams up. No one really knows her, and she's keeping it that way.

Industrialist Henrik Vanger followed the trial, and had his lawyer hire a security firm to check into Mikael. He wants to hire him. Back in 1966, Vanger's niece, Harriet, disappeared without a trace and is feared dead. Obsessed, Vanger wants his niece, or her killer, found. Every year, since her disappearance, on his birthday, he receives a pressed and framed flower, just like Harriet used to give him. He believes he's being tormented, and he wants answers. Adding incentive, he promises Mikael dirt against Winnerstrom. Very reluctantly, Mikael agrees to a one-year contract, on the premise of ghostwriting Vanger's autobiography, which would help open doors to questions he needs answered.

The Vanger family is very extensive, with several oddballs in the bunch. It takes a while to sort through who's who, and in the meantime, Mikael is going through every stitch of paper, every photograph, that was put together on Harriet, right down to police reports. He believes he's on a wild goose-chase, believing that, if the police weren't able to find anything, than neither would he.

How very wrong he was. With bits of information, and old pictures found and located, Mikael begins piecing what happened to Harriet together. Later, with the help of Salander and her photographic memory and her computer skills, they break the case. Only, it's much worse than anyone could have imagined.

And with a sweet added bonus to end the novel, and again, with the help of Salander, Mikael blows Winnerstrom and his illegal activities right out of the water.

**A lengthy mystery with a happy ending... for some of the characters.

Right from the beginning, I had a hard time with the relationship between Mikael and his partner, Erika. I could understand the long-time friendship, and I could understand the partnership with the magazine, but I really didn't understand their sexual relationship. His marriage fell apart because he couldn't stop sleeping with Erika, even though he loved his wife and daughter. She's married, and yet her husband is completely okay with it. Now, I'm happily married (10 years this July 1st and have been with my husband for 15 years), so maybe that's why I don't understand that aspect of their relationship? *shrug* Who knows?

Despite her emotional hang-ups, I admired Lisbeth and wish I had her courage. She doesn't take anything lying down, and plots her revenges meticulously. She's brilliant in her strategies, a genius hacker who will find whatever it is you're trying to hide.

I liked how Mikael treated Salander right from the beginning, never pushing for information she didn't want to give, but he explained the terms of what a true friendship is, and gave Salander the right to choose for herself if she was willing to accept Mikael's friendship.

While I found the book slow-paced for about the first-half of the book (of 841 pages, that is a long first-half), I could understand that the author was setting up all the characters so that, like Mikael, you can fgure out who's who. It was needed, even though it was frustratingly slow. But by the second-half, the mystery, the action, the danger, started heating up, and I was actually surprised at who the "bad guy" was. I had my ideas on someone else, until information that Mikael and especially Lisbeth unearthed. I rooted for them both, was just as creeped out, just as fearful, just as disgusted as they were. Lisbeth ends up having to really examine her emotions, something she never did, and just when she "man's-up" and decides to lay it all out on the table for Mikael, at the very end of the last chapter, my heart broke for Lisbeth. I won't say what and spoil it for those who haven't read it yet. I'll simply state: Go get this book! It's a must-read! ...more

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Jul 09, 2010 Brent rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, thriller

First in a trilogy about Lisbeth Salander, an anti-social, computer-hacking, crime-solving genius. Or whatever.

Originally written in Swedish, the translation into (British) English leaves a lot to be desired. It's unintentionally funny at times due to awkward phrasing and overly-simplistic writing. The author also spends an inordinate amount of time explaining how everyone uses Apple computers and how all the furniture comes from IKEA (I guess we, the readers, are supposed to know what each name ...more

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May 27, 2010 Kelly Lamb rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, favorites

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I didn't think I would fall for the hype at first--I read the back cover and felt unimpressed by the synopsis. But this book is SO much better than the summary lets on. I don't think I've ever read a mystery with so much detail cleanly worked into the plot. You're constantly paying attention and trying to put the pieces together, up to the very end. This isn't a quickie Dan Brown mystery...it's smarter than that. Plus, I'm totally fascinated by teh relationships betwee ...more

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Jul 20, 2010 Lianna rated it liked it

Lots of eating sandwiches and characters giving other characters long looks.

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May 28, 2010 Dani rated it really liked it

Not something I typically would pick up & read but I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any lovers of mystery. Interesting characters. Translated from the Swedish to English so it loses a touch in the translation. Looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy.

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Jul 19, 2010 Bita rated it liked it

angela lansbury nostalgia meets graphic violence against women. definitely need more than an hour to solve this caper.

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Mar 19, 2010 Sherilyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adveture-action-suspenseful

I did not think I would like this book but as I began reading it drew me in. Interesting subject material which ws a little hard to read about but still liked the book. Well read the next two in the series

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