Did Anyone Else Hate This Book?

[Eyehavenofilter]

This book introduced me to Scandinavian crime novels. Now I can't get enough. Nesbo, Marklund, etc, such a different style of writing.
It also did a bit of a cleansing of my brain, as did the other 2 books. It took me totally out if my comfort zone, not what I expected, but it was necessary at the time. I think that was why people hated this book. That's why I liked it.
The writing is something that was different and unique at the time, and that is what was so attractive.

[Terry]

Tony wrote: "You 'hate' the first book in a trilogy then read the second. 'Hate' the second one and read a third? And hate the third as well. No problems with you hating a book but why carry on after the first? Or second??!!"

Exactly. The books are not what people were used to, upset them and confounded them, but they actually had characters and a story believable enough to make you want to read them bad or good. Any author that can do THAT is a good one, IMHO.

[Jennifer]

Emma wrote: "I have to be honest; I hated this book.

I found the first third of the book clunky, slow and bogged down with jargon and pointless detail.

I found it disturbing and hard to read (which is not nec..."
I could never understand so many reviews of this book, it's awful

[Jennifer]

I didn't like this book at all. Never finished it.

[Clay]

I saw the movie first and thought "this would be more detailed and easier to follow as a book". It is outside of my usual genre, but I enjoyed it and will probably read the rest if the series at some point. I thought they did a really good job with the movie too. Not great but just enjoyable.

[Clay]

I actually think all the background stuff was what made this book work for me, otherwise it is just a thriller/ mystery which is not my usual taste. I like books with lots of detail.

[Wendy]

Lori wrote: "I was initally intrigued by the mystery of the pressed flowers appearing each year, and what happened to the niece. But as I read, the graphic sexual violence was just too much for me. I skipped ..."

Angela wrote: "Terry wrote: "Angela wrote: "I like The Lead Character in the books. Not so much the books themselves"

That was what I found fascinating too, if you mean Lizbeth. She was the most astonishing, ne..."

Lori that is actually how I felt. there was no need for that much sexual violence in the book

[Linda]

I LOVED all three with the third the best of them. I actually rate these three books at the top of my top ten. It is a very meaty book with a great deal going on. You need to read it with a clear head and perhaps can appreciate it more if you can have empathy with Lisbeth. The sex scenes are a necessary part of the book.

I had wished I had of taken notes as I read as there was so much going on. I felt the same about the Da Vinci Code. Love to made to think. Whereas The Fifty Shades of Grey books were a waste of my time. Only read them because they were a gift.

I think Stieg Larsson was brilliant and I am so disappointed he went and died. What killed him anyway? Smokes or alcohol bet it wasn't sex.

[Terry]

Linda wrote: "I LOVED all three with the third the best of them. I actually rate these three books at the top of my top ten. It is a very meaty book with a great deal going on. You need to read it with a clea..."

Agree 100% :-)

[Nyssa]

I can't say I hated this book but I did not like it. I'm the type of person that has to be hooked into a book by the end of the first chapter and I only got a few pages in. I just didn't enjoy the way it was written but I still think the idea of the story is great.

[John]

I read all three and liked them all. Tough reading in spots, but I whipped through the first. I would not recommend the books to just anyone.

Lisbeth was the big deal in the series. I liked the Rooney Mara movie, too, though she was not really Lisbeth for me.

I was well into on my own novel when I heard about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and it made me change my working title. Reading it made me flush one approach to my own lead character. In the end, though, I went back to The Girl in the Coyote Coat and my Adelaide was much better off not being at all like Lisbeth.

[Terry]

John wrote: "I read all three and liked them all. Tough reading in spots, but I whipped through the first. I would not recommend the books to just anyone.

Lisbeth was the big deal in the series. I liked the Ro..."

Lisbeth is one of a kind. With the success of those books, I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted your critics to make the comparison. I see you do have an Elizabeth, however. :-)
Is this book going to be printed? I only see a Kindle edition.

[John]

Terry wrote: "John wrote: "I read all three and liked them all. Tough reading in spots, but I whipped through the first. I would not recommend the books to just anyone.

Lisbeth was the big deal in the series. I..."

I plan on an e-version for Kindle, Nook, iTunes. I may do print-on-demand if interest warrants. By the way, Elizabeth dislikes nicknames but is occasionally called Elle, in spite of her best efforts.

[Euraylie]

I've discussed this book quite a bit with friends and family, and I get so annoyed when they imply that you didn't like this book or the series because maybe the subject matter was too extreme, too dark and the characters too dysfunctional.

That's not at all the case, I actually love books that dare to be different, but Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - in my humble opinion - was just badly written, clumsily plotted, extremely misogynist, boring and overlong.
Bring on all the dysfunctional characters and dark plots you want, but do it well.

[Donna]

Wow. Glad Stieg Larsson is not around to see this brutal discussion. I thought he did a really good job on the whole trilogy. I am sorry he is not around to write more.

When I saw this discussion thread, I thought, Well of course! It's hard to read; the torture scenes and the depressive episodes are very hard on a reader, and not for everyone. And then imagine my surprise at seeing "dull" "predictable" "slow"? How on earth did any of these critics make it through the classics? Or do I assume too much?

Like Chabon, Larsson's writing is very literate. He doesn't do quick-and-easy immediate gratification. There are other novels for that.

I found the series hard to read because of the level of violence. I deal with really good, really violent stories by also reading something else, and so I can switch back and forth when I need a breather. But to say it's bad writing? Not so much.

As a U.S. citizen who reads way too many books set in the US, I also enjoyed the setting, and his sense of conveying the reader to the place, even though I have never been to any part of Europe and likely never will.

I was very sad to see how the estate was settled (tossing out his will leaving everything to his partner, giving all the funds from this wonderful series to relatives from whom he was estranged when he died).

I myself will always regard Larsson's work as phenomenal. It is not for everyone, but it is not badly written, and in that regard, I think readers have voted with their wallets.

[Lisa]

I loved all three as well and that is saying something!!!! I hate series but was engrossed in this one!!!!!

[Ken]

Lisa wrote: "I loved all three as well and that is saying something!!!! I hate series but was engrossed in this one!!!!!"
I have mentioned before that I liked the series and have seen all the movies. the American version and the Swedish version. I have even listened to the audio book I found at library.

[Euraylie]

Donna wrote: "Wow. Glad Stieg Larsson is not around to see this brutal discussion. I thought he did a really good job on the whole trilogy. I am sorry he is not around to write more.

When I saw this discussion ..."

I think that unlike with most classics (many which I love), this was was billed as a thriller, a whodunnit, and that is where this failed for me.
The Wennestroem case was just not that interesting to me.
The murder mystery itself wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that fantastic either. Literally the only fleshed out suspect ended up being the villain.
Lisbeth was an interesting character but sadly had to play second fiddle to that bore (and blatant self-insert) Mikael Blomkvist, who despite being one of the blandest characters in the whole story has women throwing themselves at him all over the place.

I'm sorry that Stieg Larsson died when he was still so young, but I think that had he lived, he and others would have gone over these books and done some necessary editing – not even shortening the story, but just making it better, more cohesive and hopefully less sexist.

[Sharon]

I personally enjoyed the 2nd and 3rd book more than the first one.

[[deleted user]]

I think it took me like some where between 5 to 12 re-tries before I got into the book.

I did end up liking the plot to a degree in the first book, but I have not been able to finish the 2nd and 3rd books. I did feel like it and its sequeals needed to be between 150 to 200 pages shorter for each book.

[Matthew]

I didn't hate it, but did feel that it was vastly overrated.

[Sharon]

YES! Picked it up several times. Could not see what the appeal is whatosever

[Nancy]

I didn't hate it as much as I was perplexed that it was such a big deal to people. I just didn't understand why they felt it was so remarkable; I found it a rather run-of-the-mill, very graphic thriller. My best guess as to the wild response to the book is that the "girl" was an off-beat, unusual heroine.

[Terry]

Nancy wrote: "...My best guess as to the wild response to the book is that the "girl" was an off-beat, unusual heroine."

Indeed. Good, memorable characters are rare. One may care enough about a character to want to know their fate, but then they are usually forgotten once the story ends. No one who has read the trilogy will ever forget Lisbeth. It was her fate that kept people reading.

[Katerina]

i have read the first book and found it was a good thriller...not the reinvention of the wheel, but easy to read.
then the series were shown on german television and I decided not two continue with the books, since I already knew then what they were about.

[Felica]

I could not get into this.. no matter how hard I tried

[Georgia]

To be fair, I actually quite enjoyed this first book in the trilogy. Mainly because I've always enjoyed a good crime/horror book (I know that these books probably wouldn't be counted as 'horror' but still, there are quite a few gruesome and somewhat disturbing moments throughout these books.)

Though I must admit that it did take me a while to get through 'The girl with the dragon tattoo.' I seemed to almost get bored of it, then force myself to continue reading it. (I'm a big believer in the fact that if I buy a book or someone's gone through the trouble of buying me one, I must read it. Otherwise it would just be a waste.)

Anyway, even though I didn't hate the first book, I was kind of disappointed in the ending. I really don't know what I was expecting. I was kind of glad that she got to escape her abusive father and brother and everything turned out for the better, but, I don't know, I was hoping the book would end better then it did. (I'm also a big fan of tragedy, so that may be the reason I was disappointed.)

So although I wouldn't say I hated this book, as the story itself was interesting, I have to say by the third book I had given up completely, I forced myself to read through the second book 'The girl who played with fire'and when I reached the third and final book, I was just bored with it all. In the end I just put all three of them on my bookshelf never to be looked at or read again.

[Leslie]

I enjoyed the book. I read the Swedish version though. I tried to read the English translation after it came out but it was hard to get through. There is definitely something lost in translation.

[Mike]

This is a big overgeneralization, but I noticed that a lot of commenters who love this book also add that they rarely read crime fiction. One of the reasons that this book's popularity is so confounding and infuriating for those of us who enjoy the genre is that we have seen similar things done so much better so many times before by so many better authors.

[J]

What good crime fiction do you recommend? I liked the three books, yet it did have its flaws, but I enjoyed it!

[Terry]

Mike wrote: "This is a big overgeneralization, but I noticed that a lot of commenters who love this book also add that they rarely read crime fiction. One of the reasons that this book's popularity is so confou..."

I suspect you are quite correct. However, that makes these books a crossover between popular and crime fiction, which means that crime fiction as a genre gets a big boost in potential new readers. I found these books to be closer to literature than a specific genre. You must admit that much genre writing, while faithful to its devotees demands, is not really the stuff of literature. The fact that many of us who don't read the genre preferentially, yet found these books interesting and read all three, speaks to a certain something in them that transcends that particular genre classification.

[Terry]

Josse wrote: "What good crime fiction do you recommend? I liked the three books, yet it did have its flaws, but I enjoyed it!"

I know you were asking Mike, but I may as well throw my 2 bytes in: anything by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, or John D. MacDonald are examples of superb writing, not only in the "crime" genre, but of good storytelling in general. I also have enjoyed Elmore Leonard and Mickey Spillane. I found this fascinating link also: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/bo...

[Gözde]

I think its not possible to hate this book

[Patrick]

I wouldn't say I hated it, but there was one large aspect that I didn't like: the focus on the sexual violence performed on Lisbeth. It took away from the story and just took up way too much of the book.

[Woolie]

Terry wrote: "Mike wrote: "This is a big overgeneralization, but I noticed that a lot of commenters who love this book also add that they rarely read crime fiction. One of the reasons that this book's popularity..."

Josse, I am finding that the Scandinavian Crime/Mystery/Thriller should be a new genre on its own. Jo Nesbo, Camilla Lackberg, and new to the show Lars Keplar are all very good. Now I think Lars has been somehow dubbed the 'new Steig Larsson' but I am not one to buy into labels that are pretty arbitrary. That being said all three listed are very good and I suggest that you check them out. There is a common element with all the scandinavian writers... the pace of the writing is like the ocean.... it has an ebb and a flow... unlike say American thriller writers. Generalization ..yeah, but its based on my reading habits..so I may not be too far off by saying it.

Good luck, and enjoy.

[Dee]

Scandanavian Crime is more often called Nordic Noir and it is recognized as a subgenre

Jo Mesbo
Karin Fossum
Asa Larson
James Thompson
Camilla Lackberg
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Quentin Bates
Lars Kepler (personally not a fan)
Henning Mankell
Johan Theorin
Sara Blaedel
Anne Holt

and many others....

[Terry]

Patrick wrote: "...but there was one large aspect that I didn't like: the focus on the sexual violence performed on Lisbeth. It took away from the story and just took up way too much of the book."

Hmm. I didn't see that. Such things do happen, and Lisbeth's anger, alienation and violence needed a good rational, I thought. One only needs to have one really bad thing happen to be screwed up; she was seriously damaged, and it was easy to see why. Could be it was overkill, but people do recover from isolated incidents; Lisbeth never got much chance to recover for a long time.

[Dee]

for me the thing is that said sexual violence occurs every day - so by not including it are we turning a blind eye to it...IIRC Larsson witnessed a girl getting gang raped when he was younger and he did nothing, and there was rumor that this was part of his coping for not doing anything - by creating the character of Lisbeth who could kick ass

[Gale]

I wasn't crazy about the book it wasn't interesting enough to me

[Leo]

Fatin wrote: "I couldn't get through the second chapter and gave up on it after trying thrice."

I hated it. The first 3 pages have not offered anything promising. Might be the translation-sometimes it makes a huge difference.

[Marietje]

Yes, I hated it. It is a typical overdone bestseller.

[Rebecca]

Emma wrote: "I have to be honest; I hated this book.

I found the first third of the book clunky, slow and bogged down with jargon and pointless detail.

I found it disturbing and hard to read (which is not nec..."
I disliked this book very much. Why did everyone want to sleep with the main guy anyway? I couldn't get past that. Very irritating.

[Jane]

I really liked the Swedish version of this movie, not either of the sequels. I forced myself to read through this book but never even bothered with either of the sequels. I can't see why people liked it so much.

[David]

I enjoyed this book. I thought it was well written and entertaining.

[Ken]

I have mentioned before that I have seen all the Swedish movies and the American version and read all the books. I'm now listening to the first book in audio book form. I still like the whole series. You either like it or not.

[Guin]

Katrina wrote: "i did read the book i didnt really like it but i want to see the movie"

If you want to see the movie closely associated with the book. You must really get the Swedish version of the movies and follow the subtitles. I found it pretty much stayed with author's intent.

[Guin]

I really liked the first book which made me pick up the second and third book. I must say it took me awhile to get into the third book though.

[Carolyn]

Wasn't a fan either and couldn't see what other people love the series so much. I was told once you get past the first 100 pages that it would be great. After reading half the book I put it down and never looked back.

[Ken]

Guin wrote: "Katrina wrote: "i did read the book i didnt really like it but i want to see the movie"

If you want to see the movie closely associated with the book. You must really get the Swedish version of th..."

Agreed the Swedish version was closer to the books.

[Chris]

I agree with marius way back on page one. I hate reading reviews or rants from people who didn't finish books.