Book Review - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Author: Stieg Larsson
Year: 2008
Page: 480
Genre: Fiction - Murder / Mystery / Thriller / Suspense

New to me author? Yes
Read this author again? Yes
Tearjerker? No
Where did it take place? Sweden
FTC Disclosure: Borrowed from the library

Summary (from goodreads.com):
Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo.


First Sentence:

The trial was irretrievably over; everything that could be said had been said, but he had never doubted that he would lose.

 
Why did I pick this book?
Have heard lots of good things about this book. I must be one of the very few people who hadn't read it. It happened to be the book pick for the Book Club in July, so I thought I'd wait to read it with the group!


My thoughts:

• I liked it, but didn't love it. I wonder if it's because I read quite a few books in this genre, so I had high expectations, and didn't quite get all the hype? It was good but not THAT good

• I did like that the characters were more unique, that you could definitely visualize them as you read

• Some felt parts of the book was quite graphic - yes, kind of, but it wasn't the worst I'd read. Fiction wise, I was repulsed after reading The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum, and wondered why anyone could have written on such a topic - though in the "after words" in the back of that book, the author explained why he wrote it, which made me feel a little better. But gosh, after all the murder / mystery books I'd read, including True Crime books, nothing disgusted me quite as much as The Girl Next Door - perhaps that just spoke volume about the author's writing abilities then... anyway... so while there were some disturbing parts in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I wasn't quite shocked, but your mileage may vary.

• The who dunnit part of the book also revealed a bit too early for me, and made me wondered what was going to happen to the rest of the book... but I heard that the author intended this to be a trilogy (again!!!) to begin with, so it just didn't wrap up after the mystery was solved. I guess I wasn't too surprised about some of the twists in the book either...

• Some of the Swedish reference in the book didn't mean much and had to google - e.g. who were Kalle Blomkvist and Pippi Longstocking that were supposedly like Mikael and Lisbeth? Also, a lot of the Swedish names (people or places) got a little confusing!

• The book could probably use some editing too, it was a bit long. I heard that the publishes decided to publish as is, after the author died? Pretty sad though that he passed before seeing his books got published. I wonder if part of the hype was because of his death?

• I heard the movie was quite true to the book, so I look forward to watching that!

• I will probably read Book 2 and 3, just to find out what happened. But I don't love it enough to go out and buy the books. I can wait for the library copy to come in (queue number 67 or something!)

Quote:

People always have secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what hey are. (p126)

 
Rating: 3.5 Stars

 

Have you read this book? 
If you have, I would love to hear what you think! I'll link your review here if you wish!

Challenges:
100+ Reading