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

Apr 05, 2010 Jackie "the Librarian" rated it really liked it

Shelves: adultfiction, glbt, mysteries

Lisbeth Salander, the girl of the title, is kick ass. And kind of scary. I don't think I'd be friends with her, but I would respect her and never, ever, piss her off. She makes this book worth reading, despite all its other faults. This is not great literature, it's a mess of a book with elements that made me cringe, but I couldn't put it down because of Lisbeth.

She almost takes too long to come into the story. Larsson makes us wait, and he almost lost me by starting out not with Lisbeth, but wi Lisbeth Salander, the girl of the title, is kick ass. And kind of scary. I don't think I'd be friends with her, but I would respect her and never, ever, piss her off. She makes this book worth reading, despite all its other faults. This is not great literature, it's a mess of a book with elements that made me cringe, but I couldn't put it down because of Lisbeth.

She almost takes too long to come into the story. Larsson makes us wait, and he almost lost me by starting out not with Lisbeth, but with a framing story about Mikael Blomkvist. Mikael is a reporter on trial for libel against a prominent businessman, and we get to learn a plethora of mind-numbingly dull details about financial shenanigans. For anyone thinking about reading this, don't sweat these details, just skim all this intro stuff quickly to get the basic idea. You won't miss anything.

Add to that a thicket of interchangeable (to me, anyways) Swedish names, an intergenerational family with too many members to keep track of that plays a central role, and details about how many cupboards there are in the kitchen that I didn't need to know (although it's cute that the author thinks I might want to know, maybe it's a Swedish thing?) and you have a book crying out for an editor. But I'm glad I persevered.

Lisbeth Salander is completely asocial, a computer genius, bisexual, and SO not afraid to use violence. She's a ward of the state with a mysterious past. Just like Mikael Blomkvist, who she joins forces with, we grow fascinated with her, and her ferocity. She's like Dirty Harry, she lives by her own code, which is not necessarily within the law. Something happened to her in her childhood, something evil, but what? WHAT??? I couldn't turn pages fast enough, and then I dived straight into the second book, to find out more.

The other mystery, about the disappearance of a young woman years ago, was interesting, too, but took a disquieting turn toward the end that I found overly sensationalized.

One last note: This book is not for anyone squeamish about violence towards women. I do NOT want to see the movie they recently made based on it, I had enough trouble reading certain sections, I don't want to see them depicted on screen. ...more

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Nov 17, 2008 Raina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, not-amerika

TBCD. Intricate mystery. Tells story of investigative journalist who has recently been shamed in the public eye. He's hired by a patriarch to find the answer to a decades-old mystery. In the process of digging up old family business, the journalist gets to know a young woman who's a hacker, whip-smart investigator, and alternative personality. S&M, serial violent crime, torture, financial scandal and mysterious flowers all crop up. Hot cover, great characters, engaging mystery. And it's translat ...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Rachael rated it it was ok · review of another edition

There have been a lot of good reviews of this book and while it was interesting enough to read all the way through, I'm not sure what all the raving is about. It seemed like the main male character was stereotypical in an old-fashioned detective kind of way: he had lots of sex with several different women and stumbled upon clues no one else could've ever figured out (sense the sarcasm here) just in the nick of time. I think Lisbeth - the female character who I presume is supposed to be the main ...more

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Jan 02, 2009 Agathafrye rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mysteries-thrillers

Phenomenal book. Lisbeth Salander is one of the most compelling female characters I've come across in quite a while now. The main character Mikael is also very likable as a journalist who struggles with professional ethics while he tries to do the right thing. Lots of great characters in this book, actually, including a dysfunctional upper crust family with a profoundly disturbing history. This is the first book of a trilogy that was written before the author's heart gave out on him far before h ...more

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Aug 31, 2010 Leonardo Etcheto rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Great book. Funny how it takes almost 300 pages for the two main characters to actually meet. Some pretty brutal scenes with plenty of depravity and the darkness of the soul on display. Loved the characters and despite the length of the book found it to flow very well, with a consistent high quality of writing and interesting story. This is one of those books that is a best seller because it is a worthwhile read.
2nd readthrough - my favorite of the series, I had forgotten how much the workings o ...more

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Jul 05, 2009 Nono rated it really liked it

Stayed up late reading and had to read more in the middle of the night. A good mystery with several compelling characters.

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Sep 21, 2010 Tracy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Slow to get into, but once all the scattered plot lines started converging, an on the edge of your seat read.

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May 07, 2011 UberApril rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: global-domination

I will never understand poly-amorous relationships!! But other than that, I absolutely loved the book. The ending wow!! It was disgusting, shocking, but there was justice. And all those open sandwiches I may need to try some of those combos. Once I got past all the key players and their background the story really picked up and I was engrossed. I wish the English translated book kept the original Swedish title. I liked it better than this one but I think the Swedish title would have been a big c ...more

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Dec 30, 2009 Janie rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, foreign

This book had the result -- a not uncommon one for this book, I understand, and intended (at least in part) by the author -- of making me feel mildly ooky about Swedes.

Good pacing.

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