Author: Stieg
Larsson
Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Description: Because
of my prodigious TBR pile, I’m always late to the party with extremely popular
books (well, with any books, but no one has read the others). So I already knew
a good bit about this one going in, and I realize that many will have already
read it. Briefly, a disgraced journalist is hired to look into a decades old
case of a missing girl.
Plot: This is one
of the rare books where plot was more important than character for me. I loved
the tight plotting and the pacing with which Larsson revealed new clues and old
secrets was just about perfect.
Characters: The
two main characters were the journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, and Lizbeth
Salander, an independent researcher. Lizbeth is, of course, the girl with the
tattoo. The fact that the book is named for her gives some indication of her
importance to Larsson, though she is definitely secondary to Blomkvist in this
book. I did have some problems with Blomkvist, or maybe with Swedish morality
(or lack thereof). It struck me as extremely odd that Blomkvist quickly entered into
fairly intense relationships with women he hardly knew after they came on to
him—he came across as passive and totally emotionally absent. The women, of course,
all fell in love with him.
Writing style: It’s
intense. This isn’t one of them cozy mysteries.
Audience: Yep,
it’s a mystery and it’s got that sexually fueled violence that turns my stomach
faster than anything else. If you can handle that, though, it’s a rewarding
read.
Wrap-up: I loved
this book from start to finish, despite being reluctant to pick it back up
during certain harrowing sections. Can’t wait to get my hands on book two. 5/5*
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