30 January, 2018

REVIEW: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson


Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Author: Stieg Larsson
Series: Millennium #1
Genres: Mystery, Fiction
Publisher: Norstedt
Release: August 2005
Source: Kindle Edition
Pages: 658

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BLURB: 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.

EXPECTATIONS: This trilogy had been sitting in my TBR for 10 years... I thought it was about time to finally read it. I watched the first movie (the scandinavian one) and I liked it a lot so I was expecting to like the book even more.

THE WORLD: Normal world. It takes place in Sweden.

CHARACTERS: There are two main characters and POVs. One is Mikael Blomkvist, a middle age journalist who specializes in politics and outing corruption, and the other is Lisbeth Salander, who is 24 I believe, and she's been always in trouble which caused her to be seen as disabled and unable to take care of herself... she was put under social care. I think this book focuses a bit more on Mikael but we get a fair amount of Lisbeth too and to be honest I think Lisbeth is a much more enjoyable character. She's a badass. 

ROMANCE: Oh there is romance. Explicit romance.

GOOD: Of course, the plot. It had to be the plot. It's amazing and the twists! Phew. I loved the plot.
I also liked a lot Lisbeth's character and how amazing she was. I loved how all the characters had some depth and were not just cardboard (well,. some of the very secondary ones were a bit bland but it's okay).

BAD: Never thought I would say this but... the characters. Not because they're badly written or boring or anything like that! They're actually very complex and well-written but they're just... frustrating. I found myself judging them all the time, and I mean ALL THE TIME. Even when I didn't even want to judge them but their decisions were just wrong through the whole book.

An applause for having morally gray characters and amazing I-want-to-kill villains though. Ugh, the villains. I really really wanted them dead and tortured.

OVERALL: 4 stars. Great plot, great complex story, amazing I-want-to-kill villains. Awesome main character that is Lisbeth but still... I couldn't help but judge them all the time for being stupid and doing stupid things. That took away a bit from my experience of the book but I loved it anyway. I also recommend watching the Scandinavian version of the movie because it's a pretty amazing adaptation of the book.


What do you think about THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO?

 

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