The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

User Reviews

The first half of the book is tough to get through and I almost gave up but my wife pushed me on promising it gets better and books two and three in the series are must reads. And so many people were raving I figured I couldn't just give up. I'm glad I kept going. There are just so many characters with difficult Swedish names to track that is what made the first half of the book tough for me....but once I got in the groove there was no looking back. The next book in the series is better...(I saved it for precious vacation / beach reading)and I look forward to number three! -- The next one is even better

I am so glad that I finally found some bad reviews for this book. I was beginning to feel like a pariah--sort of like how I felt when I appeared to be the only person in the world who hated the movie, PRETTY WOMAN.

With all due respect to those who have practically a cult-like love for this book--I just don't see the appeal.



-----------These examples may contain some spoilers------------------------------

Our hero is a man-bimbo who is simply irresistable to women of all age groups. I know it's Sweden; but his "relationships" are simply vapid, empty, and defy believability. He is such a passive, agreeable little ho. We never even know if he is attracted to the women who can't help but seduce him. Even an angry, anti-social, asperger suffering, vigilante, bi-sexual, who never even talks to anyone, starts seeing white picket fences when she is in Blomkvist's presence. Even though she has just suffered a violent, brutal beating and rape by a sadist that would have killed any other 90 pound, 4'11" woman, she is able to nonchalantly seduce the passive Blomkvist just days later.

The author spends about one paragraph on Blomkvist searching his soul over ignoring his daughter for years on and wraps it up with the very profound sentence on about page 600: "Blomkvist was a bad father." Oh well. The next sentence he is back to the cabin being a compliant little man toy.

And the plot!!! Oh my. Defies silliness. From the get-go it is just assumed that only a dead body could have been sneaked off the island. And why consult with Harriet's former best friend/cousin, who happens to work for an airline and travels internationally (hence the pressed flowers)?--when you could solve a mystery by tracking down various angles of obscure photos from 36 years ago? And some people can live happily ever after, even after enduring the most egregious of violence as a child--and never bother to report the crimes even anonymously.
------------------end of spoiler----------------------------------------------------


One-dimensional characters, silly detective work, very convenient clues and everything falling neatly in line from 36 years ago. The redeeming value of the book is only in the last few pages. But even that is just too, too contrived. I feel a little bad for dissing this, since the author is dead and can't defend himself, or maybe didn't get a chance to edit.

If you want good character development, plot and mystery, read Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine or Margaret Atwood.
-- wooden characters, plodding plot

So, I finally get around to reading this INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON. Where to begin? Hm... Well, first of all, it's really poorly written. The writing style is trite at best, often choppy, full of unenlightened cliches, red herrings and loose ends that never get tied. As far as the plot is concerned, the mystery is fairly predictable, and the plot "twists" utterly unoriginal, except to say some of them are just DISGUSTING for the sake of being disgusting. People make a big ado about how the female protagonist is such an "original creation" and a heroine of post-modern feminism, blah blah. No. Lisbeth Salander appears to be just one of Larsson's (many) ways to exploit and glorify rape and female brutalization. By the way, the book's title in the original Swedish is "Men Who Hate Women." That's right, even the original title sucks. At some point, Lisbeth decided to sleep with the OTHER (utterly unimaginative) main character (who smells oddly of Larsson himself, and yet is apparently a walking aphrodisiac) only to first lament in the mirror the fact that she allegedly has no boobs. Seriously: a heroine for the ages??? Also, what's with all the product placement in this novel? Was Larsson getting kick-backs from Apple? I guess we'll never know now...

Watch the Swedish film instead, which is much better than the book, seeing as it's free of Larsson's crappy writing and many of his pointless "plot details" (most of which involve everyone having sex with the Larsson stand-in anyways). -- Why has the world lost its collective mind over this dreck?

once i got passed all the boring politics....wow. i couldnt put it down. read the next in immediately...then the last one. i hated to put them in my archives. the character salander is spectacular. -- steig larson masterpieces

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is boring. If you can make it past the 600+ mind numbing expierence, you are rewarded with a clever ending, but getting there takes time, lots of time. It kinda reminds me of Tale of Two Cites. We have to discuss the grass before discussing what is happening on the grass. Regardless of what Hollywood says, this book is crap and you should just wait until the Americanized movie. -- One star for the ending