Rating: 3.5 stars
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been on my to be read list for a really long time. I’ve heard about this series for so long, seen posters of the books around train stations. I never knew what it was about but there was a huge hype surrounding it. I thought it’s about time I read it. This is actually my 4th attempt at reading it. The first three attempts was when I was reading it on and off, not really getting into the storyline yet; basically I read chapter 1 three times!
To summarise, this is about Mikael Blomkvist who once a respected journalist is now a disgrace to the publishing industry, after being accused of libel with Hans-Erik Wennerström. His life is looking quite bleak, when Henrik Vanger calls out of the blue one day and asks him to solve the mystery of his missing grandniece Harriet Vanger, who disappeared without a trace four decades ago. Blomkvist enlists help from Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood computer genius, as they work together to gather clues to solve the missing pieces to the puzzle.
I agree with what everyone says, the original title ‘Men who hate woman’ is very fitting to the book because that's what its about. I know the original title does sound very misogynistic. My problem was this book was that is really really slow in the beginning, there was so much background information that I really didn’t care about but I found that it was significant part to the story. I have thought about giving up when I reached a quarter of the book because I was getting uninterested, but I gave it a chance. I knew you need patience to continue reading before the mystery starts to unravel. Blomkvist and Salander don’t meet until chapter 18! That's halfway!
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is about many topics aside from the crime itself. It was about Swedish culture and society, involving business and politics.
When I got halfway of the book, I was hooked! I got really into the storyline and wanting to find out ‘whodunnit?!’ Mind you, this is only the second crime/mystery book I’ve ever read. Blomkvist and Salander make a great team at uncovering the clues and connecting these clues to new evidence. One of the interesting mysteries was the names and the numbers next to them. No one knew what it meant for forty years! Originally it was thought to be phone numbers but it wasn’t and it was actually Blomkvist’s daughter who actually cracked the code for him.
There are some disturbing parts in this book, like r.ape and the murder. The sexual assault scenes between Lisbeth and her new legal Guardian Nils Bjurman, it was really uncomfortable to read about. Salander got her revenge. This girl has got BALLS for what she did to Bjurman in the end. I liked that Lisbeth did something about it and not let him get away with it. Lisbeth is a very different female protagonist from all the ones I’ve read about. She’s very complex and troubled, yet intelligent. She was the interesting character of the story.
SANDWICHES AND COFFEE seems like the only things they eat!
I tell you what was one of the creepiest things about this book, these Bible quotes. It does send a shiver to my spine. They were really creepy :s Blomkvist found out that these bible quotes were linked to the r.ape and murders of women during the 60s. The descriptions of what happened to these women sounds really horrific. Blomkvist and Salander’s investigation led to a serial rapist and murderer. When the person was unveiled; I should have seen it coming, as Henrik Vanger did mention that he definitely knows that it’s someone in the family who did it. It’s always the one you least expect.
Anyway, to wrap up this review, I did enjoy this book but I can only give it a 3.5 stars because there were many dull parts that I ended up skimming because there wasn’t a point in me reading it. Overall, I liked the side mystery of the story, it really interested me in learning about the Vanger family and who was involved in the disappearance of Harriet in the series of photographs during their investigation. This book requires patience. I’m not a really patient person but I have this strange patience for books, as that's the only why I can find out if I like the book or not.
What I established after reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was that I do enjoy a good crime/mystery novel, as I don’t read enough of them! But I don’t think I’m going to pick the next two books. I might or might not.
Have you read this book? Let me know what you think of it in the comments.
Love Han x
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