Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - 龙文身的女孩

I finally picked up book 1 of the Millenium series and I was not disappointed.

The girl with the dragon tattoo (or, the German title "Verblendung", as I read it in German) is the first book in Stieg Larsson's critically acclaimed Millenium series, a slew of books that deal with Mikael Blomkvist, founder of the independent paper "Millenium" (no doubt the reason why this series bears its title), who stumbles over a mystery in book one that he cannot quite let go of. Not exactly because he wants to solve it out of curiosity, but because the "owner" of said mystery, a millionaire named Henrik Vanger, pays him a hefty sum after an article gone awry. Instead of Mikael seeing himself without a job after he's gotten himself into legal trouble over defamation, he gains a simple job: pretend to write a family chronicle while in fact digging for the root of another mystery that has plagued an old man for years: What happened to Harriet Vanger, who vanished off a closed-off island in 1966?

Off to a slow start, Larsson gives himself a good 100+ pages to set the entire stage for his mystery but after the pace picks up, there's not one quiet moment for our MCs who could not be more different: Mikael is soon joined by Lisbeth Salander, a young 24-year-old woman who could not be more different to him if she tried. These two, when finally meeting on-page, make for an iconic if strange duo that mainly functions because Mikael simply accepts everything Lisbeth throws at him and Lisbeth thrives from the freedom he provides her through his actions. After upping the pace like that, Larsson's gritty mystery continues until a finale that left me devouring the pages at breakneck speed. I also fully appreciated the way he doesn't simply cut off the story when all is said and done but gives his characters and readers a chance to catch their breath in his final act of weaving every last bit of story together.

I'm eager to read book two, The girl who played with fire, this month and I hope to continue thinking rather highly of this series!

Content Warnings

laurenleigh's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

For the most part, I was very engaged with this book. I enjoyed the cold case mystery element and the locked-room/whodunnit style. But then there were all these other elements to the text I didn’t love. The last two hours of this audiobook, after they wrapped up the mystery plot, felt completely unnecessary and even boring. And then there’s Lisbeth Salander. I can’t decide how I feel about Larsson’s writing here. On one hand, he seemed to want to shed light on violence and discrimination against women, especially in Sweden. And a good well-rounded character should keep me guessing. But there were some aspects of her character and her actions that rang untrue or even a bit sexist. And was all the graphic sexual violence really necessary? It felt gratuitous at times and was honestly pretty distressing. I knew this text was dark, but yikes, major content warnings abound.

Content Warnings

sbaryluk's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Content Warnings

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