Reviews

A good story. But I wasn't enjoying myself until I was more than halfway through. Larsson's writing leave plenty to be desired for me. Part of it may be due to translation, but much of it was due to to much exposition and too little action.

Also, for much of the first part of the book the "girl", Lisbeth Salander, is present only tangentially and her role in the main action is unclear. It seems a strange way to introduce the titular character.

I just can't understand the massive popularity of the book. The writing was quite difficult for me to get past and I was hanging on because I had to know what was so great about the book that made everyone love it so much. It's hard for me to imagine trying to read it when it was new and there wasn't much hype behind it yet.

Will I read the other books? Yes, I really want to follow Salander's story. Will I buy them? No, the library is a great resource for this. I would not pay any money for writing like this.

cdlx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

kirstenrose22's review against another edition

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2.0

Well, put me in the column for "just don't get all the hype". While the main thrust of the novel is very compelling and readable - and even hard to put down - there are a multitude of problems herein.

To wit:
* yet another Mary Sue protagonist (who gets to have sex with everybody). Yawn.
* weird structure (and/or poor editing) - the lengthy tie-up at the end was basically unnecessary, but Mary Sue needed it, I guess.
* interminable product placements. Sheesh. So you like Apple/Macs, do you want a medal?
* BORING characters. People really think Lisbeth Salander is the most compelling, best thing ever to appear in print? Y'all need to get out more (or read more). I found her incredibly frustrating and difficult - even though, yes, she does kick ass. I need more than that, though.
* the sexual violence. I don't even object to that, per se, because it is arguably necessary to the book (sort of) - but it was the presentation that totally skeeved me out. Namely, the section in which scenes of the main female character getting raped and assaulted were intercut with scenes of the male character romping in bed with yet another lover. That in particular left a bad taste in my mouth, which lasted for the entire rest of the book.
* the ending - like, the very last page. *EYEROLL*

And yet I couldn't stop reading. Go figure. I certainly don't need to read any more of these, and have already canceled my hold at the library on the next one.

ETA: I must say, I dithered and dithered and dithered between giving this 2 or 3 stars - and finally decided that I had enough negative things to say that I should round it down.