Reviews

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

anveshjain's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

sam_hartwig's review against another edition

2.0

So I have finally got around to reading, well listening to this. Way before the hype, a staff member I work with at the library told me I have to read this book because it's so good! So of course I gave it a go, only to have read about 50 pages and not understood a single thing. I found that the names confused me and it wasn't easy to read so I gave up. So now, I decided to get the Audiobook version to see if it was any better than reading. The first disc was boring and it didn't really make much sense to me but now that I've finished the book I can understand why that was part of the story. And I'm so glad I did get it on Audio because I didn't have to worry too much about name pronunciation. One thing that annoyed me was how characters weren't always called by the first names - Larsson would swap from calling them their first name, then their last name. For example one minute he is calling Henrik Vangar - Henkrik and then later he's called Vangar. It got very confusing because it happened with most of the characters and I feel it's even more confusing because the names are Swedish, I think it would be different if they were common English names. I know that sounds really terrible of me to say but it's the truth! The only character I really liked was Henrik Vangar, I thought he seemed like a cool old dude - I didn't feel anything for the other characters.

There are 17 discs for this Audiobook and the tenth disc didn't work! So I had to skip about 30 pages of the story, this was so frustrating because the story was just starting to get interesting. (Just so you're aware that was the tenth disc, so that's more than halfway when the book JUST starts to get interesting)

I don't feel the need to read or listen to the other books, instead I read the plots on wikipedia and I'm quite satisfied with that. In the end this book was OK. I don't know why it got so much hype, the mystery was interesting enough but I've read better mystery novels. Oh and a little side note, the main character Mikael Blomkvist has too much coffee and too much sex, he is anybodies! I can totally see why they picked Daniel Craig to play him in the American version of the movie. I am looking forward to seeing the movie version so I can compare them.

A huge warning for people who haven't read this and are thinking of giving it a go - there is a very graphic scene in it which I didn't think was all that necessary to the story but it was explained at the beginning that a high amount of women in Sweden get sexually assaulted so maybe it's common to have that sort of things in Swedish books...

Also on my blog http://love-sami13.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/whats-all-fuss-about.html

ultimatekate's review against another edition

4.0

It took me awhile to get into, but this turned into a really good detective book. I'm excited to read the next one in the series!

lilcogle612's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

5.0

fernanda_figs's review against another edition

5.0

One of the best series I have read. Every detail keeps you wanting to turn the page. You feel for the characters and it’s just plot twist after plot twist.

meggypie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

morgainlafeye's review against another edition

4.0

I very much loved this book. I loved the writing, the pacing, the character development. I enjoy your main character (or one of them?) Isnt a traditional female. I have rarely read a translated book and been so aware that is wasn't originally in English. I really enjoyed all the small cultural references.

amandalyn's review against another edition

3.0

I did end up liking it in the end, but it took me so long to get into it that I'm only giving it 3 stars.

tigerxwasp's review against another edition

4.0

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would.

It took awhile to get going but once it did I was hooked.

boseags's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0