A review by ricksilva
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This had a lot going on, including a fairly deep dive into Swedish finance and journalism, that the author somehow manages to make fascinating. The plot and backstory is very complex, but the two main characters shine through it all brilliantly.

I particularly liked the handling of nontraditional relationships involving both main characters as well as several of the supporting cast.

The story has several moments of extreme violence, including sexual violence, which are that much more shocking because they punctuate long sections of very slowly building tension as the main characters do detective work to solve what seems at first like the coldest of cold cases.

The author manages to wrap up a hugely tangled mess of threads and characters into something that is satisfying in the end, but never so much so that it gets wrapped into a perfect happy ending.
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