Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Review

The Girl With the Dragon TattooThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Eighteen percent of the women in Sweden have at one time been threatened by a man.

One thing I'd like to say first. The title of this book is quite misleading. This book has much to do with a girl - but not quite much to do with the girl who has the dragon tattoo. The tattoo is mentioned once, I believe, and the topic is let alone. The mysteries of this book are not completely wrapped up, and so there are sequels. There were a few things I misunderstood about this book when I picked it up and I'd like to clear those up:

1. I thought it'd have much to do with the girl with the dragon tattoo (Salandar, her name is.), as I said above.
2. That it was Young-Adult. Trust me, this is NOT young adult. I'd suggest this for you if you're 16+ at least, there are some very disturbing visuals in this.

So, the beginning...
The narration in the beginning was quite hard to get into. After a few chapters, the story picks up though.

The Story...
So, Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist. He's hired to find out a mystery. A 36 year old mystery about a missing girl. With complications and other mysteries surrounding this, he tries to work out this historical mystery. What comes out of this mystery comes out as a surprise to many, and I'm sure it'll be a surprise to you too.

The characters...
Mikael. A financial journalist whose reputation has fallen, and so he takes the offer he's given (big bucks involved in that as well) to write a book containing the chronicles of the Vanger family, and (the real objective) to find out what happened to Harriet Vanger in 1966 when she disappeared. Not much to say about him, he wasn't a bore or incredibly exciting to read about...he was okay.

Salandar. Lisbeth Salandar. The girl with the dragon tattoo She's a mystery on her own until the end, hence the sequels I believe. Annoying at times, but mostly just full of secrets waiting to be revealed in the next book...

The mystery...
The mystery was...actually a mystery. It keeps you in suspense until the very end, and the things revealed are quite a surprise.

The Name and the Main Topic...
The original name of this book was supposed to be Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women) which is a MUCH more fitting title, in my opinion. Sad to say that the insane treatment of women that happened in this novel does occur in real life, still. Rape is still a big issue. I know of a girl who got raped a few years ago, and she reported it. Yet, no action was taken much to my dismay. At times, society and culture are still male dominant. And it's very trying for women then.

The narration got tedious at times, and Salandar gets aggravating, and GOD, the relationships were so...dysfunctional. Erika and Mikael's relationship...I won't even comment on that. *shakes head thinking about it*

Overall, a great mystery though. Much recommended to fans of mystery. Getting through the first part is hard, but the rest is a breeze.

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