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|  | Author: Stieg Larsson
Creator: Reg Keeland
Publisher: Vintage
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $6.00
as of 11/22/2009 04:59 CST details
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Rating:  610 reviews
Sales Rank: 27
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Pages: 608
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0307454541
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.738
EAN: 9780307454546
ASIN: 0307454541
Publication Date: June 23, 2009
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Showing reviews 591-595 of 610
 Didn't quite live up to the hype... September 14, 2008
Rhianna Walker (Northwestern US)
13 out of 18 found this review helpful
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is a young hacker named Lisbeth Salander. Everything I had read about this book had indicated that she was the leading character of this Swedish story. When I picked it up, however, the story seemed much more to center on Mikael Blomkvist. A disgraced financial journalist, Blomkvist is facing a jail stint and possibly the crumble of his magazine. It is at this dark time that Henrik Vanger, a wealthy, retired industrialist and his laywer contact Blomkvist with a proposition.
Reluctant to get involved, eventually he is made an offer he can't refuse. A chance at some information that he can use build a case that will clear his disgraced name. Convinced to come live near Vanger under the guise of writing Henrik's memoirs, his real mission is to investigate the murder of Vanger's neice, Harriet, who went missing fourty years previous. The mysterious circumstances of Harriet's dissappearance suggest that she had to have been murdered by a member of her own extended family. For months Blomkvist makes very little headway in the investigation and the elderly Vanger takes ill. Will the mystery by resolved before Henrik Vanger passes on? A very lucky break in the case brings Blomkvist to a point where he needs a research assistant and Vanger's lawyer calls in Lisbeth Salander, whom he had hired to investigate Blomkvist before Vanger hired him.
The two make a rather smashing duo, their respective strengths complimenting one another as they begin to make strides in solving the mystery behind Harriet Vanger's murder. But when it all unravels will they find out more than they bargained for? Who killed Harriet Vanger and has everything they thought they knew about the Vanger family been carefully woven lies? The skeletons in the collective Vanger closet certainly pop up in this international best-seller.
Unfortunately I didn't find it to be much of a page-turner. I had read great things about it both online and in Marie Claire magazine before picking it up. I could count everything I knew about Sweden on one hand before reading this book. In some ways that made this book a challenge and in others it made it educationally interesting (one of the reasons I was excited to read it!). The late author, Stieg Larsson, knew what he was writing about. His own involvement in financial and political issues within Sweden served as research material. At times I found his lengthy delvings into some of this information tedious to read but it was obvious he was quite passionate about the subject.
The mystery within the story was well crafted and for the most part the characters were believable. I found the seperate storylines of Blomkvist and Salander a bit frustrating since I had been lead to believe she was the main character. Many other readers have pointed out what a great character she is. She is indeed a very interesting figure and the story could easily have been written with she alone as hero(heroine). I think that could be why I found the book to be just "okay". It felt like the primary focus on Blomkvist, his issues and his relationships to be unrelatable enough for me to sympathize and truly be interested in him.
As a final note I would like to make mention that (and this may be spoilerish depending on how you view this sort of information) there is a fairly graphic scene of rape in this story. I am a bit sensitive about reading that sort of thing in such detail and almost stopped reading the book because of it. I wish I had been forewarned so I could have been mentally prepared for it and offer this spoilery information with only that in mind... to warn sensitive readers of this content.
 Best Book of the Year September 13, 2008
R. Crane (Washington, DC United States)
155 out of 176 found this review helpful
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a masterwork of fine craftsmanhip. When I reached the final page I was disappointed that there was no more to read. I did not want the story to end. The characters are too intriguing for this to be the end. Apparently this was the first novel in a trilogy by the brillant writer, Stieg Larsson, who unfortunately died in 2004: the book contains a tribute to him and his career. I cannot wait to read the sequels scheduled for release in the USA in 2009.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an international best seller and is set in Sweden. It takes a little effort to get accustomed to all the Swedish names and places but then the story moves with lightening speed. There are two key plots happening simultaneously. In one, a Swedish financial investigative journalist publishes a libelous attack about a powerful industrialist and is sentenced to jail, fined a ruinous sum, and has his career torn to shreds. Another industrialist, Vanger, hires the journalist to investigate the 36 year old disappearnace of his then 14 year old grand niece. There has been no trace of her in all these years and she is assumed dead. Yet, every year on his birthday, he receives a mysterious gift of a pressed flower, mimicking a gift his missing grandniece used to give him when she lived there. Vanger, an old man, is tormented by the flower gifts, and wants one more chance to find out what happened to her and who killed her. What the journalist uncovers about the Vanger family's hitherto unknown secrets and connections to the Nazis, will have you hanging on the edge of your seat.
The book is titled after yet another character, Lisabeth Salander, a societal outcast and social ward of the State, uncivilized without any desire to obey societal norms, and replete with piercings, tattoos, and a goth/biker appearance. In short, at first glance a totally undesirable and unsympathetic person. She is a researcher with a corporate security firm and ends up working with the journalist. In truth, she is a survivor of abuse in all forms with low self esteem, and an inablity to trust. She is a genius with Asberger's Syndrome, a form of autism, who sees patterns in things ordinary mortals miss and uses incredible computer hacking skills to accomplish her goals. She is fascinating: ruthless and tough to a fault, yet internally vulnerable, struggling to comprehend her own feelings. She has an appeal that draws you to her, rooting for her, and wanting to understand her. Lisabeth is unforgettable, unlike most characters that populate mystery thrillers. There is such depth here.
The book is a thriller on many levels: The story about the Vanger family itself, the journalist's crusade to redeem his reputation, Lisabeth's vendettas and development, and of course, the truth about what actually happened to the missing Vanger heiresss. This is a superb novel and impossible to put down. Utterly stunning. Probably the year's best book. SUMMER 2009: SEE MY REVIEW OF THE SEQUEL, "THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE", ANOTHER OUTSTANDING BOOK.
A Solid Read That Keeps You Turning the Pages September 12, 2008
delicateflower152 (Texas)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Initially, I thought I might have made a mistake getting this book - the first 30 or so pages seemed to plod along. While I thought about giving up on the book, I didn't and am delighted to say things only got better.
After the initial set-up, the characters developed as interesting individuals in their own right. Solander, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", was a fascinating individual whose dark past colored her reactions to and interactions with the other characters. I wanted to learn more about her, but Larsson left that to be discovered in later books. A complex individual with a remarkable talent for technology, Solander is searching for her humanity and seeking to reclaim her soul. Her espionage-like activities throughout the book add dimension to the story and help move it along.
Blomkvist, the male protagonist, seems more ordinary; his character has been done before. As the somewhat jaded reporter who prizes ethics, his journey is familiar. Hired by the head of a powerful family, the Vangers, to investigate what may be a murder, Blomkvist's deepening involvement with the family is central to the book's progress.
This book is well written and, once the pace picks up, is one the reader does not want to put down. I am normally not a big fan of crime stories or murder mysteries, but this book is one I will definitely recommend. There are enough unexpected side stories to keep this from being just another ho-hum who-done-it. The writing is crisp and intelligent, the story just different enough to keep the reader wanting to know what happens next, and Solander is someone you want to learn more about.
well plotted story, not so well written September 11, 2008
liat2768 (dallas)
3 out of 9 found this review helpful
Let me say first and foremost that I knew nothing about Larsson before buying this book. Yes, I know, ignorant on my part. But when I picked up this book I read it without any bias of knowing his fame as a journalist and activist and so judged it purely on its my impressions of it as a book.
The main character, initially is Mikael Blomkvist - an investigative financial reporter who has been sued and convicted of libel. He gets invited to visit Henrik Vanger, past head of an extremely successful family owned corporation. Vanger is seemingly obsessed by the disappearance of his niece decades earlier. This is a bit of a 'closed room' mystery - all the possible suspects were confined to a certain area at the time of the crime so there is a complete pool of possible perpetrators. Blomkvist's job will be to figure out who may have murdered the neice.
The other character in the book is Lisbeth Salander. She works for a Security firm investigating people on the behalf of clients. The second half of the book seems to quite solidly become Lisbeth's story. She and Blomkvist make an odd but interesting team. They unearth many a family skeleton in the Vanger cupboard and much more than they had bargained for.
My first impression was that the book was very poorly written. The language is very sparse - no imagery, very little flourish to the words. This is not necessarily a bad thing but I found the events and the characters simply did not come alive for me. Emotions seem to be missing in this book and the events are listed quite factually. The characters reactions and feelings are not often described and it gives it, overall, a cold atmosphere. But perhaps it lost something in translation??
I'm afraid that I did not find the story so gripping that I could not put it down or such that I am eagerly awaiting the release of the sequel. There will be three books in this series and while I am faintly interested to see what happens to the female protagonist I'm afraid that I will not be reading them to find out.
Page-Turning Who-Done-It... September 11, 2008
D. Kanigan (CT, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The story is set in modern day Stockholm, Sweden. Mikael Blomkvist, managing editor of a magazine and a slayer of corporate criminals is hired by aging industrialist Herik Vanger to solve the mystery of the disappearance of his niece more than 40 year ago. He is aided by Lisbeth Salander, superhacker and superslueth who is described as:
"Armansky's star researcher (Lisbeth Salander) was a pale, anorexic young woman who had hair as short as a fuse, and a pierced nose and eyebrows. She had a wasp tattoo about an inch long on her neck, a tattooed loop around the biceps of her left arm and another around her left ankle. On those occasions when she had been wearing a tang top, Armansky also saw that she had a dragon tattoo on her left shoulder blade. She was a natural redhead, but she dyed her hair raven black. She looked as though she had just emerged from a week-long orgy with a gang of hard rockers...she never talked about herself. Colleagues who tried to talk to her seldom got a response and soon gave up. Her attitude encouraged neither trust nor friendship, and she quickly became an outsider wandering the corriders of Milton like a stray cat. She was generally considered a hopeless case."
In their investigation, they find some "ugly worms under the rocks" - best not to say more and give up the story. This is a captivating page turning romp - from front to back. You are in suspense for the entire ride with triangles and tangles of fascinating and unforgettable characters and relationships - and power, corruption, financial manipulation, web and privacy issues, violence, justice, morality and sexual passion - all combined for a terrific story...couldn't put this book down until I was finished.
Showing reviews 591-595 of 610
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