Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Author: Stieg Larsson
Number of Pages: 644
Genre: Fiction, mystery, crime thriller
Where did I get it: Target

Summary from the back of the book:
Harriet Vanger, scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

So this book has gotten some pretty incredible reviews and I'm definitely glad I read it. I just don't know if I am quite on the Stieg Larsson train. The book was very enjoyable - suspenseful and mysterious with very engaging characters. The ending is excellent and will stick with you. But it still had its downfalls to me. Too much detail in some areas, not enough detail in others. The book opens with the main character, Mikael Blomkvist, being convicted of libel for writing a story with false information about a major financier in Sweden. I still have no idea what the finance plotline has to do with the rest of the story. The bulk of the story - Blomkvist's search for Harriet Vanger - is really good so I don't understand why the other stuff is necessary. It also takes a little bit of time for everything to come together. You know that Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander, the girl who becomes his partner in solving the case of Harriet Vanger, will meet at some point but it feels like it takes forever for that point to happen in the story. 644 pages is a lot...

My favorite character was Lisbeth Salander. She is one bad chick, let me tell you. She's described as being 4-11 and all of about 90 pounds, but she will take you out and you'll never even see it coming. She's a very complicated character and I found myself really pulling for her. Larsson doesn't go into a lot of detail about her past, but from what's told, you can tell she's been through some rough stuff and you can see a lot of internal struggle. I wanted her to succeed. I wanted her to win. She was awesome.

There are two more books in this series and I will probably read them, especially if Target has them on sale for 5 bucks like this one was. But I'll get around to them. There are other books I'm more interested in trying right now so at some point I'll finish out the trilogy. But overall, I liked this book.

Overall rating: 4/5

Coming Up Next: One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell
When a Queen of Society dies, a vicious scramble for her penthouse apartment at prestigious One Fifth Avenue ensues, and it's attorney Annalisa and her hedge-funder husband, Paul Rice, who land the palatial pad, roiling the building's rivalries. There's Billy Litchfield, an art dealer who slobbers over the wealthy; strivers Mindy and James Gooch, and their tech-savvy 13-year-old Sam, the most hilariously bitter (and strangely successful) family in the building; gossip columnist Enid Merle and her screenwriter nephew, Philip Oakland, who struggle to uphold traditions and their souls; actress Schiffer Diamond, who lands a hit TV series, and her old love; and Lola Fabrikant, a cunning Atlanta gold digger whose greatest ambition is to become Carrie Bradshaw. Here are bloggers and bullies, misfits and misanthropes, dear hearts and black-hearts, dogfights and catty squalls spun into a darkly humorous chick-lit saga.

Yes I am aware that this is straight up chick-lit and I'm already two chapters deep and I think I'm going to hate this one. But oh well - it'll be good for sitting outside on my fabulous new balcony furniture. I'm also just about done with an audio book. I got John Grisham's Playin for Pizza for when I drive to work in the morning and it's turning out to be a good audio book. A review is pending...