The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage)
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Author: Stieg Larsson
- Publisher: Vintage
- Release Date: June 2009
- ISBN-10: 0307454541
- ISBN-13: 9780307454546
- List Price: $14.95
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryAmazon Best of the Month, September 2008: Once you start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there's no turning back. This debut thriller--the first in a trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson--is a serious page-turner rivaling the best of Charlie Huston and Michael Connelly. Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo. --Dave Callanan |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Left me wanting more...
Downloaded the Kindle Book on a whim, after seeing it all over the airport bookstores. The first chapter was slow building with Swedish references, which were a little difficult to follow. A wiki overview of Sweden made the story much more interesting for me. After the first chapter I was hooked and could not put the book down.
The story was fresh, with unexpected twists and a tough as nails heroine who keeps the male characters on their toes. Can't wait to read the next book.
Scooby Doo - Where are you?
The main mystery reminded me of a Scooby Doo episode - from the heroes putting together tenuous clues to the villain spilling all his secrets before he kills the hero to the ridiculous saving of the hero's life. I almost expected the villain to yell "And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you pesky kids!" as he sped away.
The secondary mystery was convoluted and boring. The characters are so flat and the writing is so bad that I don't have any interest in the cliffhanger third mystery. Much of the story is descriptive where it should have been dialog. For example:
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For five minutes they discussed Blomkvist's shortcomings in the most irritating terms. Blomkvist leaned back and pretended to be insulted, but he frowned when Berger made some cryptic remarks that might allude to his failings as a journalist but might also have applied to sexual prowess.
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If the author cannot come up with any witty "cryptic remarks", then maybe that paragraph doesn't belong in the book.
If the book had a good editing, some story lines and characters dropped, and the violent sex turned down, it could have been a passable Grisham clone. As it is, it was a very disappointing book and not the "literary masterpiece" the critics are raving about.
hard going
I had heard so much about this book that I couldn't wait to read it. I did think it was interesting, very different and did hold my interest. However, I also thought it was hard going and a bit tedious at times to get through.
A very solid addition to the genre
TGWTDT is, as one would hope, a fast and entertaining read, chock-full of suspense and unexpected twists. It is a thoughtful procedural with a well-developed -- and, for the most part, credible -- plot-line, and solid characters. I am rarely moved to read books straight through (I generally prefer dipping into several at a time). TGWTDT had me hooked from start to finish. One star docked for some instances of unnecessary sensationalism and a few less-than-fully-credible plot devices. Though I did roll my eyes from time to time as I read TGWTDT, for the most part I found it absorbing. Given the subject matter at the core of Larsson's novels, I'm not sure I 'look forward' to reading his other two, exactly, but I do plan on reading them for sure.
Bad translation?
A friend who read it in its original language loved the book, so I eagerly awaited the English translation. I read less than a chapter. The English is clunky. The expressions are dated, as though the translator learned English in the 1970s.