The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Book Review

As a person who judges books by their covers 85% of the time and refuses to read inside flaps: it will come as no surprise that this book was no exception. Although, this time, while the cover was intriguing it was actually the movie trailer that spiked my interest. Nearly a year ago I saw the trailer for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and I instantly knew I wanted to read the book. Aside from an action packed movie trailer, I really had no idea what it was about. Contrary to what you might have thought me capable of, I neither speak nor understand Swedish. The movie is made with subtitles, not included in the trailer, otherwise it is completely Swedish.

It was only this past month that I finally got around to reading the book. When I started reading I was slightly annoyed, mostly with myself. I didn't understand the financial gibberish; money, politics, more money, stocks, fraud. . .the book might as well have been in its original Swedish. That was short lived, though, I decided to keep reading and not worry about understanding everything.

This is a story written by a truly gifted and complex person. Stieg Larrson must have been incredibly intelligent. It is sad he was unable to live to see the success of his books.

If I never go to Sweden, I may have been there through this book. His ability to describe the country in which his characters live so vividly is admirable. The characters themselves leap off the page, eager to claim their stakes in the real world, not just the book world.

Lisabeth was such an intricate character. While she was not easily accessible to the other people in the book, she was to me as the reader. The pain, the “introvertedness”, the anger, were so real and easy to relate to. Where is this girl? I'd like to befriend her.

The mystery kept me reading and thinking. I was eager to solve it along side of Mikael and Lisabeth. I really appreciate that this book, while happening in the span of a year, moves along. Many books written like this, you're stuck reading 20 – 40 pages of nothing. The author manages to have the story last a year, but have the plot continually moving as well. Each part was an intricately woven piece of the story, never boring.

This book is quite possibly one of the most Adult books I've read. I will warn you that it has the elements of: Sadism, Graphic Murder, Sex, Incest, Torture, and Perverted Sexuality. This does not take away from the story's (nor does it add to it really) level of liking, but it is important to me personally to point out such content as disturbing.

I plan to read the other books and to finally watch the Swedish version of the movie. It will come as no surprise that America will be making their own version. American filmmakers don't like to be left out. I'm confident I'll like the Swedish version better. You've heard it before, I'm sure, that things are always better in their original language.