The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

click here for more details, find new or used items	Stieg Larsson Our price £2.99 (£7.99) New from £2.05 Used from £3.17 Pages: 542 (Paperback) ISBN: 1847245455 Pub: Quercus Pub date: 2008-07-24 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 2

Reader Reviews:

Interesting enough (0/0 people found this helpful)

I bought this book amid the hype and honestly thought it would be a better read. It was entertaining enough but I found it very cliched. The plot wasn't very believable nor was the character of Lisabeth, whom I don't particularly like, but who I felt I should like (and wanted to like and cheer her on).
I felt that the novel had great potential but the ending let it down, it was a bit farcical. Another thing that annoyed me was the use of people's surnames all the time. Vanger did this and Vanger did that......
However, having said that I did enjoy it and bought the next book in the trilogy, so it can't have been all that bad.

OK buts that's it. (0/0 people found this helpful)

If you have read the Wallander books then you will soon discover that Henning Mankell is infinitely better at his art than Stieg Larsson was. There is nothing original in this book and Mankell has indeed previously covered some of the avenues travelled down by Larsson. Having said that, Larsson's prose is adequate enough to keep you entertained although I can't help feeling that this book could and should have reached its denouement at least a 100 pages before it actually does.

Good holiday reading, fascinating heroine (0/0 people found this helpful)

Girl with the dragon tattoo is an entertaining quick read. It's your basic triller, it won't give you new insight into anything, but you will spend some very enjoyable hours turning its pages.

It's a bit slow to start, and dwells too deeply into the family history of the Vangers. I had trouble keeping track of what seems be about a hundred people in the Vanger family tree, but thankfully you could do without. Now, I understand that it tries to build a very full picture of the family history, but was that absolutely necessary? The mystery itself is well constructed and interesting. You really are given a lot of details about it, and you can easily visualize the scene around the mystery in vivid detail, leaving your imagination free to think of all the things that might had happened.

The characters, all in all, were well developed and interesting. I found especially the heroine intriguing, she's antisocial and has at best dubious morals. But her story is told as the story goes on and you understand why she acts the way she does, and the choices she makes which often are not ones your "normal" person might make. The hero was also reasonably interesting, if a little bland compared to the heroine.

You can see the writers background of journalism, with phrases like "By 10.00 he was home, and he would read until 1.00 or 2.00 in the morning", I found it slightly frustrating of using exact times in this way, when they weren't representing actual specific times. But overall it suited rest of the writing, so I'm not holding it against him.

Now I'm not saying it's a literary masterpiece. Yes, it has flaws, but you have to view it in its category, it's your basic triller in the category of Da Vinci Code. No, there is no meaningful insight into really anything, but it is enjoyable read. I read it thru very fast, so yes it kept my interest. So, perfect for a holiday or to read in the morning commute.

Flawed, but still a good read. (0/0 people found this helpful)

Stieg Larsson's novel is by no means perfect but it does have its high points, the subject matter of industrial corruption is chillingly relevant as well as the sexual sadism inflicted on people even in this age. Unfortunately the ending is an anti-climax considering everything the characters have been through, but it does nicely highlight the conflict between a journalists' responsibility and the confidentiality of the subject he writes about. THe translation from Swedish to English doesn't seem to effect the reading as badly as some reviews have said, however the beginning of the book was very dry which will be off putting to some readers. Don't let this influence your decision though, persevere and you'll find a Scandinavian gem to add to your bookshelf!

Hoorible (2/5 people found this helpful)

They kill a cat and cut it to pieces. This is terrible. What a nasty book!

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