Friday, September 23, 2011

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Borders up and died and I basically got this paperback for almost nothing. I never had any interest in this series (trilogy, I think) not because it's blockbuster bestseller but because it's a blockbuster bestseller. Make sense? The masses aren't always right (Hello Twilight).

I still don't think the masses are right. I read the entire book but I just didn't get the appeal for the majority of it. It seemed very slow going and didn't seem to find it's speed until near the end, but it was a good enough story that I kept reading.

The original Swedish title is Men Who Hate Women and boy howdy, that's an accurate title. Are all Swedish books this horribly violent?

Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist who is on trial and convicted of Libel against a bigshot financial guy. He didn't defend himself and takes the fine and jail time. In another place, Lisbeth Salander is a strange woman who is an excellent researcher and runs profiles for a security company. Lisbeth has issues but for the majority of the book, I didn't think she was likable. Maybe she wasn't supposed to be but I do kind of want characters to root for or something. Anyways, Blomkvist is hired by Henrick Vanger to spend a year out in the country and write the Vanger family history....oh and to unravel the mystery of the missing Harriett Vanger.

It was a decent enough story that really exploded towards the end. There's a serious debate going on in my head about whether to read the remaining books. To be decided....