The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Author: Stieg Larsson (Swedish, 1954-2004)
Originally published: 2005

Page count: 463

Dates read: 1/29/24-3/17/24

2024 book goal progress: 4 out of 24

Read my other book reviews for my 2024 goals HERE.




Description on back of book:

A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue. It's about the disappearance 40 years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden...and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.

It's about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance...and about Lisbeth Salander, a 24-year-old, pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age, who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism - and an unexpected connection between themselves.

Trigger Warnings:

-Sexual abuse

-Religious fanaticism and human sacrifice

-Abuse of power

-Manipulations, mind games, and threats

-Extreme violence and other crimes

Note: These are trigger warnings for the book, but this review does not discuss them.

First sentence:
"It happened every year, was almost a ritual."

Favorite quotes:
"Friendship - my definition - is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don't have trust, the friendship will crumble."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 6.6/10 - ⭐⭐⭐/5
Characters      - 8
Atmosphere   - 7
Writing Style - 6
Plot                - 7
Intrigue          - 10
Logic             - 5
Enjoyment     - 3
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:

I read this book in high school, over 15 years ago (wow, I'm getting old). All I remembered was Salander's mini-story at the beginning of the book and absolutely nothing else (I honestly question if I finished the book the first time around), other than a general weariness due to extreme violence, which led to a hesitancy to reread the book. I decided that was a long time ago and I've changed/grown a lot since then, so I was going to give it another chance. I wish I hadn't. This is an incredibly disgusting book.

I was sickened by most of the book, nonetheless, I got sucked in and it definitely was a page-turner for me. The description says it's a love story, but it most definitely is not. There are 3 non-traditional lovers, and none of them turn into actual love interests... and none of them are all that interesting.  Some choices of the protagonists seemed illogical, and other choices I vehemently disagree with. We're introduced to sooo many characters that are only around for a brief time and then not really mentioned again (Detective Morell anyone?). Also... I really wanted to like Salander, but I just couldn't... and, thinking about it, there isn't any character in the book (of which there is an incredibly large cast) that I particularly liked. Salander's dragon tattoo was mentioned in passing, but had no significance in the book, and don't understand why it turned into the title of the story since I also wouldn't consider her the main character either.

The ending was not satisfying and the book overall was unnecessarily long. The main mystery was enough of a story that could then be broken into the stories of finding out the truth about 2 particular people. On top of the main mystery, though, there's the story of the: magazine Millennium, businessman Wennerstrom, and Salander has two mini-stories of her own, one towards the beginning and one at the end. All of which felt like unnecessary fluff and filler by the time I finished the book. When I got to the ending, I simultaneously thought, 'That's it?' and 'Thank God I've made it to the end. That was way too much.' By the time the main mystery was solved, it felt like a chore to finish reading about Wennerstrom. The main mystery should have been its own sick story... and then if Larsson wanted to make a story out of the other pieces, they should've been their own book. The book definitely draws you in, but, honestly... I don't recommend it.

Personally, I avoid much of the news due to it being incredibly depressing, and I can't do anything about it (government, economy, climate, crime in general, etc.). This book, though fiction, read like a true story to me. I believe that things like this exist and I couldn't help but think of Epstein, as well as other, still living, billionaires of the world today... and what their unknown activities are. I also thought of the American government trying to censor freedom of speech by banning TikTok (a Chinese company), controlling Facebook/Twitter (American companies), and more. My final quote touches on that a bit.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Stieg Larsson have the last words:

"It would be deplorable if the special interests had the power to silence those voices in the media that they find uncomfortable."

Replace 'special interests' with government and/or billionaires/big business. Translation:

It would be deplorable if the government, billionaires, and big businesses had the power/money to silence the voices in the media that can point out their shady business practices and/or outright criminal activity. (Keep in mind that much of the media today is run/controlled by those billionaires in question.)