Customer Reviews
Ummm, what I think of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'? - By: V. Salih, 13 Mar 2010 
Hello,
We chose "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" for our book group. It took a little while to get into & I confess I skimmed much of the "technical" finance jargon at the beginning but then I REALLY got into it & loved the book. It was a tense thriller & whodunnit! I'm really looking forward to seeing the film too, although they're rarely as good as the book. It's great there's 2 more books to enjoy, sad that Stieg isn't around to enjoy it.
Fascinating read - By: Ailsa Mackay, 11 Mar 2010 The beginning of this book was very hard to get into & the first 40 pages were heavy going but from there onin it is brilliant with engaging characters, a well thought out plot & people you actually cared about.
Cannot wait to start the second book of the trilogy.
A Superb Read - By: Dennis C. Coakley, 11 Mar 2010 No sooner had I put down 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' than I had to get hold of the 'The Girl Who Played With FIre'. Lisbeth Salander is a magic character. The problem with a magic character is that the narrative sags a little when she isn't it.
There are three gripping plots within this one great book. So interesting that I hardly noticed the translation awkwardness. I mourn the loss of Mr Lasson.
I could not put it down - By: Erik Cleves Kristensen, 09 Mar 2010 Whenin Denmark on vacation, everyone was talking about these books. Knowing that I don't often enjoy Danish bestsellers, & that I thought the whole story sounded a bit strange, I was not attracted to it until a good friend, who is usually very trustworthy on books, highly recommended it. I bought the book for a transcontinental flight, & was absolutely unable to put it down!
The main characters, Mikael Blomkvist, Lisbeth Salander & Henrik Vanger are all imperfect & with their own quirks (in particular Ms. Salander, who really comes out as the most fascinating characterin any thriller I have read), but are weaved perfectly into a story that kept feeling evermore closer with many references to so many things that are "everyday life" if you livein Scandinavia. At the same time, the thriller & detective story was hair-raising, & kept me just wanting to read on!
Doesn't Have to be Technically Perfect - By: Coltrane, 08 Mar 2010 
I did wonder what all the fuss was about until I got 200 pages into it, & then, when the whole story about the missing girl kicked in, it all made sense. The main investigative plot was like Agatha Christie on a good day,in a bad mood. I particularly loved the investigation into the photos. It reminded me of the scenein Blade Runner when Deckard is zooming into the photo for clues into the whereabouts of the replicants... And here it was toldin an engaging, precise, & convincing way.
I also loved the twists & the revelations, & I thought they were totally worth waiting for.
But - & there's always a but - there were a few things wrong with the novel. Minor things, like the translation, which wasn't anywhere near as bad as a lot of people have said (if you've read Miss Smila Feeling for Snow, you'll know what I mean), a few cliches, & some cheesy dialogue - but all those things didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. Not too much anyway.
Not even the way the main character fell into bed with one of the suspects, or even the other main character, Salander, impaired my enjoyment too much because, let's face it, most genre books suffer when it comes to their love stories. Although, I have to say, when the two main characters met up for the first time mid-way through the book, it WAS a really pleasing moment, but was then spoilt five pages later he said to her, 'You have beautiful eyes,' & she replied, 'You have nice eyes yourself.' That was a definate 'groan' moment for me.
The other criticisms I had was that after the main mystery is solved, the novel then dragged on for another 100 or so pages, which might have tied up the other story strands, but was completely boring none the less. I also found Salander's character bordering dangerously on the unbelievable, & found it hard to work out what she was really about. At turns intelligent, then dumb, I'm sure she was supposed to embody some complex contradictions, but there were times when this didn't work for me. (I read a review about the second book to see if I should carry on with the series & found out she get's herself some big breasts - so there goes your feminist interpretation [and no, I won't continue with the series purely based on that big-breasts-as-significant-character-development-rubbish alone]) Another thing I didn't like was the cliched way the killer bragged about what he'd done while pin-pointing his own motivations for doing so - this just sounded like the crumby bitin the Bond film when the bad guy boasts about his plan to take over the world just before Bond escapes.
Having said all that, TGWTDT was a really enjoyable novel, & was worth the four stars I've given it, despite it's flaws.
