The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

 This book has intrigued me for the past several years. I’ve never gotten around to actually adding it to my “want to read” list, since I had never really bothered to learn too much about it. However, my local library had it available as an audiobook, so I started listening to it during work/chores.

The audiobook is narrated by Simon Vance who did a wonderful job narrating. However, due to the way the book was set up, it was very difficult for me to follow the different story lines in the first half of the book. Despite the difficulty I had following along initially, I’m glad I listened to it, as the names would’ve been very challenging for me to pronounce in my head, which would’ve been frustrating for a while if I were reading this first. I plan to go back and actually read the physical copy (or ebook) in a few months.

The story line was very interesting. It follows a financial journalist named Mikael Blomkvist as he works to uncover the truth of the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, who is the neice of Henrik Vanger (one of society’s wealthiest men).

As I mentioned before, due to listening to this book instead of reading it, it was difficult at first to understand how the different story lines of all the characters meshed together until they were all in the same room together. Despite this, I found myself getting lost in the story and the backgrounds of each of the main characters. The detail provided for how the murder mystery arc came to be and how it was solved was, in my opinion, fascinating and exciting. However, I will admit it took a bit before the pace of things really started to get going – but I promise it’s worth sticking it out if you’re finding it difficult at first to get interested in this story.

The beginning of the book starts out with the main character losing his court case, which at first seemed trivial to the storyline, but was carried through every now and then, and came full circle towards the end.

The characters were well written, each of them flawed in realistic ways, none terribly exaggerated, which made them relatable in their own ways.

The book focuses heavily on misogynists, but not in an outlandish, over-the-top kind of way. They just keep popping up throughout the story in ways that make sense to the plot and aren’t just shoved in there for some social statement, which made them more believable as characters. The presence of the misogynists also helps the reader to develop sympathy for Lisbeth Salander, a character that is difficult to understand throughout the majority of the story (but I think that’s the point).

Never before have I read a book that has a murder mystery, love story, jail time/court case, family drama, and financial journalism melded into one novel. It sounded like a lot, but Larsson made it work…he made it work very well.

I enjoyed this book so much that I’ve already checked out the second book to read (ebook this time!) and am already 25 pages in 🙂

***I will add that there are some rather graphic scenes throughout this novel – there are a few rape scenes, several mentions of incest, and descriptions of murder. If any of that resonates too heavily with you, then you probably shouldn’t read this book, as those arcs play heavily into the character development and progress of the story.

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