#11: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Larsson, Stieg: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. New York: Knopf, 2008. Print. 465 pages.

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SETTING: December 2002 - December 2003, Stockholm and Hedestad, Sweden (along with other various towns/cities in Sweden.  Hedestad is a fictional town).

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SUMMARY: Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced journalist, is persuaded to take on the task of solving a 40-year-old murder mystery involving a member of a wealthy Swedish family.  Blomkvist hires Lisbeth Salander, an unconventional surveillance agent, to help him with this task. 

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FAVORITE QUOTE: "Three days later she delivered a report which, with equally exhaustive source references, transformed the outwardly pleasant young yuppie into an unreliable bastard." - Chapter 2, page 34.

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I've consistently heard positive things about this book (and both movies), but for some reason I kept forgetting to place it on my mental "to read" list.  Luckily, while at the public library near my parents' home, I saw the bright yellow spine staring out at me from the sea of books on that shelf.  I immediately picked it up, started reading it, and became attached.

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Things I liked about this book:

1. The female protagonist, Lisbeth Salander.  The first comment everyone who has read this book makes is how awesome she is!  And I am no exception.  I think we all want to adopt a small portion of Salander's personality, mostly because she is completely disconnected from everything around her.  Although I'm sure it's a lonely existence, to some extent it also seems liberating.  When someone is at the point where she is in life, he/she is able to just do for themselves.  Here are a few bullet points behind why I think she's awesome:
• She's totally independent.  There are many negative points and life experiences that influence her independence, but her independence is awe-worthy nonetheless.  It's not weak to rely on other people, but her level of independence is borderline kick ass.
• She's intelligent.  SUPER intelligent.
• She's a go-getter.  When she has a goal or plan in mind, she is guaranteed to follow through with it.
• She has a closed off personality, but at the same time, her personality allows her to just be.  She is who she is.  The end.
2. The overall story.  It's a fun and addictive read!  A planned hour at a coffee shop down the street turned into three hours and me finishing the first half of this book...
3. Great character development, especially with the male and female protagonists.  I ended the novel with a satisfactory understanding of their personalities.  
4. The dates associated with each chapter.  You get the opportunity to grasp exactly how much time is passing and when in relation to the year-long commitment Blomkvist makes to solve the mystery.    
5. Takes place in Sweden.  Allowed me to become the tiniest bit more knowledgeable about Sweden and Swedish culture.

Things I didn't like about this book:

1. It's graphic!  Yes, you need the graphic descriptions for this book to be what it is, but I did not enjoy reading those parts.
2. The beginning seemed to drag on.  I found myself growing impatient for the background information to end and the real story to begin.  The background knowledge is necessary to understand the present events in the novel, but I would have appreciated a more condensed version.
3. Some parts, especially in the beginning, seemed a bit choppy, which is probably due to the fact that the two protagonists' lives had not yet intertwined in the story line.  The author went back and forth between their lives a bit too hastily, and I think it could have been presented with a bit more finesse.

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I went straight to the library after finishing this book with the plan of checking out the second in the trilogy, but, alas, someone had beat me to it!  As soon as the second book is within my reach, I'll make sure to check out the third at the same time so I won't have to experience this break in reading the trilogy again.  I am a big fan of series, and tend to read them all in one go if given the opportunity, especially in a series like this where I've found myself totally rooting for the female protagonist and desperately want to know what the next step in her life will be.  In the meantime, my plan is to watch the European film adaptation of the book (that's the version on Netflix instant) and I'll watch the English version as soon as I have the opportunity to do so.
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Recommend?  Yes!