Larsson, Stieg: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005)
Written by: Stieg Larsson
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 107/590 (Trade Paperback)
I'd seen the book before, but never gave it much thought until a friend of mine's mom recommended it to me. Normally, this isn't cause for much excitement, but she'd read books upon my recommendation before and loved them, so I figured we might have somewhat similar tastes. Combine that with solid Amazon reviews and the rather tragic story of how the book (the whole trilogy) wasn't published until after the author's death, and I couldn't resist. Especially when Amazon had it on sale at the time.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue.
It’s about the disappearance forty 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 twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age-and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it-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.
It’s a contagiously exciting, stunningly intelligent novel about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a brilliantly realized cast of characters, all of them forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.
Review style: So as you can tell, I didn't finish this one, so don't worry about any spoilers. I'll discuss what made me put the book down and why, and I won't even bother with a cut, because this review is THAT short.
My Rating
Couldn't Finish It: I felt bad for not finishing this, considering it was recommended to me personally, and that it's gotten so much acclaim. I even skipped to the end and skimmed around to figure out what the big twist is (which is a BAD SIGN when you feel the need to do this in a MYSTERY), and even figuring out the twist, I couldn't say I cared (of course, how could I, since I didn't spend the whole book wrapped up in the mystery?). Here's the problem: generic prose that I've read a billion times by a billion different authors, prose that can sometimes capture your imagination but prose that will bore you pretty quickly if the story doesn't deliver on SOMETHING cool ASAP. What's frustrating here is that had I not bought the book on the strength of recommendations and Amazon reviews, if I'd actually read the first few pages, this is a book I would've put back with a clear conscious. The journalistic styling makes for a boring intro, a boring style, especially the constant referral to characters as their last names. I also couldn't stand the narrator overseeing this, and the editorializing that went along with it. If there were an actual voice being the omniscient narrator, that would've worked, but there wasn't. Everything felt painted with the same generic brush.
There also might be something to be said for the translation, that any style and rhythm found in the original Swedish text has been irreparably lost. I don't know, and I won't ever know unless someone unbiased reads both versions and tells me about it. But as it stands, it reads generic. Even Lisbeth Salander, who caught my attention at first for being brutally smart and honest and punk, lost my attention pretty quickly, which is a bad sign. So given the height of my TBR pile, I put this one down and moved to the next title on my 2009 unread book list. While I know others have devoured this book, I could barely make myself reach the 100 page mark. Oh well.
Cover Commentary: LOVE IT!!!! Bright colors, bold font, and I love the way the tattoo kind of cuts through the title. It's just cool, and I wished I'd liked the book for the cover alone. :)
Next up: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher