25 & Trying

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

So I know what you’re thinking:

She read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Just like everyone else in the world. It’s not a very original choice, but after numerous recommendations from friends and fellow Starbucks-goers, I was convinced I had to give it a shot.

I read the entire book within three days, but I don’t know that it can be considered 150% fast-paced. The language is uncomplicated, and lacks many metaphors or poetic stylings. Some parts actually read more like a news article than a book.

The plot itself is a fairly uncomplicated affair, with a journalist (Mikael Bloomkvist) being accused of libel, and retreating into a northern village, where he is hired to investigate a murder that happened many years ago in the family of the Vanger Corporation.

Accompanied by an unlikely partner named Lizbeth Salander, Bloomkvist eventually solves the mystery, and in the process we are introduced to Stieg Larsson’s character development that I seemed to struggle with a great deal. Salander, for whom the novel is named, is a character whose boundaries are not fully pursued. She is incredibly smart, investigates crimes and people with a scary level of accuracy, and has a LOT of emotional baggage. Her ability to work well with Bloomkvist, whose character felt a bit like toast without anything on it, is the only thing that made me interested in the relationship.

I know that Larsson’s book is part of a trilogy, so it’s hard to expect that all of the character flaws can be explained in the first book, but I wanted more. I think one of the things I DID like about the book is that it is extremely honest in its’ portrayal of crime — it isn’t sugarcoated or Hollywood-ized. It just is descriptions of violence in a way that adds to the raw appeal of the book.

The plot does move swiftly, and although there are some unnecessary tangents about the extent of financial corruption in Sweden, the book was a good read for me. It explains a lot about what people look for in a mass market paperback: gore, a little bit of intrigue, and some good old fashioned murder.