The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Steig Larsson
Format: Paperback
Price: $1 (used)
Price: $1 (used)
How I heard about it: I had heard of it when the movie came out, but my dad had picked it up in an airport and said it turned out to be pretty interesting.
Basic Premise: Reporter Mikael Blomkvist is hired by an old business giant to chronicle his family tree and help him write his autobiography, but his real mission is to discover whatever became of his favorite niece, who disappeared mysteriously thirty-six years ago. What he discovers is more involved - and far more sinister - than anyone could have imagined.
My Take: 5 out of 10 (scale here)
I could really take or leave this book.
It was incredibly slow in the beginning. I mentioned that on my Facebook page, and several people chimed in. It seemed like about half the people thought it was horrible and abandoned it, and the other half LOVED it and encouraged me to keep going. I kept at it, mainly because I had a sick kiddo who napped a lot and I had time. The constant flood of business and economic talk was a bit much, but what really bothered me was all the sex, and there were two types in this book, neither of which were the good kind. The first was sexual violence. There was a lot of very, very disturbing sexual acts in this book. They were not glorified - they were treated as heinous, and well the should be, but still, it was a bit much for me. The other kind was casual sex, which the characters engaged in constantly and as if there were no consequence, physical or emotional. I understand that this is not a novel for kids, but I can't help but think what a young person would take away about sex if they read this book. Add it to the ever-growing list of ways our society mistreats sex.
The book did have some redeeming qualities. It was a page-turner (after about page 200) and it was quite the mystery. There were only two elements to the story that I saw coming, and they were relatively small. As I always am after reading a book that's been turned into a movie, I am interested in seeing the film, but I am wary of the graphic violence. I will have to research it before diving in to that one.
List progress:
Parenting with Love & Logic by Jim Fey
Silver Star Jeannette Walls
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins
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