I really enjoyed this book and I only started reading it on a whim. I was tinkering around with the free services our public library offers and decided to check out their e-books. I saw the cover and recognized it as one I'd heard folks mention and it also happened to be on the most recent cover of the only magazine I subscribe to. I consider that magazine as my only true buy-in to pop culture- Entertainment Weekly. I like the quotes and reading about the upcoming movies in it and such. So I thought, why not download it and read something lighter for a change?
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo proved to be a fun mystery with interesting, flawed characters, some of which had a likability factor (yea for me). It explores the disappearance of a 16 year old girl from a wealthy family back in the 1960's in Sweden, researched by a disgraced journalist, at the request of the very old patriarch of this wealthy family that could not rest until he had an answer as to what happened to his beloved Harriet. Haunted by the delivery of a pressed flower on his birthday year after year, he is convinced that someone from the family murdered her and enjoys taunting him. It is an interesting plot and one that starts to boil as our journalist gets closer to the truth, aided by a socially inept, but brilliant-minded young lady that is lost, but a true independent and anarchic spirit that doesn't understand how to relate to others. There is some sadistic stuff in this book and also a fair amount of sex, though only once section that was uncomfortable for me and if you read it you'll likely have the same repulsion- necessary enough to the plot that it didn't feel vulgar and exploitive to me.
On top of the main plot, there is a sub-plot about the disgrace brought on the journalist and his attempt to right the wrong closes the book in a satisfying way. The two stories intermingle enough that the corporate intrigue here, while less captivating to me, still felt necessary and provided the vindication our hero journalist required.
The book is a neat, tidy package and felt like the kind of fun summer reading I was longing for. I plan to mix it up from here on out- a lil' classic reading and lil' fun reading. My reading palate craves both!
My wife just started reading this one and isn't sure what to think so far. Is it good enough to make you want to read the sequels?
ReplyDeleteI liked it enough that I will be reading the sequels. A popcorn read, for sure, not a ton of literary merit, but I thought it was fun. :)
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