Review Me Twice - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

This is the second time that I've read this book, and as I started to reread it, I realized WHY I liked it.  It's interesting and engaging, and Larsson can draw you in pretty awesomely, if you ask me.  He knows how to give you just the right amount of information.  That's kind of what makes an amazing mystery novel: knowing how to pace it.

I also LOVE Lisbeth Salander.  She's very independent, but still manages to make connections with people in her own way.  I really like when she becomes FRIENDS with people, because it's so hard to break into her little inner sanctum and so few people do it.

However, Larsson's book has a lot of drawbacks.  For one, if you are an American reader (which... on this blog, most of us are), it's a hard book to get into.  I remember the first time I read it, I was so off-put by the opening scene that I almost put the book down.  There's a lot of jargon that we, as Americans, don't really grasp the concept of (we're not really a libel kind of country).  There are also so many NAMES to keep track of in the beginning of the book and they're all very, well, Swedish.

Not to mention, this book is very adult.  There's a multitude of sexual relationships, not to mention rape and... some pretty awful and vicious stuff that happens.  That didn't deter me in particular, but there are a lot of people who wouldn't care for the graphic content.

I still love the book, though, and I'm still glad that I reread it.

My bottom line 4 out of 5.

I'll tell you right off the bat, I didn't finish the book. I feel like I didn't make much of a dent at all, but to be fair, I had to get the large print copy from the library because, even after several years of popularity, it's still flying off the shelves. I know; how do you  not finish a compelling mystery? But it happened. Sorry.

I can attest to the fact that I love the beginning. I've always paid close attention to how an author hooks the audience, because I've always had a hard time myself deciding where and when and with whom my stories should start. This one is great. You expect, from the title and whatever else you know about the book, to jump right in with the titular Girl, but instead you're reading about this guy who gets flowers on his birthday every year. What even? It's great. And that's just the prologue... the first chapter is yet another non-titular-girl scene, talking about some journalist and a court case and whatnot. (Clearly, Cassy and I disagree on this point, because I was totally hooked.)

We do agree on the Swedish names. It's difficult to keep track of lots of characters when their names are entirely unlike those from your culture, unless you're ridiculously familiar with that particular culture. It's why I have a really hard time with Asian literature; I don't know the names well enough to easily discern them. (And I don't pay close attention to names in books in the first place; I can get lost dealing with John and Mike and Sam.)