It's not often that I read books just to see what the fuss is about... and I suppose technically that's not the reason I read this one. My husband read the book to see what the fuss was about, and then put it on my 'to read' pile, which I dutifully did.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a mystery thriller that is set in Sweden. If you're anything like me this means you will spend most of the book wondering how the character names and places are actually supposed to be pronounced. But it's quite interesting to read something set in a different country from time to time.
The plot revolves around a struggling magazine and a mystery that one of its editors is hired to solve. Henrik Vagner hires Mikael Blomkvist (see what I mean about the pronunciation?) to investigate the disappearance of his great niece decades before. Vagner is convinced the girl was murdered by a family member, and so begins the real mystery. Along the way are several side plots and a large cast of characters.
Lisbeth Salander (the girl with the dragon tattoo) plays a fairly minor role for a fair chunk of the book, which confused me a little as I was reading. It was also annoying as I found it easy to remember details about her whereas some of the Vagner family and magazine workers got muddled in my head. Although there were a large number of characters only a few had more than a superficial personality given to them, and I have to admit that I wasn't all that impressed with the character development generally.
I enjoyed reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and was interested in the solution to the mystery. Reading the last section was great for tying up lose ends, but by that stage I wanted to finish so it seemed to drag a little. Although I read large parts of the story at a time and found the plot interesting I didn't really grow attached to the characters, and as such didn't feel like I was leaving anything behind when it ended.
The acid test is always reading more books by the same author. In this case I probably will read the other two books in the Millennium trilogy, but it won't be a big priority for me just yet. I feel bad for sounding so negative, but it may just be that I've fallen in love with so many books lately that one that I merely enjoyed just seemed a let down. Guess you'll have to read it yourself to judge!
No comments:
Post a Comment