Will I love The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

I tell everyone I know that if they want a book with incredible character development, read The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.

This book is highly atmospheric. You can feel the biting cold, the fear, the pain. It also has characters with questionable ethics. It made me question how I feel about vengeance and retribution. Some of the content is very dark, yet it doesn’t feel sensationalized.

This is also a thriller with hints of a happy ending—at least, for some people—while also leaving some things uncertain or unresolved. I prefer a thriller to leave me hanging a little… show more.

I loved the mysterious, cold Scandinavian world Stieg Larsson encapsulates in this opening book, which makes this quality, slow-burn thriller a delight to get lost in. The characters are rich in depth, and I especially appreciated Lisbeth Salander, who has so many layers she is hard to define. She is a brilliant hacker, brash, angry, autistic, antisocial, and fantastic antiheroine who is the victim of horrible abuse but is incredibly resilient. It was great to read how she fought back and exacted her revenge.

Larsson expertly weaves together multiple storylines, blending corporate corruption, serial killings, family drama, and a chilling… show more.

...again, I fell in love with the main character (Lisbeth Salander)

This wonderful novel features a journalist, Mikala Blomkvist, searching for a highly respected, long-lost member of a notable family. Once again, government corruption is rampant in the investigation.

A special aspect of this novel is the introduction of Lisbeth Salander, a brash, tattooed young woman with an abrasive personality matched only by her singular skills. I loved this character, who is incredibly unique.

I didn’t get pulled into one character’s head in this book, but two. What I enjoyed most about this book is that the balance between the mystery and the characters’ struggles is equal throughout. I cared about both protagonists and was routing for them to achieve their goals (and defeat their enemies) while anxiously awaiting the resolution to the mystery.

While reading, I often had to stop ruminating about the kinds of people in the world. This book is dark, exhilarating, and sometimes horrifying–and I loved every page of it.

I love the pierced, tattooed punk/goth antiheroine Lisabeth Salander in this book. She is a survivor of abuse and takes pleasure in exposing abusers. I love Lisabeth because she is COOL and autistic–demonstrating that it is very possible to be both. She is a genius computer hacker with a photographic memory who lives to get vengeance on the bad guys.

Author Steig Larsson said he created a character ‘who was what Pippi Longstocking would have been like as an adult.’ As Pippi (the super-strong girl with a monkey who lived alone with a trunk of money) was my heroine as… show more.

This book blew me away! 

Lisbeth Salander, the lead female character, is one of the most beautifully drawn, exciting, indomitable, and powerful women I have ever read about in a story. She is not just strong, she is also brilliant – as a super-hacker on the internet to boot.

Thankfully there were two sequels as I could read book after book with her in it.  

I love this book (and the others in the series). Lisbeth Salander is most kick-ass autistic woman of all time (closely followed by Saga Noren from the TV series, The Bridge).

I found the storyline absolutely gripping, and awful at the same time. I was angered on Lisbeth’s behalf at the treatment she endures, and cheering at how she wins through in her uniquely autistic, logical way. An autistic hero if ever there was one. A truly great book that I re-read over again.

Powerful descriptive work here that puts you in situ.

It is a dark and mysterious book about a journalist who is asked to look into the disappearance of a rich Swedish industrialist’s niece. I love the complicated plot, which reveals the criminal and social injustices of modern upper society, the story of a young girl (with the tattoo), and the way she was treated by the privileged few.

I thought the characterisation, particularly of the girl, was excellent.

Lisbeth Salander is a fan of justice, and she doesn’t much care how she achieves it. Hacking? Check. Stealing millions of dollars? Check. Nailing a guy’s feet to the floor? Check.

She’s a smart non-conformist who doesn’t need a man to save her, but she forms a love/hate relationship with journalist Mikhail Blomkvist that continues throughout the series. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo layers their complexities on top of an age-old mystery in a twisted plot that keeps you guessing until the end.