The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was our April/May Book Club pick. Most everyone in our book club seemed to really enjoy it and rated either 4 or 5 stars on Goodreads.com, but as good as it was it was also extremely intense and at times very hard to stomach. It is definitely for an adult audience and I wouldn't recommend reading it at night when you're home alone! The paperback came in at close to 650 pages and it wasn't until page 200 that it started to grab me. There was a lot of setup and honestly I was grateful for the two separate story lines, because the half concerning Mikael Blomkvist's libel conviction was seriously too boring and informational for me. I just couldn't get into the whole Wennerstrom side of things.I'm on the fence about reading the sequel The Girl Who Played With Fire. It's the 2nd book of the 3 part trilogy and even reading the prologue and part of Chapter 1 from the end of TGWTDT, I could tell its going to definitely be another one that's hard to stomach. Apparently, they've made a movie on TGWTDT and its coming soon to theatres, but again I just don't think I could see it. Some people like that whole Hanibal Lector suspense thing, but I'm just not one of them. Still, a very captivating and intriguing read, but not my first pick for an enjoying read.
Description: An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
Rating: ****
Recommend: Not for the faint of heart. There is some intense sexual brutality that is hard to get out your head. Yeesh!
