Review - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / The Girl who Played with Fire (750 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.06 on 31 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by JesterLilt (View user info) at 2009-03-30 08:56:50 EDT
I've read a lot of books. I love reading and the best books for me are the ones that grip me so entirely I lose sight of my own existence. Being held from page one so utterly, work, food, showers and the toilet become completely irrelevant and irritating interruptions.
This is how I felt about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the Girl who Played with Fire. These books were written by a Swedish author, Stieg Larsson, who tragically died of a sudden heart attack in 2004 at the age of 50. The books are part of a trilogy but unfortunately, the third has yet to be translated into English.
The books follow Lisbeth Salander, an introverted woman / computer hacker held under the Guardianship system in Sweden. The Guardianship system is a social care system for people who are declared unfit to take care of their own interests. A person is assigned to take care of their finances and also to provide accommodation and support for the person under their care. I was trying to liken it to something we might have in the UK but I can't think of anything other than always being considered a child in the eyes of the law.
The first book sees Lisbeth working for a security company as a private investigator / researcher. Her services are requested as a researcher to Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist for a controversial magazine Millennium. After writing a seemingly slanderous article about one of Sweden's highest profile businessmen, Mikael serves a jail sentence followed by exile from the journalistic world. He's contracted by Henrik Wenger, another prestigious businessman to investigate the disappearance or murder of his niece, which has been a lifelong obsession for him. Mikael is reluctant to take the work and is doubtful that he will uncover any new evidence relating to the girl's disappearance. He becomes hopelessly tangled in the Venger family history uncovering more than he bargained for. It begins in the pointless pursuit of a missing person and ends in the hunt for a sadistical serial killer. By the end of the book, Mikael and Lisbeth are entangled in their own love affair.
The second book sees Lisbeth and Mikael part ways. Mikael has a reputation as a lady's man and Lisbeth fell unrequitedly in love with him. Her tact was to cut all communications with the man feeling he would do her more harm than good. Shortly after, three despicable murders are pinned on Lisbeth and she becomes the subject of a national manhunt she has disappears; her only contact maintained through Mikael's laptop and her ability as a computer hacker. This book leads the reader back into the history of Lisbeth and how she came to be under Guardianship. It's a story of prostitution, human trafficking and some of the upper echelons of Swedish society involved in these activities. The police become increasingly confused getting one report from Lisbeth's psychiatrists that she was a prostitute has a serious mental illness, drug problems combined with very limited intelligence contrary to the reports from her employer and friends painting her as a genius with bad social skills but a keen sense of right and wrong.
Very rarely have I been so captivated by story telling and characters. I can't do them justice here but the way the plot never becomes boring and the emotions and intrigue inspired by the characters is truly breathtaking. I could not put these books down and I'm almost angry I have to wait until the end of the year for the English translation of the third to come out. I thought there wasn't much better than the first and then I read the second... I hear the third is an even more tantalising literary feast than the first two if that's possible.
There has also been a Swedish film made, just released in February. As yet, there are no plans to premiere it in the UK, Australia or the US. I'm worried that Hollywood is going to pay big money for the rights to desecrate probably some of the finest literature available by calling in the 'Orange Mobile Phone Squad' as directors and casting something totally inappropriate in the realms of Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulther in The Golden Compass or Matt Damon as Jason Bourne.
I would definitely say read these books. I'm not usually a sucker for the criminal genre and like to spend most of my literary time in sci-fi / fantasy / just plain odd nerd land but these caught my attention more than completely. Thanks to my bro for passing these along.
User Reviews
Submitted by MissedMe (user info) at 2009-07-27 16:40:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2009-04-21 17:23:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Non-posting suckboy, below.
Banjo. post more stuff.
Submitted by madisonlouis (user info) at 2009-04-20 10:31:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Submitted by Banjo (user info) at 2009-04-01 13:37:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I'm not dead Orphelia.
------------
shame
Submitted by orphelia (user info) at 2009-04-01 13:39:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Thank GOD I even broke nearly a years silence and mailed andy
I was that concerned
scourge would have wept for oyu
you doofus
Submitted by Banjo (user info) at 2009-04-01 13:37:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I'm not dead Orphelia.
Submitted by orphelia (user info) at 2009-04-01 12:23:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
BANJO - check you inbox re the helicopter crash PLEASE Lx
Submitted by Banjo (user info) at 2009-04-01 10:12:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I read the books. Bourne was no Matt Damon and there was no mobile phones. There was no sign of a cold war, Russians, proper spying, Carlos the Jackal... it sucked!
Submitted by TuTs (user info) at 2009-03-30 23:25:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I have wanted to read these for a while now. Btw, what was wrong with Matt Damon as Bourne?
Submitted by i_can_get_you_a_toe (user info) at 2009-03-30 16:17:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
pretty boring review.
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2009-03-30 13:37:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2009-03-30 13:20:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
done
Submitted by Toddler (user info) at 2009-03-30 13:14:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Book readin' makes me sleepy.
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2009-03-30 12:26:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
on the list.
Submitted by Banjo (user info) at 2009-03-30 11:41:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I will send them in audiobook, braille and large print when you are an old man, blind and/or hard of hearing scourgey doo
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2009-03-30 11:38:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i'll add them to the list.
they come in at about numbers 23,456 and 23,457.
if i retire now i might be able to go everywhere i want and read all the books on the list before i die.
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2009-03-30 11:30:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.frigginrandom.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/paddle-faster-banjos-crazy-dog.jpg
Submitted by RoadSong (user info) at 2009-03-30 11:27:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I would read these books...and what a cool tat!
Submitted by sage104 (user info) at 2009-03-30 10:57:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yay fun books!
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2009-03-30 10:52:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Absolutely zero interest from this neutral observer.
Submitted by Ducky (user info) at 2009-03-30 10:14:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked this review; the books sound interesting.
Submitted by Banjo (user info) at 2009-03-30 10:09:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
And I dunno sico, like me or loathe me, it's all the same. I've decided I don't mind you so much, in fact, never have done but did enjoy getting on your tits every now and then because you were always good for a bit of argumentative boredom relief. What can I say, sometimes I just feel like being a difficult irritating bitch.
Submitted by Banjo (user info) at 2009-03-30 10:04:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yes well, you're more complex than simply dinner, beer and the football. I figured pasting a pair of human elephant balls to you in a ghey orange t-shirt was the only way to go about it.
Submitted by SgtHartman (user info) at 2009-03-30 10:01:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
once I finish the two books I'm reading right now, I will certainly check these out.
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2009-03-30 09:59:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Okay, read it. Will look into the books. Now tell me, am I supposed to like or loathe you?
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2009-03-30 09:51:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I didn't read this but I'm supposed to be a Banjo lover now, right? Or was that someone else?
Submitted by Banjo (user info) at 2009-03-30 09:41:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I have a problem...
I fell face first into a man size cheese grater at the weekend tearing said boobies to tatters.
On a tangent...
Also at the weekend I saw an outdoor urinal in the middle of the main street with men pissing it and also a big puddle of piss at their feet dribbling down the pavement into the distance. It is possibly the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. As I walked along the street I realised that every second door had been pissed against. Aberdeen is a shithole. I cannot believe the people here care so little for their city.
Submitted by orphelia (user info) at 2009-03-30 09:35:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
don't be so dull and bookish, camwhore your boobies, live a little.
Submitted by sandmantate (user info) at 2009-03-30 09:29:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Not my kind of story.
Submitted by EmissionImpossible (user info) at 2009-03-30 09:20:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
WELL Im CERTAINLY Going to go out anD ignoRE THis book!
Submitted by Banjo (user info) at 2009-03-30 09:04:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No, I'm a bit past book reports. Just a couple of books I felt like sharing.
Submitted by abdansner (user info) at 2009-03-30 09:01:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
book report?