I loved it. I can't say I have ever read a book that would be classed as a thriller and as I began reading it, I wasn't aware of what I was in for. It was at times disturbing but it all applied to the story. It wasn't just a shoot em up and then goes nowhere. There are twists and turns and times where you smile to yourself and times where you gasp!
Looking forward to reading Girl that Played with Fire.
Wish Mr Larsson was around to enjoy the success of his novels!

Like the Da Vinci Code I expected nothing more out of this extremely popular series than a quick and entertaining read. Well, that is exactly what the series delivered. It was surprisingly sophisticated and kept me up until 4:00 am almost every night. These are the perfect books for the cottage or a relaxing vacation.

«The Girl With The Dragon Tatto» is a charming novel. Lisbet Salander is an endearing caracter, strong and unique that feminists will adore! The book has two stories and both got an unexpected end. I wasn't able to stop reading from the middle of the book! Nonetheless, I think the translation wasn't very good.

I've heard and read many complaints about Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:

1. It's misogynistic.
2. It's packed with cliché.
3. It's too convoluted.
4. It's too disturbing.
5. Lisbeth wasn't autistic enough or was foolishly autistic.
6. There were too many red herrings, and the damn Nazi red herring didn't have the usual payoff.
7. Too/Two many plots.
8. Too hard on Leviticus.

I will answer these in a moment, but first I must declare that I am an unrepentant fan of this book. This is one of the rare times when I long for Chapters/Indigo to have half grades, because I would love to give this 4.5. I can't give it a full 5, though, because I sense Mr. Larsson's series is going to grow in his last two books.

And now...back to the top eight complaints:

1. Perhaps, but how can a book whose original Swedish title is "Men Who Hate Women" avoid misogyny? It can't. But at least the misogyny present is a comment on misogyny. Larsson isn't being misogynist. He's attacking misogyny.

Moreover, our hero, Mikael Blomkvist, is not one of the men who hate women. He is a pretty good guy, actually; in fact, he's one of the rare guys I would actually categorize as a "good guy" in most modern literature. Sure...he's a bad Dad. Sure...he has a failed marriage and many sexual relationships. Sure...he makes some decisions that challenge his ethics. But he remains a "good guy." He tries to do well in an ugly world. He never succumbs to cynicism. And he genuinely cares about all the people in his life. Male and female.

And it's not like Berger and Salander are weak women -- far from it. There may be misogyny in Men Who Hate Women, but it is wholly the characters' misogyny -- those who have it -- and not the author's.

2. Cliché, smiché! Yes there's some cliché -- maybe plenty of cliché -- but who cares?! Seriously? We're not talking about Proust here. We're talking about a mystery novel, a serial killer who-dunnit. Complaining about cliché in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is like complaining about "pinko sympathies" in The Communist Manifesto.

There's communism in Marx? Really? You think!?

3 & 7. Yep. There's a couple of distinct plots here, but there's a level of verisimilitude to that. Have even our banal lives ever had anything important happen without something else important occurring at the same time? Not mine, and to have multiple incidents happening simultaneously makes sense to me. The search for Harriet Vanger wasn't hampered at all by the Wennerström drama, and vice versa. And to be honest, I loved having a pair of mysteries solved in the same novel.

4. Too disturbing compared to what? It's nowhere near as disturbing as American Psycho, and it's about average as far as the serial killer genre goes. Plus, I think there is power in the graphic moments of this novel, particularly Lisbeth's vengeance on her guardian. I am not on her side when it comes to this vengeance, but I understand it, and the drive to take vengeance in such a way -- such a human way -- fascinates me. Who'd have thought that the Swedes have it in them?

5. Perhaps this is true, but at this point I have only read one of the trilogy, and the only person who suggested that Lisbeth was autistic was Mikael, and while he thought she was suffering from Asberger's his guess was only in passing. I can cut the book some slack here. (suspend my disbelief, suspend my disbelief).

6. I was stoked that, for once, the Nazis were a red herring rather than the ultimate, degenerated evil. We all expect the Nazis to be the worst of the worst, so it is refreshing to see them as a deflection instead.

8. Can anyone really be too hard on Leviticus? Ummmmm...nope.

Now, I admit that I might love this novel simply because it is set in Sweden. After all, I do love ABBA, Fredrik Ljungberg, IKEA (my apologies), glögg, Stellan Skarsgård, Max von Sydow, Ingmar Bergman, and Mats Sundin. I looked into emigrating to Sweden but had no excuse, being a resident of Canada with no skills the Swedes were looking for, and I am a fan of Norse Mythology, but I do love Sweden, and I was jazzed by the setting of [author:Larsson]'s book.

All that aside, however, I think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a compelling, entertaining and unabashedly thrilling read.

If you can overlook the eight complaints, or consider them in a different light, you'll like this book too. I promise.