The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo [Book Review]

Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Men Who Hate Women

Author: Stieg Larsson

Publication: 2005 by Norstedts Agency

Translation to English: 2008 by Reg Keeland

"Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthest 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 pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption."

 Praises for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:

"Gripping... Lisbeth Salander... is one of the most original characters in a thriller to come along in a while."

- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Exceptional... Meticulously plotted, beautifully-paced."

- The Boston Globe

"A compelling, well-woven tale that succeeds in transporting the reader to Sweden for a good crime story."

- Los Angeles Times

Basically, the book is about Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander's investigation about Harriet Vanger's disappearance over forty years ago. As Mikael Blomkvist's role as a jounalist is interesting, Lisbeth Salander is fascinating, with an intriguing past and social status, and her eye-for-an-eye approach to justice. The plot is complex yet well-written, with a full cast of characters that you'll probably have a difficulty to remember at first. Luckily, the book provided the Vanger Family Tree that you could check out at times of confusion.

Being a crime novel, the book has some graphic violent descriptions about sexual harassment, incest, cold-blood murder and a serial rapist. This is just a warning for people who find these scenes disturbing. Unlike some readers who found it overrated at first because of the excessive story background in the beginning, I think that is just necessary because of the complexity of the plot and characters.

I can't say that the movie did not make me feel biased towards reading the book. I don't know if I will actually notice this book if not for the movie. But still, I can conclude that this is one of the best books I've read so far.