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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage) by…
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage) (original 2005; edition 2009)

by Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland (Translator)

Series: Millennium (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
43,014174641 (4.03)1 / 970
The disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden, gnaws at her octogenarian uncle, Henrik Vanger. He is determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. He hires crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, recently at the wrong end of a libel case, to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance. Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old, pierced, tattooed genius hacker, possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age--and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness--assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, an astonishing corruption at the highest echelon of Swedish industrialism--and a surprising connection between themselves.--From publisher description.… (more)
Member:skyekat
Title:The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage)
Authors:Stieg Larsson
Other authors:Reg Keeland (Translator)
Info:Vintage (2009), Paperback, 608 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****1/2
Tags:None

Work Information

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (2005)

  1. 322
    Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg (taz_)
    taz_: Charm school drop-outs Lisbeth Salander of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and Smilla Qaaviqaaq Jaspersen of "Smilla's Sense of Snow" strike me as unconventional soul sisters of the detective mystery. Each haunted by demons of the past, fiercely independent, armored in cynicism and misanthropy, they share a certain psychic landscape and brilliant, icy resourcefulness. If you love one, I predict you'll love the other.… (more)
  2. 92
    Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (Ronoc, Ronoc)
  3. 60
    Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell (kraaivrouw)
    kraaivrouw: I think Lisbeth and Mallory have a lot in common.
  4. 93
    Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason (ansate, ANeumann)
  5. 40
    The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid (kraaivrouw)
    kraaivrouw: It's mentioned in the book and it's another great thriller.
  6. 40
    The Informationist by Taylor Stevens (aliklein)
  7. 51
    1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (BillPilgrim)
    BillPilgrim: Another kick-ass female heroine
  8. 51
    The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason (ansate)
  9. 20
    Blue Belle by Andrew Vachss (birder4106)
    birder4106: Burke (Vacchs) und Salander (Larsson) haben sehr viel gemeinsam.
  10. 53
    Child of the Hive by Jessica Meats (EllieM)
    EllieM: Are you wondering 'what next?' after reading the The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo? I recommend that you try Child of The Hive by Jessica Meats. Both books are plot driven action packed thrillers with a rather unexpected heroine. Like Lisbeth Salander, Child of the Hive's Sophie is a highly intelligent computer geek. Someone you would not necessarily choose as a best friend but you grow fond of her as the story progresses. Stieg Larsson's blockbuster is a more traditional 'whodunnit' and the main plot puzzle is the identity of the murderer. Jessica Meats writes in a slightly a different genre, Child of The Hive is a speculative thriller on the borders of science fiction, and as such it presents different puzzles. For example a moral one, exactly which sub group should I classify as 'the bad guys'? As for guessing the ending, most people will not see where the book is going. I failed. But the surprising nature of the story is much of its fun. With the benefit of hindsight you can see that the climax of 'Child' is tidy and satisfactory. Certainly not one of those annoying thrillers with a plot balanced on one very unlikely clue which has been carefully draped in numerous red herrings. Both books should appeal to a wide range of readers, but I suggest Child of the Hive is also more suitable for a slightly younger group than The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which is distinctly adult in places. Child of The Hive is a really ‘good read’, I give it 5 stars out of five… (more)
  11. 31
    A Place of Execution by Val McDermid (adithyajones)
  12. 10
    The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy (5hrdrive)
  13. 21
    Sun Storm by Åsa Larsson (amberwitch)
    amberwitch: Wellwritten crimestories set in Sweden with female protagonists.
  14. 21
    The Crow Road by Iain Banks (Anonymous user)
  15. 1110
    Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (MyriadBooks, mcenroeucsb)
    mcenroeucsb: Let the Right One In is a Swedish novel about a child vampire who just wants to be a normal kid, the pedophile who is obsessed with her, and the neighbor boy who wants to befriend her.
  16. 32
    The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell (Ronoc)
  17. 65
    The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg (Patangel)
  18. 00
    One Kick by Chelsea Cain (Anonymous user)
  19. 00
    Purity by Jonathan Franzen (kristina25)
  20. 00
    Brixton Hill by Zoë Beck (JuliaMaria)

(see all 48 recommendations)

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» See also 970 mentions

English (1,578)  Dutch (35)  Spanish (34)  German (14)  Italian (13)  French (13)  Swedish (12)  Catalan (11)  Danish (11)  Portuguese (Brazil) (5)  Portuguese (Portugal) (4)  Finnish (2)  Norwegian (2)  Hebrew (1)  All languages (1,735)
Showing 1-5 of 1578 (next | show all)
This was the third time I have tried to read this book. I don’t normally force myself to finish books, as life is too short for bad books, but this one had so many rave reviews I did force myself to finish. I was underwhelmed by the story. The first several chapters seemed to consist of everything I really never wanted to know about the Swedish banking system. Then we get several pages of Blomqvist getting up, eating breakfast, going for a run, etc. Finally halfway through the book some action takes place! They are solving a decades old mystery disappearance that is supposedly a murder, but which it’s pretty obvious that the murdered woman is still alive. At least it was to me. Some more action, then back to the Swedish banking system. I truly like the character of Lisbeth, but she really wasn’t in the book that much and no background on her at all. Very disappointed in this book
( )
  corliss12000 | Mar 16, 2024 |
A little slow to start but almost impossible to put down after the first 50 or so pages. I regret that I took so long to actually read through the beginning and get into the book. Fantastic read. ( )
  thatnerd | Mar 2, 2024 |
I really don't get what the fuss is about. It gets more readable about 2/3 of the way in, if I remember correctly: it stops being a chore and starts being mildly entertaining. I can think of a lot of trashy mystery novels I have read with a lot more gusto.

I wonder if my problem is not being awestruck by Lisbeth. She is interesting---the bits following her investigations are some of the most interesting in the book---but her philosophy and approach to life really don't shock me or shake me up. Perhaps, as nerds, we're a little too similar.

Oh, and I nearly forgot how much extraneous detail there is in the writing. Meals, clothes, you name it. It reads like a mediocre fanfic. Hm, that's sort of how I feel about all of the characters, too. ( )
  caedocyon | Feb 23, 2024 |
I went into this book hoping for something really exciting. However, I'm still not quite sure what I had in this book. 200 pages in it was still moving slow, although I had been assured by friends that it would speed up and get better. It did and it didn't. It did speed up. It did not get better.

This is the scenario:

Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist/editor/publisher of a magazine that he has to leave for a time because of some bad, or untimely, reporting. He is hired by a rival company's ex-CEO to solve a nearly 40 year mystery into the disappearance/murder of a 16 year old girl who had been set to inherit a large portion of shares in the family business. What Blomkvist finds is unexpected, unless you've been reading the book.

The story is predictable, the plots (there are two) are not really linked, and much like the Twilight series, the characters are very much like fan fiction's Mary Sues and the good guy and good girl are the most hard-put, even thought they persevere no matter how hard the going gets.

That said, I couldn't help but read it. I HAD to make sure that the conclusions I had come to nearly from the beginning were the right conclusions, hoping against hope that they weren't and that Larsson would have something unexpected in the conclusions of his plots. To no avail, though. I think it merits 2 stars--It's good to read if you don't expect too much and you have time. I just feel like I wasted much of mine. ( )
  BrandyWinn | Feb 2, 2024 |
Started slow but turned a masterful story. ?1st of a trilogy.
  bentstoker | Jan 26, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 1578 (next | show all)
added by grimm | editRomans et Lectures, Calepin (Sep 9, 2009)
 
[Richman reviews several Scandinavian novels, including Larsson's.]

Why have readers taken to these writers? The novels are not formally innovative: With a few exceptions, these are straightforward whodunits, hewing closely to conventional models from the English tradition. Nor does their appeal depend on a "relentlessly bleak view of the world," as a writer for the London Times has put it. Bleak worldviews are not particularly hard to come by in crime novels, no matter what country they come from.

What distinguishes these books is not some element of Nordic grimness but their evocation of an almost sublime tranquility. When a crime occurs, it is shocking exactly because it disrupts a world that, at least to an American reader, seems utopian in its peacefulness, happiness, and orderliness.
added by elenchus | editSlate.com, Nathanial Rich (Jul 8, 2009)
 
It’s Mr. Larsson’s two protagonists — Carl Mikael Blomkvist, a reporter filling the role of detective, and his sidekick, Lisbeth Salander, a k a the girl with the dragon tattoo — who make this novel more than your run-of-the-mill mystery: they’re both compelling, conflicted, complicated people, idiosyncratic in the extreme, and interesting enough to compensate for the plot mechanics, which seize up as the book nears its unsatisfying conclusion.
 
The novel offers a thoroughly ugly view of human nature, especially when it comes to the way Swedish men treat Swedish women. In Larsson’s world, sadism, murder and suicide are commonplace — as is lots of casual sex. (Sweden isn’t all bad.)
 
The first-time author's excitement at his creation is palpable, strangely, in the book's sometimes amateurish construction. There are frequent long digressions in this big book (more than 500 pages) in which he laboriously fills in back-story details. Then there is the Vanger family; what might have seemed like a bit of fun gets out of hand as easily more than 20 people with the surname Vanger are mixed into the story. To his credit, though, he always regains control and restores momentum.
added by Shortride | editThe Age, Jeff Glorfeld (Mar 17, 2008)
 

» Add other authors (28 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Larsson, Stiegprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bjørnson, ElisabethTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Brynolfsson, ReineNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Colom, Núria VivesTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Giorgetti Cima, CarmenTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Gombau i Arnau, AlexandreTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jorissen-Wedzinga, TinekeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Keeland, RegTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kuhn, WibkeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kyrö, MarjaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mendelsund, PeterCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ortega Román, Juan JoséTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Reichlin, SaulNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vance, SimonNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wenner, MartinNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Original title
Alternative titles
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People/Characters
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Important events
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Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Det hade blivit en årligen återkommande händelse.
It happened every year, was almost a ritual.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Män som hatar kvinnor ("Men who Hate Women"), 2005. English translation by Reg Keeland under the title The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, January 2008.
ISBN 0307269752 is for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

The disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden, gnaws at her octogenarian uncle, Henrik Vanger. He is determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. He hires crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, recently at the wrong end of a libel case, to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance. Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old, pierced, tattooed genius hacker, possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age--and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness--assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, an astonishing corruption at the highest echelon of Swedish industrialism--and a surprising connection between themselves.--From publisher description.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Synopsis for the Dutch edition: 
"Twee tegenpolen, Mikael Blomkvist en Lisbeth Salander. Hij is een charmante man en een kritische journalist van middelbare leeftijd, uitgever van het tijdschrift Millennium. Zij is een jonge, gecompliceerde, uiterst intelligente vrouw met zwartgeverfd haar, piercings en tatoeages, én een uitermate goede hacker. Samen vormen ze een ongewoon, maar sterk team.

Mikael wordt benaderd door oud-zakenman Henrik Vanger. Veertig jaar geleden is de zestienjarige Harriët Vanger op mysterieuze wijze verdwenen en vermoedelijk vermoord. De zaak is echter nooit opgelost en inmiddels verjaard. Toch wil Henrik Vanger graag dat Mikael zich hier nog eens op stort."

Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo. 
Haiku summary
Journalist solves type
of locked-room murder with help
of the tattooed girl.
(passion4reading)
Author's premature
death, good PR spark massive
sales phenomenon.
(passion4reading)

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