The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson follows the story of disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, as he is enlisted by the renowned Vanger family to discover the decades old secret of what (or who) happened to the beautiful Harriet Vanger.
As he dives into his new life---rather reluctantly, I might add---Mikael becomes immersed in the histories and deep, dark secrets of the Vanger family. Before long, his employer hires a young private investigator with extraordinary skills to aid in his ventures. Together, Mikael and Lisbeth Salander---who is dark and twisted in her own right---unearth more horrors and skeletons than any one family has the right to harbor.
Okay, so this book was actually good---sort of. It was well written, a good story, and unpredictable enough to keep me interested---once I actually got into it. However, this was one of the most disturbing, screwed up stories I've ever read. And that's saying something. Now, I'm all for a twisted plot, but man, this one takes the cake. So much so that I have no intention of reading the next two in the trilogy.
The original title in Sweden was actually supposed to be Men Who Hate Women. That, to me, seems much more apt than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Rapists, kidnapers, murderers, sadists, womanizers. I swear, there wasn't a redeeming character in the bunch.
The book was hard to read for me and not all pleasant, but even I'll admit that the plot twists were brilliant. I thought for certain that I had it figured out---twice---but then the rug would be ripped out from under me. I even did have it figured out once and second-guessed myself. Go figure.
So, if you're a sap and enjoy likeable characters and happy endings (like me), this is not the book for you. But, if you're a fan of dark and twisty, it's well worth the read.
My biased rating: 6 out of 10.
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