Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO | Stieg Larsson
(Millennium #1)
06.23.2009 | Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Rating: 5/5 stars

Financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist has found himself being sued for libel by an extremely wealthy financier Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Blomkvist has ended up in hot water after publishing an article about Wennerstrom that he appears to have no factual backing for. Choosing to not defend himself on the stand, Blomkvist is sentenced to jail time and faces public shame for himself and his publication, Millennium.

In the midst of this chaos, Blomkvist receives a call from a man named Henrik Vanger who wants to hire him to find out what happened to his niece. Almost forty years ago, Harriet Vanger, seemingly disappeared without a trace. Henrik has long assumed her dead, but there is no proof. Blomkvist accepts the offer to work the investigation. Along the way he meets the pierced and tattooed investigative prodigy Lisbeth Salander who will help him solve a case that stretches beyond either of their imaginations.

People always have secrets. It’s just a matter of finding out what they are.

Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series has been wildly popular for many years and has continued to grow with a new author taking over after Larsson’s death. I somehow managed to miss out on the Lisbeth Salander bandwagon when the books and subsequent movies first became popular. I think the timing was off for me, as I was in college and focused with reading for classes and my English minor. After becoming reacquainted with the series through #bookstagram, I realized that a series with such a large and loving fanbase was one I wanted to check out. I’m incredibly glad to have started my Millennium journey!

I didn’t know what to expect when I opened the pages of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, but it didn’t matter because I was instantly hooked and unable to put the book down! I absolutely fell head-over-heels for this book! The characters of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist may be two of my favorites in my most recent literary ventures. There are so many layers to Lisbeth, that just like those around her, I find myself incredibly intrigued and wanting to know more. I love how Larsson teases out facts about her backstory and then just leaves me hanging! Thankfully, there are more books in this series for me to continue on my relationship with Lisbeth. Speaking of relationships, I loved the chemistry between Blomkvist and Salander. Their characters play off each other so easily, making them a pair that I could truly envision hunkering down next to each other digging into the history of the Vanger family and bouncing information off of each other.

I’ve had many enemies over the years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s never engage in a fight you’re sure to lose. On the other hand, never let anyone who has insulted you get away with it. Bide your time and strike back when you’re in a position of strength—even if you no longer need to strike back.

The dual storylines within THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON tattoo are so different, yet interconnected in a way I didn’t think they would be from the start. Blomkvist’s conviction ultimately leads him to the Vanger family, but what I didn’t foresee was how this would then lead him back to trying to fight financial crime. The mystery of Harriet Vanger and her disappearance was absolutely wonderful! I loved trying to guess what was happening all those years ago and the process that Blomkvist and Salander went through to piece the mystery together. I certainly didn’t see the truth until Larsson was laying all the facts out to me in an edge of your seat revelation. Just when I thought everything would be tied up neatly, Larsson continued to prove his literary genius with diving back into the Wennerstrom drama. I loved everything about the ending, even if my heart hurt a little and I’m now eyeing my TBR to see what I can push aside to read the next installment! I think it’s safe to say I’m signing myself up to the Lisbeth Salander fan-club!

Friendship- my definition- is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don’t have trust, the friendship will crumble.