So, I read 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'

I avoided the books for a long time because of the violence against women, but I was totally gripped after about the first 100 pages. I have a soft spot for Scandinavian lit though, really I long to live there myself and have a little holiday home on an island.

I like Lisbeth for being so awkward, possibly autistic, geeky and odd. And the way she extracts revenge for slights against women. It makes a change. I would have liked Blomkvist better if every women didn't long to leap into bed with him, no strings attached - that is such a middle aged male fantasy .

re the violence against women, i get the feeling that the author is on her side

the whole point is that lisbeth avenges the violence against her in a brilliant way - some could say there is alot of violence against men in the book too

Agree - life is too short, and there are too many good books out there to read books that only get interesting after 120 pages.
I appreciate that the quality of the translation can make a big difference, but you can't pin the blame on that.

And why did he have to go on so much about inane details such as how many GHz their laptops were?!!

Yes, The Girl with a Dragon Tatoo was a disappointment.The translations was awful. It was too literal and they seem to drink quite a bit of coffee too.
I gave the books away shortly after reading and wished I hadn't bothered.

I've got mixed feelings about the book, it was good in parts and predictable in others. I've just read it and started the 2nd one (was intrigued by the hype and brought the triology with vouchers)- I did find myself skimming the Blomkist bits to get onto the Lisbeth ones - agree w Kangeroo she comes too late into the book, and her character is somewhat underdeveloped but pleased to hear she's more involved in the next two.
I did find the violence against women v disturbing though (esp re: Lisbeth's sadistic guardian) but probably coz I don't often read the serial killer stuff and am prob one of those that insists reading fiction with characters like myself lol! Must try to broaden my horizons!

I just didn't like it.
I found his treatment of Lisbeth gratuitous in parts wouldn't bother with the others, but my DH thinks the books are great!

Question - what was the relevance of Salander having a boob job in the second book? How did that fit in with anything anywhere in the books? I hate that gratuitous sexualisation of the main female character. Cheap.

Yup, just finished it and no idea why it's so hyped / popular. Agree with others who didn't really care about the characters (agree it's nothing to do with "liking" them) and found the whole thing strangely unmoving.

Please tell me why I shoudln't just take Parts II and III straight to the charity shop (asked for the whole set for Christmas for some reason - taken in by the hype I suppose!).

Much prefered Stone's Fall which I read just before it.

Love the spoof!

I didn't think it was a dreadful book, but I did think it was fairly dull most of the time, silly in other parts and trying to tackle too many issues in one book. I think an editor with the courage to wield a thick blue pencil and focus the book on one of the plot lines would have made it much better.

I liked the 3 books and loved the spoof. If you don't have time to read the books just read the spööf.

i'm half way through the 2nd book, i think they are great fun, have not come across such a fantastic female character in ages,
lighten up - she's fantasy kick-ass cool

I've just finished the 3rd in the trilogy and really enjoyed all 3, although I think the first 2 are the best. The 3rd is just a continuation of the 2nd and concerns itself with Lisbeth's trial pretty much exclusively. I do enjoy a good thriller and found I didn't guess the ending of these much before it happened, which is unusual.

I learnt some interesting things about Sweden - how they actually do buy stuff from Ikea, it's not just an export! They seem really into their coffee, everyone has a coffee machine, and you get a good idea why the Swedes have such a reputation for sexual liberation - Lisbeth will have sex with anyone, Mikael's only criteria is that the partner has to be female, and Erika dreams of threesomes.

The author does a reasonable job of the female characters, although you can tell it's written by a man by the little things - whenever a female character's clothes are described, they're all dressed pretty much the same on the whole - I find that often happens with male authors.

The 3rd book in particular got a bit confusing with all the different types of Swedish police, and especially so with at least half of the characters having a name ending -sson!

Overall I'd recommend them if anyone's thinking of reading them - pretty easy reading and a rank above most thrillers.

I loved these books like I love junk food at the time....
they're pretty trashy but they're good trash, they are classic page turners imho, but fairly forgettable once finished

i read it, then i started to read the second one

it was a kind of ' becuase i thought i should' moment

however i was and still am distinctly underimpressed, the book took more than halfway through HALF FUCKING WAY before anything of note started to happen

and i think i did a couple of chapters of the second and declared to myself that i couldn't wait anymore for the story to actually kick in.

This is a great spoof!

I thought it was great fun, though Blomkvist is a pita and smug to boot. DH gave me the other two for Xmas so I've done the lot now.

What I like about them is all the stray facts that wander in, about the judicial system and all that sort of thing.

The wealth of detail about completely unimportant things is staggering; do I care what coffee machine so and so has? No. Do I care that Lizbeth is kitting out her new flat with this or that kitchen table and chairs from Ikea? No. I find it absolutely hilarious that these things are included. It makes me wonder whether the author was autistic (no offense meant).

Overrated! I was expecting great things, but because of the hype was left feeling disappointed. You can't beat Patricia Highsmith for crime thrillers - or if you like Scandinavian - stick with Henning Mankel....

turgid.if i dont like by chp3,its goner.dont persevere with books i dont like.life too short too labour a turgid read

I am struggling my way through the 3rd in the series

It is so full of exposition and background, it feels so turgid

But like Chickens, I have to finish a book once i have started

It's called afraid of missing something. I have apparently suffered from this nosiness condition from a very young age.

I too wish I could give up sooner, I think I read the subsequent ones hoping they got better.

I couldnt get into it. tried twice, gave up. Lifes too short