The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.

im afraid i struggled, and had only put down book two a few weeks previously. I was the same with the characters, i couldn't remember who was who, who worked for who, or what 'company' did what.

I was reluctant to put it down but i just couldn't concentrate on this one.

I started reading the third one yesterday. Only 40 pages in so far. It's going to take me a very long time to finish it. Maybe I've left it too long between reading the other two and picking up this one but I'm struggling to remember who everyone is. Not gripped yet. Tell me it isn't going to be a struggle to get through :)

Do you know apparently there is a 4th half written book? Its in the middle of some sort of court battle coz his widow won't release it to his family. God i would love to read it!

i had no idea either that the author had died before he saw any success with them.

was just going to ask on my own thread, did anyone find the third hard going.

the first is amazing, second, great, the third is dragging it's heels and i can't put my finger on it, it's a struggle imo.

anyone?

She's got fairly good taste; )

I've never read these, but my Mother in law has and really enjoyed them!

As Roddy Doyle said about James Joyce's Ulysses: could have done with a good editor.

She has the boob job at the start of book 2, yes. And she has the wasp tattoo removed as it's too conspicuous. I love her as a character, realistic or not.

I'm pretty sure the boob job is in the beginning of the 2nd book. I took it as part of Lisbeth's decision to be more feminine, following the heartbreak she felt when she saw Bromkvist with his lover/colleague at the end of the 1st book.

Didn't she also have her tattoos removed?

greensmoothie

lljk - I agree it was very comic book in a lot of places. I just took that as a convention of the genre - ie I read it and enjoyed it on those terms. Lisbeth wasn't supposed to be a realistic character. The one bit that really jarred for me was the bit where she goes and has a boob job - she's supposed to be this tough, supremely intelligent bisexual who doesn't give a fuck. Why would she have a boob job?

You're not the only one Cote! Weird overreaction huh?

lljk wasn't "lecturing" anybody in her previous post, so why do you think I was?

We are talking about a book. People say what they think about the book. All I said was about the book. None of it was about you.

I'm actually finding your nastiness towards me on this thread rather disturbing.

If Lisbeth was the perfect heroine, we would have seen more like her in fiction.

I understood her thinness as the result of drugs & smoking, rather than a model-like ideal of femininity. (I have known quite a few people like that. you would be surprised how thin you get despite junkfood when you crank up your metabolism and dance all weekend, 48 hours straight with no time off for sleep) Also, I didn't think she had superhuman strength, but was vicious and violent because (1) she learned to defend herself and (2) she had little empathy and social inhibition.

The last two are obviously related to an ASD condition, and I would think, so is her brilliance in fact collection & pattern recognition (research). She reminds me of a corporate lawyer I used to know - completely inept in anything remotely social, even conversation, but would put together complex legal structures that nobody would even understand.

Meanwhile, Blomkvist got targeted by a powerful man who then discredited him because he wrote investigated and wrote a damning article about the guy. It wasn't an improbable coincidence, imho.

Anyway, to each their own taste in books, of course. Agatha Christie it certainly ain't

No, it's not an overreaction. Cote dazur has plenty of previous form in this respect. And how is it not patronising to lecture someone about something as if they are ignorant?

Anyway since I can't "ignore" the woman, I'm at least able to hide this thread.

Oh yeah, the teacher? I thought she might be an interesting character with true depth. I think her real role was to show how virile the hero was he couldn't possibly go a few weeks without some woman throwing herself at him.

(Making note to hide this thread now, those books just brings out the worst cynic in me)

He had sex with an older woman when he was at the island doing the investigation - a member of the Vanger family, I can't remember which one exactly. The police officer was in the third book, wasn't she?

Maybe I should read it again. I don't remember a sex scene with a police officer. (Good thing I got all three books on Kindle in the Summer Sale )

WARNING SPOILERS FOLLOW

But isn't Lisbeth like the ultimate I dunno... some kind of cross between perfect heroine & ridiculous female expectations?

Ultra skinny (doesn't need to eat)
Yet amazingly fit and strong (yeah... right)
Astoundingly clever. Super-human clever and talented even
(in spite of all that malnutrition )
Horrifically abused
Just like a comic book character

In mean time the hero has ultra high ideals, seems to be rather grandly sexy including to women less than half his age, becomes target of ultra-coordinated international financial conspiracies to discredit him. Where of course everyone else is weirdly sexually deviant & abused or abuser or colluder. Repeatedly.

And then how Lisbeth ties all into that, as sheer coincidence (or maybe these things happen in countries of 9 million people).

Just yawn.
Yes I grew up reading Agatha Christie, which had its own fantasy elements, but not a patch on this modern stuff.

Yeah there was Sonia Modig, the police officer

Whatever you say, Kitten

Anyway, does anyone know what she means re Blomkvirst's sexual partners? I still can't think of anyone other than Lisbeth & Erika (his long-term lover & business partner).

It must feel wonderful to think yourself so much more intelligent and knowledgeable about absolutely everything than anyone else

Wow - what an overreaction!

please don't patronise me. You have no clue about my background, still less my sexual mores.

i dont think she/he was patronising you. Just giving an opinion. Having a bad day or something?

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