I Just Finished ... "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"

I finally finished "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." It took me a while to read - not because it was a hard slog or not good or I lost interest. No, it was actually a pretty easy read, with a great story and compelling characters. Unfortunately, life got in the way - I had work, and I'm working on writing a novel, and my husband does like to see me occasionally without a book in my hands. (Although, he is reading "Harry Potter" so he might have actually been OK with laying around reading all last weekend. But I digress ...)

No, I actually really liked "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." The book follows two main characters: journalist Mikael Blomkvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander. At the start of the book, Mikael has just been convicted of libeling a big-time industrialist, and it appears his career is over. He resigns as publisher of "Millennium" magazine, despite objections of Erika Berger, the editor and Mikael's best friend/lover. Mikael then agrees (somewhat reluctantly) to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, the niece of retired industrialist Henrik Vanger, 40 years before.

Meanwhile, Lisbeth is a young researcher and computer hacker. She is antisocial, which makes people think she is stupid, but she's actually very intelligent. Eventually - about halfway through the book, really - the lives of Mikael and Lisbeth finally really intersect. They get wrapped up in Vanger family drama and some pretty exciting, dramatic things happen.

The book is a crime mystery, and the author, the late Stieg Larsson, does a pretty good job concealing what is actually going on until the proper time. However, after the mystery is solved, it still takes a long time to wrap everything up. That was probably my biggest complaint of the book overall. I thought it was done, but there were still quite a few chapters left. It was interesting stuff, though, and it was really necessary information to finish off the story, but I was already ready to read the second book, "The Girl Who Played With Fire!"

The characters are really interesting in this book - especially Lisbeth. Larsson gets into her head and shows us her motivations for the strange things she does. She is not a normal woman, not to mention a normal heroine, but she is smart, and she's a survivor. I really ended up loving her. She does a lot of the things that most of us only dream of doing in our deepest, darkest fantasies. I think she spoke to me, and will speak to a lot of people, because of that. She's fascinating.

Mikael is also an interesting character, although Larsson does go a little bit over-the-top with Mikael's apparent irresistibly to the opposite sex. Mikael sleeps with several women over the course of the book, and doesn't seem to have much trouble getting women to fall into his bed. It's a little silly and, at least some of the time, completely unnecessary. However, considering that Daniel Craig will be playing Mikael in the movie, it's perfectly OK with me.

I really enjoyed the book - it was a solid thriller with some really intense scenes and a solid plot. I think it will make a great movie, and I highly recommend the book (I'm sure it will be better than the movie!).