I’d heard of this book via some other book blogs, and was tantalized by its ability to generate such a passionate following among its readers. In spite of knowing almost nothing about the story, I went ahead and downloaded it to my nook®. About the same time, a fellow-reader in my office went to see the movie (Swedish, with sub-titles). I was about a hundred pages into the book and she – and another co-worker who read the book, but didn’t go see the movie – had kept ‘checking on me’ to see what I thought of it. Up until that point, nothing too shocking had happened. But then… things got interesting. Graphically, violently and disturbingly interesting. I then understood what my co-workers were waiting for me to get to…
However, looking past the violence, I found this book to be quite the page-turner and the character of Lisbeth Salander one of the most intriguing I’ve encountered in my 2010 reading. Just as the USA Today review says (linked below), I begin to care and worry about ‘poor little’ Lisbeth as if she were real. (I think this is similar to the attraction Mikael Blomkvist has in the novel). I was rooting for her. When she settled scores – for herself and others – I was right there with her virtually cheering her on.
It just so happens that the one theater in town that is showing this movie is about a mile from my workplace, so I also popped over after work last Wednesday to watch it. Although it captured the overall feeling of the story, it did so while leaving out a lot of the details. Somehow it worked anyway, probably due in a large part to Noomi Rapace’s performance in the title role.
Noomi Rapace as “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
This may be the shortest interval I’ve ever had between finishing a book and seeing a movie version. With it fresh in my mind (& knowing the story going in) I didn’t even mind the subtitles.
Thumbs up to both the written and film versions. I have already downloaded the 2nd book in the “Millenium Trilogy” (The Girl Who Played with Fire) and am about 1/3 of the way through with it already. Stay tuned.
I found an interesting short review on the second book of the series here. I believe it does a good job of describing the appeal of the Salander character, although I object to the writer’s labelling of Salander as a ‘computer nerd.’ She is so much more.
Bibliophilopolis 
Ann Marie said,
June 3, 2010 at 11:54 am
I finally finished the book. (Had to spend the holiday weekend with family which slowed me down!) I did enjoy the book. It took a little while to get moving, but once it did it was great. I am so glad you recommended it. I am going to get the second one now!
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stentorpub said,
June 3, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Glad you liked it Ann Marie! I’ve moved on to #3 now (about 40% of the way through). I’m going to be “sad” when I’m done since the author has passed away and there won’t be any more ‘true’ books of this series. Although… I’m guessing that since they have been such a big success, there will be some ghost-writing in the future.
There is a part of the second book (I don’t think I’ll be giving anything away here) where ‘everyone’ is looking for Salander and Blomkvist finally makes contact with her via leaving a file on his notebook pc (that he knows she will hack into eventually) which leads to a short series of exchanges/dialogue. For some reason, this was one of my favorite parts since I was sucked in along with everybody else, wanting to know where she was, what she was doing, etc., etc. She truly is a captivating character.
Enjoy The Girl Who Played with Fire!
-Jay
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