This book.... I don't know exactly what to say about it. I think it was interesting but very disturbing at the same time. It was too graphic and horrific for me. I do have to say that it was written well, it had a good plot with an excellent mystery and it was riveting (except for the first 100 or so pages in my humble opinion).
The plot summary (stolen from Amazon.com):
Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo. --Dave Callanan
What it doesn't say here is that the book is sexually explicit and filled with bad language. It also deals with a misogynistic, sadistic killer who describes in detail the horrors that he or she (I won't say the killer's sex in case you read this and don't want me to reveal the mystery) has inflicted on their victims. I can't read stuff like that, it literally makes me ill and I can't sleep. However, that having been said, the book wasn't terrible I just couldn't stomach it. OK that also makes it sound bad.
One of my friends who recommended it told me the second book in the series, The Girl Who Plays with Fire, has an even a better storyline and it is not as sexually explicit. I'm having doubts about reading it because of my reaction to this first book. If I read it I'll let you know. (Caprene can I get your two cents from this because I know you reviewed them and liked them, are they worth continuing on with?)
I give this book 2 outta 5 stars because of the goriness of it all.
2 comments:
I really liked the first. Who told you the second wasn't bad? Because I didn't even get 100 pages in. It wasn't just sexually explicit, it was all about lesbian relations, to be blunt - and I just don't have any desire to read about that. It was all sex, and I kept skipping ahead and ahead and couldn't find a safe place to anchor down and start reading the real story. And the story line sounded good, I just never found it, or maybe I accidentally skipped it to? Or maybe I should have skipped ahead some more?
I could stomach the first book, and just skipped when needed, the story line definitely kept me going. I say don't bother with the second one, unless whomever recommended it can tell you where to actually start reading... especially if the first one was so bothersome.
Ha. Ok so I think I'll just stop where I'm at. It was a guy friend at work who apparently has no moral compass or is just completely desensitized... I'm glad I asked before I got into it.
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