A Raving Book Review.

Let me start by saying wow.


The book I am about to tell you about is incredible. And this is coming from someone only a little more than halfway through!


It's been praised already by many important people and is being used as the first book in Channel 7's Sunrise Book Club. This book was chosen to open the book club for it's brilliance, and let me just tell you, it really is brilliant.


I'm talking about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.
I have to say, it started off kind of slowly, but definitely had my attention.


The characters are as unique as they come; an antisocial 20-something year old girl being looked after by case-workers from the government, similar to what Australia calls Department of Children Services, only continuing to adults.
She is under this care after being branded as unfit for society, but from this side of the book, she is an amazingly strong girl who just happens to have had bad circumstances.


Then comes a famous family tree by the name of Vanger. Spanning enough to near fill a small island in Sweden, and owning their own industrial empire. The most evident in the story is Henrik Vanger, the CEO of Vanger Corporation, and his tale of loss and betrayal by the family.


And, the most concentrated on character, Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist and co-owner of a magazine hit by misfortune when he writes a report with no credibility, leaving his image and the image of the magazine in ruins, along with facing prison time. Thankfully something comes up and he is preoccupied with something more interesting to get back from his publicity crash.




Those are the characters, and it's a little confusing as the story will swap from the first and last characters and follow their lives at the same time. This may not make sense right now but by reading it, you'll see what I mean.


The story follows the Vanger Corporation through Mikael's eyes and will then swap to Lisbeth Salander (the girl with the dragon tattoo) and the happenings in her life.






You will soon find some entertaining sections of the book with various romances, surprising findings, random twists and things you can only relate to on a personal level. Although some books are written distant from the reader, this book seems almost written with you in mind. It makes a connection with the reader on a human level that we can only experience through either a fantastically written book or a big and tragic event in our own lives.


If you are into thrillers, mystery novels or anything near similar, this book will make you dive head first from the very beginning.


You can find the whole trilogy here.


I thank Stieg Larsson for his novel and pray he rests in peace.