January Book Review: Girl with a Dragon Tattoo

Ok, ok I know I am behind in reading this popular book - heck the third one in the trilogy is already out and the movie!  I was given the book for Christmas and I read it as book one in the page to screen reading challenge.  Now I have to decide if I want to read all three before watching the movie of the first book....

Summary: I am not good at writing enough without giving away the whole plot. so here is the synopsis from Barnes and Noble: 


"A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, 
love story, and financial intrigue.It s about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. 

It s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet s disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism, and an unexpected connection between themselves."

Strengths:  I did get hooked and wanted to find out what happens.  Not only with the murder mystery, but with the two main characters: Lisbeth and Mikael.  At the end I didn't want it to end, which is a good thing since it is a trilogy.  It makes me want to pick up the second book in the series!  Good characters grow on you.  I want to find out what happens with Lisbeth and even Mikael.  I love the way Lisbeth goes after "bad guys."  Even though she struggles socially, I love her blatant confidence and skills.  She is dependant on no one, despite being legally dependant.  It is a long book, yet once hooked it moves quickly.  It was not one that I felt went on and on, or that I kept putting down because of the length.

Weakness: I don't normally have too many weakness to report on and would rate all books four or five stars, because to be honest, if it is not good....I don't finish it!  My time is to precious to waste on books that are not going well!  That being said, this book had some "issues" I didn't like.

• First of all this might seem very "American" of me, but since it is written in a foreign land, the characters names and the places are harder to pronounce.  On top of that the author refers to some characters by first name, and some by last name.  This would not bug me (heck some of my favorite characters: Scarpetta, Morelli, etc. are last name characters) except that the author toggles back and forth constantly, I mean even in the same sentence!  One sentence referred to Erika and Birger in the same sentence and they are the same person.  It wouldn't be that hard except there are a ton of characters.  I have heard from a friend on facebook that it gets worse in book three...geez!  
• Second it is slow to start.  The book opens with a libel case and I know that they are trying to build a character and background action, but I tend to prefer action to drag me into the plot.  The quirky character Lisbeth starts to get interesting and then finally when they get to the murder mystery I am hooked.

Overall...a must read!  Just stick through the beginning and at times just give up on trying to keep all the characters in your head.

I guess I will write a review after I watch the movie too - Book one of Page to Screen Challenge - Done!