The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

❓ What It's About

Michael Blomkvist, a journalist, gets hired to solve a 40-year-old mystery concerning the sudden disappearance of a young girl from a hateful family that never got along. The story escalates and gets to a whole new and unexpected level of severe crime and cruelty that no one could have ever imagined.

🧠 Thoughts

Overview

First and foremost, I have to confess that this book isn't an easy read at all; whether it be for the extreme cruelty in the book, or the first couple of chapters which were very difficult to get through. 

The first couple of chapters introduce the protagonist of the book who is a journalist. The thing with these chapter is that they contain a lot of technical terms concerning politics and journalism.

Then after a couple of chapters, something sparked my idle interest. The book then dives into the mystery of Harriet Vagner's sudden disappearance that occurred forty years before.

After solving the mystery, the book again returns to the subplot about journalism which is EXTREMELY boring.

Cruelty

The violence and cruelty in this book is immense; definitely not as cruel as something like American Psycho, but pretty darn gruesome. The thing is, these awful acts are mostly done to women; the book is full of graphic depictions of violent acts committed against women, including stalking, sexual harassment, child abuse, rape, incest and serial rape/ murder committed not only by obnoxious individual men, but also by corrupt official institutions. That stuff gets described in the most detail (which will probably make you very uncomfortable). To demonstrate my point, I'm going to quote from the book (no spoilers)

"The killer tied her up and stuck her head into the smoldering embers of a fireplace. She was raped and murdered"

"She was raped and strangled to death. The killer concluded his barbarities by shoving a parakeet up her vagina and then let all the animals out into the shop. Cats, turtles, white mice, rabbits, birds. Even the fish in the aquarium. So it was quite an appalling scene her sister encountered in the morning."

The cruelty in this book didn't only include inhuman acts against humans, but also barbaric acts against animals.

"On the porch lay the half-charred corpse of a cat. The cat’s legs and head had been cut off, then the body had been flayed and the guts and stomach removed, flung next to the corpse, which seemed to have been roasted over a fire. The cat’s head was intact, on the saddle of Salander’s motorcycle."

Technicalities

The book doesn't only cover the story of the crime, but also has another subplot about the problems faced by a journalism company called Millennium (the series itself is also called Millennium). This subplot wasn't interesting for me at all because it was too technical. There is too much economic and political talk. The story would have been just fine if this part was excluded. However, this matter is covered only in the first and last couple of chapters.

Caution

                                                                    

As mentioned above, the book contains a lot of cruelty, so it's obviously not suitable for all people. Moreover, religion was used in the book as a tool of justifying cruelty, so it's not an option for the conservatives out there. The book has a lot of casual sex also (just sayin). On the whole, the novel is full of graphic depictions that will make you feel uncomfortable.

Why was the book title changed?

The Swedish title of the book is Men who Hate Women and it was changed to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when the book was translated into English. The publishers changed it to fit with the title of the other two books (The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest). I'n actually not satisfied with the English title of the book. I just couldn't figure out what the dragon tattoo had to do with anything in the book.

Moral (No Spoilers)

The book discusses misogyny and the oppression of women. The entire story's about the huge cruel acts that are regularly committed against women and the indifference of everyone concerning that matter. The book not only brings serial killers/ rapists to light, but also "skanks" (sorry, couldn't find another word for it) and men who JUST hate women. On this regard, it's important to highlight that the Swedish title of the book is "Men who Hate Women". That title was changed to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" when the book was translated into English. 

Feminism is so prominent in Larsson's novels that another book named Men Who Hate Women and Women Who Kick Their Asses: Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy in Feminist Perspective was written by Donna King. This book contains a great deal of essays which discuss and analyze the world that Larsson created.

Also, to emphasize the main theme of the book, Larsson was included some statistics about the harassment of women between each part of the book and the other. To mention but a few:

"Forty-six percent of the women in Sweden have been subjected to violence by a man".

"Thirteen percent of the women in Sweden have been subjected to aggravated sexual assault outside of a sexual relationship".

"Ninety-two percent of women in Sweden who have been subjected to sexual assault have not reported the most recent violent incident to the police".

Unanswered Questions (Spoilers Ahead)

First of all, in the crypt, Salander said that the murderer might have left fingerprints; however, they never used this thought or even look for fingerprints.

Secondly, when Nils Bjurman approached Salander and started touching her, she didn't object or express her rejection, and he went too far and told her to perform a sexual act with him. She considered that rape, but the thing is that she didn't express her rejection. On another occasion, Blomkvist was approached by Salander. She entered his room naked and started seducing him. Why is that not considered rape also? Or is it okay for women to foreplay men without being called rapists but not the other way round. 

Literary Adaptations

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 

        Directed by David Fincher

2. Millennium series (Swedish)

📚 Related Books

#2 The Girl who Played with Fire

#3 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

#4 The Girl in the Spider's Web (by David Lagercrantz)

#5 The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye (by David Lagercrantz)