One Decade Later, I Finally Read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

*SPOILER WARNING*: I will spoil The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in this post. If you haven’t read it (or seen the movie) and want to, I suggest doing so before reading on.

Last Friday, I had a free night for the first time in about a month. No plans. As a rule, I don’t do homework on Friday nights unless I’m booked solid on Saturday and Sunday. I had plans for the weekend, but nothing during the day other than grocery shopping. I decided to take the opportunity to read. Maybe not my best decision; my resume needs serious work, my DPI application is only halfway done, and I’ve saved nearly 20 jobs I meant to apply to. But, you know, it’s the end of the week, and I wanted to do something enjoyable.

I started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on the flight back from London, where I took an interim class this January. I got about halfway in, but with the chaos of unpacking, repacking, unpacking again, and then school, I hadn’t picked it back up.

I had heard a lot about the book before starting. I had heard it featured violence and sexual assault. This is probably why I had avoided reading it for so long- the book is over a decade old, and it’s been on my self for at least 7 years. But I don’t like to think about those sort of things. It’s not a part of my world, and I avoid it.

I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about the book. The end, when Lisbeth sees Mikael on a date and throws away her gift, all but broke my heart. On the other hand, the age gap between the two of them made me highly uncomfortable. I can’t condone relationships with such a power imbalance, as I’ve tried to explain to my 17 year old sister who is dating a 22 year old, but my warnings always seem to fall on deaf ears. It was amazing the way they cracked the case; I’m familiar enough with the genre to expect twists and turns and information to come up at the last minute, but the specifics were a surprise. I expected Harriet to be alive, but I could never have expected that Martin had a torture chamber in his basement!

While the sexual violence (and gratuitous sex scenes, but that’s another story) made me highly uncomfortable, I saw their necessity. However, I almost felt that they were too condensed. While I was relieved for Lisbeth’s repeat assaults to be over so quickly, it almost would have been more satisfying for her to take back control at the end. After saving Mikael from Martin with a golf club, empowered by her own rashness, and then taking Bjurman down, would have been a killer ending. Instead, it was towards the middle, and then Bjurman completely dropped out of the narrative.

Overall, the book is worth a read; it wasn’t a bestseller for nothing. It’s compelling and fast-paced, has an unlikely heroine, filled with twists, and good triumphs over evil at the end, though it’s close. But if, like me, you’re a bit squeamish about sexual violence, then definitely go in prepared.