dragon

[brightbluegirl]

You know that book, the girl with the dragon tattoo?

A neighbour lent it to me months ago. I've avoided reading it based on what I've heard about it (mostly because I abhor the "violence against women/children as plot point" trope).

I felt that I should read it before returning it, though, especially since I'd held on to it so long. So I powered through it the last few days. And...


I hated it. I just don't see what made it so popular. Unless it's the violence towards women, which apparently is very popular is current fiction. Yuck.

Comments

[ambeaux.livejournal.com]

I think that people liked it not because it has violence against women in it (which it, and many other popular books do) but because the main character's unflinching ability to deliver some justice to the people who do violence towards her. She is unapologetic and determined and much smarter than anyone ever gives her credit for. I think that most of the fans of these books are women and that's my guess as to why.

[freakykitten.livejournal.com]

Yeah, having only read the first book, the times she fights back (2x) in it just isn't enough for me. The fact that we live in a rape culture is very obvious in this book. The number of descriptions of things that have happened to other women, even, is huge. And there are 2 protagonists, one of whom is a man who comes off as very competent and who solves the mystery. The woman, our "girl with a dragon tattoo", is a ward of the state and considered mentally incompetent by the govt, the book throws around the term "anorexic" like it ain't no thing....

I'm not trying to suggest that people shouldn't like the book, as everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course, but I very much didn't. Heh.

[mynatt.livejournal.com]

That character gets to fight back more in the next books, fwiw, and eventually gets back at pretty much all the creeps. She's pretty swashbuckling. Apparently the author dreamt her up as a superhero who gets back at "men who hate women" (the actual Swedish title, in case you didn't happen to know) because when he was young a women he knew was assaulted and he'd always wished she'd been able to fight her way out of it.

As pulp fiction goes it had stronger female characters than I'm used to seeing. I found it entertaining, personally. What annoyed me most was what I see so often in books written by older men -- the women in the book all fall for the older male lead who sorta resembles the author. I've stopped reading a lot of SF authors because of that pet peeve. Oh, and the books strongly advocate Sweden's sex work laws (criminalize purchase, not sale, because all those poor helpless young women are victims) as opposed to Dutch-style legalization. So if those things piss you off, you may as well not bother with the sequels.

[malaka.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get through the first chapter, so I can't blame it on the premise, heh. I just didn't like the writing style.

[freakykitten.livejournal.com]

Ahahah. I so agree with you, I don't like the writing style either! I only kept with it because Andrew said it took him a while to get into it but it was worth it by the end of the book. Even so, I was halfway in before I could ignore the writing style. Blech.

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