The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson Millennium Trilogy #1 -- a review by Elleanore Vance

Hello, my Lovely Readers! Today's book takes us to Stockholm, Sweden, just before the Christmas holidays. This book was an international best seller in 2008, taking the world by storm. In my opinion, it deserves all of its praise, but only when taken with the rest of the original trilogy. You see Steig Larson died in 2004, his long time girlfriend got his manuscripts published posthumously in 2005. Since then there have been other books based on Steig's notes, but these first three are the only ones he wrote. Originially titled Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women), this crime thriller is a doorway to one of literature's greatest female character: Lizbeth Salander. Steig's unique story telling style and character building is without paralell. So let's get into it.

Micke Blumkvist is a hard-hitting finance reporter and partner in his own magazine Millennium. Previously lauded for his exceptional reporting, now Blumkvist has just been convicted of libel against mogul Hans Erik Wennerström.

This conviction just reeks of a sandbag job to silence Blumkvist, and  discredit Millennium. Speaking of Millennium, we need to talk a minute about  Blomkvist's partner and editor of their magazine, Erika Berger. She is actively trying to dissuade Micke from resigning in the aftermath of the conviction. Not only is she his editor and friend, they are long-time lovers, even though Berger is married to another man.

As we are coming into the Christmas holidays, the magazine is floundering to stay the course in the new year. Then Micke gets an unexpected call from a wealthy recluse, and an offer he would be an idiot to refuse. In exchange for investigating the assumed death of a family member, this recluse will provide evidence against Hans Erik Wennerström.  So Micke resigns from the magazine, leaving Erika alone to weather the storm Blomkvist created.

Millennium and the search for what happened the Harriet Vanger are the main plot of this novel, but our main character for our trilogy is research specialist Lizbeth Salander. She is likely breaking lots of privacy type laws by getting her information the way that she does, but her claims are provable.  She is an antisocial, goth punk bisexual goddess. We learn right away that she is under guardianship, but not why. We also learn  that her long term guardian Holger Palmgren has had a stroke. This means Lizbeth has been assigned a new guardian.

Nils Bjürmann represents a special kind of evil. If you are not absolutely bothered , upset, disgusted by Lizbeth's initial interactions with him, I would worry. Many readers may wish to skip those sections as they contain sexual abuse. I don't blame them. Honestly, the discussion of the aftermath is bad enough, and I honestly cry every time.

Truely, Nils is important. He allows us to see Lizbeth's problem-solving strategies and research skills in action. By the time she's through with Nils Fucking Bjürmann,  we know a lot about Lizbeth Salander and how she sees the world. It is through her research skills that the answer to the riddle of What Happened to Harriet Vanger? is finally found.

The team of Blumkvist and Salander are the foundation of the Millennium trilogy. It all roots right here. My first introduction to the story was through the Swedish Language film starring Mikel Nyquist (RIP) and Noomi Rapace.  We're not going to talk about Fire or Hornet's nest here, though. They're coming, I promise.

Unfortunately, that makes this the info-dump book of the three. We have to set the scene and introduce all of our recurring characters, and that means we get a metric fuck-ton of information. And it is all important. It is very much a Details Matter type of story.

I also feel I should mention that I believe Steig Larson was was a true ally to all women. It shows in his writing, and that gives it so very many brownie points. I love this book for all that it is. I love it for Lizbeth, who represents a power fantasy for me. I love it for Erika Berger, who I strive to be more like (seriously, goals!!). I love it for Heinrich Vanger who never stopped wanting justice for Harriet.

If you feel like slowing down and looking for clues, if you're down for the possibility of reading the whole trilogy (1800 pages, more or less), then maybe try this one. I promise, its worth it.

As the first of a Trilogy
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

As a stand-alone
⭐⭐⭐

*Rating differs because there are things in this book you won't fully understand until after you've read the rest of the trilogy

**Readers beware this book contains discussion of sexual assault, sexual abuse of one assumed to be mentally incompetent, domestic violence, sexual abuse of a child by a parent, racism, nazi-ism, violence against women, and acts of violence.