Nerdy MJ Reviews The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

***WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***

Title: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo/Men Who Hate Women (Original Swedish Title)
Author: Stieg Larson
Translated By: Reg Keeland

This novel takes place in Sweden sometime in the mid-2000s. It tells the stories of two people as their lives inevitably become intertwined. The first person is the emotionally and probably mentally disturb Lisbeth Salander, who is a 25-year-old ward of Sweden that works as private investigator with some pretty unorthodox methods of investigating. Her life sucks. I don't know what else to say about because, really, Larson didn't tell us much about her life, but at the end of the day, all Lisbeth really seems to want is to be left alone.
The second person is the disgraced investigative financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who after being accused of libel is asked to come investigate the mystery of Harriet Vanger in the remote country town of Hedestad, Sweden.
The writing style of this book is bit awkward because it was translated directly from Swedish and yet, it still manages to be gripping. Be warned, though, it is also violent, vivid as hell, and certainly not for the faint of heart.This book made me physically cringe. More than once, I had to stop reading and remind myself that the characters aren't real, that it was just story, and I'd read worse. It was definitely worth reading, though. The mystery we read about in this book unfolds slowly with numerous plot twists and a shocking revelation. It leaves you sitting on the edge of your seat as you turn the page. Sadly, though, the book is anything but unputdownable.
The characters are by no means perfect. Blomkvist is a self-obsessed pig with no respect for himself or the people he hurts. All he really seems to care about is his career. Salander is an antisocial bitch, who seems convinced that everyone is out to get her. Yet despite all in the flaws in the characters themselves, they still find a way to be likable. At least, one of them does.
Despite all of her problems, Salander ends up being one of those kick-ass heroines that we all wish turned more and for me is one of the greats. This character is right up there with Lara Croft, X-23, Wonder Woman, and The Powerpuff Girls (yes, seriously) for me. That is exactly the kind of herione I view her as. One reviewer on goodreads.com said, "...Salander felt like a man recording the facts of what he saw a woman do and say once, not like a living, breathing human character." I disagree. Salander is probably one of the most realistic characters I've ever encountered and definitely one of the characters I can easily relate to. To say that she sounds like a man basically pretending to be a woman, to me, implies that all women speak, act, and think in a certain way and Salander is too far outside the norm to be considered realistic or even human. In response to that, I would like to quote the words of Morticia Addams, "Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly."  
For those of you who have read this book or heard about it and are thinking that it needs to be banned because it's too violent or because it touches on a uncomfortable subject, I say to you need to get the hell over yourselves. This is one of those books that no one ever wants to want read or write, but should be forced to. The hatred we see displayed in this book was clearly concocted by someone is who outraged by the kinds of acts that take place in this world and that people are allowed to get away with. 
No, it is does not make all men look like misogynistic pigs because as stated before all the characters are flawed. Not just Blomkvist and Salander, but all of them including the sidelined background characters most people don't even take into consideration once they've finished reading a book.
Overall, I'd have to give this book a eight out of ten because the translation was a little iffy and the ending wasn't entirely satisfying (for me, anyways), but it was still a hell of a good story with realistic characters that the author didn't play favorites with.