The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I've been listening to this novel in the car during my commutes to and from school. If I had known when I started just how gruesome and horribly depressing this story would be, I probably would have chosen something a little bit lighter. In the end, though, I'm so glad that I finally read this book. It was heartbreaking and infuriating, it was picturesque yet disturbing. I fell in love with Larsson's descriptions of these beautiful Swedish towns and cities yet wanted to throw up at his descriptions of the horrors that were found in them.
Larsson created two extremely unique, wonderfully memorable characters who have their obvious flaws yet are still loveable. Lisbeth Salander, in particular, was just fantastic. I've never read anything with a character with such a tragic backstory and horrifying life like hers. After coming to love Salander after the first few chapters we spent with her, it was so painfully difficult to hear the horrors of what was done to her. I don't think any scene like this that I've read has ever affected me so profoundly. I don't want to spoil it, but it was just so heartbreaking and painful and I'm still in awe of how Larsson managed to create such a magnificent character that I could feel so much for.
I also was so pleased with the way that Larsson repeatedly called attention to the unspeakable violence against women that is still a major issue in the world. The original title for the novel translates to “Men Who Hate Women,” and for some reason, needed to be changed for the American release because I guess we can't handle that sort of thing here? Anyway, I loved how he included at the beginning of each part of the book statistics on violence against women in Sweden, for example: “Forty-six percent of the women in Sweden have been subjected to violence by a man.” Larsson never lets his readers forget how serious and prevalent this issue is and should be. He writes these gut-wrenching, horrific scenes to cast a light upon just how terrible these issues are. So while a great deal of this novel was difficult to get through, I sincerely appreciated Larsson's reasons for doing what he did and the way he called attention to this serious problem. He made absolutely no excuses for these awful characters who committed violence against women and was unapologetic for it. This book is not for the faint of heart, and might definitely be too disturbing and horrific for many to handle, but it is definitely a masterpiece in its own right.