Kindlegarten: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

In which I believe my mind has been...poisoned?

Those of you who know me...and maybe even those of you who don't...know that I am not by any means prudish. Some might even say I am a little more prone to Humor of the Male Variety. My sophomore year of college I was Queen of That's What She Said jokes. HOWEVER, I do have a heart. And my heart doesn't enjoy reading about certain subjects. Might I explain:

I am obsessed with Kindlegarten. I spend more time with My New Boyfriend than anyone else. I love that I can read basically any book in the world. After hearing all the hoopla surrounding The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I finally downloaded a sample. I approached it half-heatedly. I didn't really want to like it. I read the sample though. I was hooked. I really enjoyed the book. I was absorbed by the pure strangeness of the whole situation. Mikael Blomkvist is a financial journalist turned murder detective when his journalism career turns south. Lisbeth Salander is an outcast computer hacker with a strange past. How would the two of them become intertwined in the plot? Who really was behind the murder? Would Blomkvist get his revenge? And why does everyone in Sweden have a last name that starts with a B?!!?

I read pretty much every second I got. Until last night. I couldn't sleep. I powered up my Kindle (yeah, I sleep with it). Big mistake.

SPOILER ALERT:

3 AM is not the best time to read about some perverts awful sexual assault on a girl. Especially in such detail. I can handle a little bit of grisly detail a la The Kite Runner. But, this book (originally titled more appropriately in Swedish Men Who Hate Women) is rife with gruesome sexual assaults and murders. The disgusting thing is, these accounts of assault were presented in such a way that it felt like the female characters were so hardened by their circumstances it didn't really affect them. And the author? I think it takes a sick mind to write in such a detached way about so many horrible events. The dialogue was creepy and twisted. Although Salandar is a fiercely independent woman, the way her Advokat speaks to her is like he is a pedophile addressing a small child. Although she tries to act, she is only acted upon. Disgusting. Men Who Hate Women really is a more appropriate title for this book. Not one male character is this entire book has one redeeming quality.


I really wanted to enjoy this book. I was thoroughly disappointed with the content and graphic nature. Too many women (and men and children for that matter) are abused each day for me to even remotely enjoy reading a fictional account of such events.


No thanks. I'll pass. Deleted from Kindlegarten.