The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Book 1 by Denise Mina
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Source: eARC courtesy of Vertigo via edelweiss – get your own copy from The Book Depository
I absolutely adored the novel (despite the one truly violent despicable act which had me flinching). There was so much in the book that you wonder how you can really condense that in a graphic novel. Indeed, this graphic novel is only the first one and contained only half of the novel.
Lisbeth is absolutely scary looking yet also vulnerable. She’s definitely one you would champion for despite her looks. Bjurman is just a disgusting pig and was depicted in such revolting exactness. Mikael is not attractive as he’s made out to be in the novel. Just like I was disappointed with the casting (Swedish movie), I wasn’t totally impressed with this Mikael either. He was so much more in the novel!
The condensed storyline is well done. Although, I have to admit that it’s been a while and I’m a little bit vague but most of the important bits are surely there. The snippets of “trivia” though are different. In the novel, the snippets are in relation to finance / economy however the snippets in the graphic novel are in relation to violence against women. If you’ve read all the novels, you would know that these snippets can be found in book 3 (The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet s Nest). Despite this deviance from the first novel, I actually really liked this as it fits a lot better with the storyline.
If you loved the novel, you will not be disappointed with the graphic novel as it is quite faithful for the most parts. If you’ve not read the novel and are daunted by the size, do check out this graphic novel and I guarantee that you’ll most probably be driven to pick up the novels 😉
Thanks to Vertigo & edelweiss for the privilege to read & review eARC
Related articles
- Denise Mina, Graphic Novel Adapter of Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Shares Her Insights about Lisbeth Salander (thetattooedgirl.wordpress.com)
Tien's Blurb 
Interesting, Tien–I had no idea there was a graphic novel!
Admission time: I didn’t make it through the novel, and since I tend to flinch at violence (particularly violence towards women), I’m not sure that I’ll be successful if I try again.
There really was only that 1 incident that was truly atrocious in details. I don’t remember the rest being too violent to handle.
Where did you stop in the novel and am curious to know why? Didn’t the mystery of it all compelled you to go on? I stayed up to finish this novel!