Copyright: 2008
Publisher: Random House Audio
Genre: Mystery
Pages: Audio 13 disks/16hr 21 min.
Challenges: Off the Shelf (I do own the book and did read the last 40-50 pages), New Author, Mystery and Suspense, Audio Book Challenge, 1st in a series
Author's Website
My rating: 4/5
I'm not going to give you a description of this book because I'm going to assume you have all heard of it, regardless of if you have read it or not.
I actually went into the book not even knowing what it was about. I know I read several reviews when the book first became a hit, but it's been awhile and I had since forgotten what the book was about. All reviews I've read/skimmed in the last several months were just to get an idea of what the reviewer thought of the book, I didn't read anything that told me what it was about. I think this helped me, in a way. I liked going in to the book blind and being surprised at what happened and what was going on.
At first my impression was that the book was just ok, I wasn't too into it. I didn't see what all the hype was about. However, the further along I got, the more I enjoyed it. I'm actually surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did (I tend to be disappointed by a lot of highly recommended books).
Lisbeth Salander definitely made this book for me. I just loved her character. If it hadn't been for this kick-ass woman, I doubt I would have liked the story as much as I did. That's not to say the mystery of Henrietta wasn't intriguing, because it was. It's just that Salander stole the show.
I do plan to listen to the rest of the series, I'm going to work on finishing it this year since I only have 2 more and then I won't feel bad about starting yet another series/trilogy and having it go unfinished. I have heard from several that other books in the trilogy ended up being their favorites, not this one, so I'm very interested to see how I like them.
If you recall, I posted Husband's short but sweet reviews of a couple of books, this being one of them. He had said this one was for people 80 years old. He has also told me several times that I would enjoy it. I guess he was right about one thing, I did enjoy it, although I'm not 80. I told him I finished this book yesterday and he asked if I liked it. I told him I did. He said he knew I would and then said "Don't you agree it's for old people though?" I asked him to expand on that and he said it's because "it's set on an island and it's a classic who-did-it." So there you have it, I guess all of us who enjoyed this one are old (according to Husband).
The audio version:
The audio version was read by Martin Wenner and I think he did a fantastic job. I didn't have any problems distinguishing between the characters and I never once got annoyed by the narrator. I'm hoping he is the narrator for the other two in the trilogy. While I sometimes did get confused by who people were (this was mostly in the beginning) I think that was just due to the names being so different to me. Yet, I'm glad I listened to it because otherwise I probably wouldn't have known how to pronounce the names just by looking at them.
8 comments:
I'll finally be getting to this series for the Nordic reading challenge this year. I'm excited!
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who still had this trilogy to try out. haha! I hope you enjoy the book!
I am glad to hear you like this one. I, like you, tend to avoid books (music, whatever) with a lot of hype. So, now I know it really is worth reading!
Prof. Stacy - oh, a like minded individual. Sometimes I feel like I'm weird avoiding all the hyped stuff, it's good to know I have a friend. lol! Do give it a try, I bet you would enjoy it like I did.
I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. I'm not sure what I expected but I think the hype kind of made me leery of it. I still need to read the other two books in the trilogy--and like you, have heard the best is yet to come. Thank you for your great review, Kris!
Literary Feline - It sounds like the hype made us both a little bit leery. Fingers crossed we both like the rest of the books just as much, if not more.
Thanks for the review without the synopsis. I also don't know what the story is but it's on my Challenge list. I am not 80, no longer in my 40's for that matter. I do like who done it's and island living intrigues me. I'm going to give this one a listen. :)
Diana - You're welcome! I don't always like to read the synopsis myself. Lol! I think lots of under 80 year olds liked this one. Husband is so goofy. Fingers crossed you like it.
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