The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Vol. 1 by Denise Mina

Title: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Vol. 1
Author: Denise Mina
Format: Hardcover, 146 pages
Pub. Date: November 13th 2012
Source: Goodreads First Reads

★★★★

Four stars.

I won this book through Goodreads Firstreads.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Vol. 1 is a graphic novel adaptation of Stieg Larsson's bestselling book by the same title. It follows a murder mystery from decades past with the socially inept computer genuis Lisbeth at center stage. This volume covers half of that novel, with a second volume to be released in the future.

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+I have to say, this book is beautiful, from cover to cover. The character that sticks out as consistently awesome looking is the cover girl, Lisbeth. She looks amazing in every frame. This fact makes up for a lot of other little flaws in this volume, because Lisbeth is my fictional girl crush.

-That being said, the rewriting of her character was, well, bad. She was given cheesy quips and remarks that "real" Lisbeth would have kicked her ass for even thinking about saying. She was softened up, and I don't like that at all. TGWTDT is one of the few books with a strong heroine out there that gets the hype it deserves, but it doesn't reflect in this rendition.

-+The plot is a bit scattered and choppy. It's not necessarily a bad thing, because I felt way about the novel at times too. But because of a lack of actual chapters, it was a bit hard to keep up. Doable, but a bit flustering if not paying super close attention. This book should NOT be read in place of the novel. It acts as an illustrated guide, and the summarized plot is basically effective. However, it is like reading the Sparknotes without reading the book. You will be missing out. PLEASE read the novel first, and read this after.

I recommend it for fans of graphic novels and fans of Lisbeth. People who are going to compare tiny details to the book should pass this up, it won't be for you. Thank you to Goodreads for my copy- I will definitely be picking up the other volumes in the future.