Wayne Smallman’s Reviews > The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo > Status Update

The effect is that I'm reading two different novels, one that just happens to have emerged from the other.

Yes, it holds together, but the time between the Wenerstrom affair at the beginning and its resurrection towards the end gives the feel of a denouement that's lost its way.

Now that we're into the mystery proper, things are less laborious.

While the writing style is immaculate, it's cold and mostly completely detached, as if written as a report after the fact.

You have to be kidding me? An advert for NotePad, complete with URL slap bang in the story. I am agog.

25

So far, the movie appears not to have deviated too far from the novel.

Am I supposed to be reading this as if it's a diary or a journal? I ask, because that's the feeling I get.

Wading through lots of background, which I feel could have been distributed more evenly by the characters themselves. But it's still early days.

So far, a lot of "tell" and very little "show".