Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Book 1 by Denise Mina

I had to see how someone could rewrite a 465 page book into a graphic novel.  It could only be bare bones and just what would the author choose to include in the graphic tale?

DC Comics/Vertigo and Edelweiss gave me the chance to read this graphic novel for review (thank you).  The story is being done in two parts and this first volume is on sale today.  Check with your local bookstore for a copy.

The original novel impressed me.  It's not a nice story.  There are two plots, and the men who control the money are cold and cruel.  This author somehow gets that point across in a few pages of graphics, and I was impressed.

One of the main characters is a journalist who wants to expose a bad man's illegal activities and theft of funds.  He finds himself sold down the river and going to jail.  He also finds another job with a large sum of money to paid to him, even when he's in jail.  A regretful father who has more money than he knows what to do with wants to find out what happened to his daughter forty years ago.  He's sure she's dead, but her body has never been found.

The other main character is the one that fascinates me.  She's a gothic young woman who is a very good investigator.  She's been in trouble and is on probation.  She's covered in tattoos, earrings and chains.  And she hates most of the world.

This graphic novel is X-rated.  There are some ugly rape grapics included.  They were part of the text story, too, but the graphics make it leap out at you more.  Andrea Mutti and Leonardo Manco are the illustrators, and they take you right into the heart of the story.

This is an accurate portrayal of the much longer novel and it grabs your attention just as the book did.  I found it fascinating that they could do much in a graphic novel with so few pages.  I'm sure the second volume of this story will be true to the book, also.  

Happy reading.     

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