The Girl Who Played with Fire
by Stieg Larsson
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Book Reviews of The Girl Who Played with Fire
Book Review: The Girl Who Played with Cliches
Summary: 1 Stars
I hated THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. I thought it was a boring, cliche-ridden, bloated mess. The Lisbeth Salander character was, by far, the best thing about it...unfortunately, the story centered primarily on Michael Blomkvist, a thinly disguised, idealized version of the author himself and the magazine he founded. It's an awful book.
The only reason I read the sequel, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, is because so many people told me it was a much better book than TATTOO...and that it would make me understand the phenomenon. To some degree, they are right. The first third of the book is centered on Salander and her adventures abroad and back in Sweden...which actually are a lot of fun to read, if you can get past all the cliches (more on that in a minute). Salander is a great character that's stuck, unfortunately, in two lousy novels.
The instant Michael Blomkvist returns, and even before he takes the spotlight, the book becomes overwhelmed with dull exposition (which is repeated endlessly, telling you the same facts over and over and over again), ridiculous coincidences, and pointless scenes that neither move the story forward nor reveal character. The characters become so thin that calling them "cardboard" would be giving them more substance and depth than they actually have. As if this wasn't punishment enough for the reader, the cliche-count radically increases as the book slogs on until it seems like there's one in every paragraph. Here are just a few of them:
"Nutty as a fruitcake"
"Go jump in a lake."
"he's pulling my leg."
"too many irons in the fire."
"out like a light."
"keep it under our hats."
"like a hot potato."
"you're clutching at straws."
"afraid he'd spill the beans."
"the penny dropped."
"she's a loose cannon."
"cool as a cucumber."
"fight tooth and nail."
"kept her nose clean."
"fly in the ointment"
And so it goes, on and on, one dusty old cliche after another. By far the most used cliche in the book is "Hung out to dry/hang out to dry." It was used a dozen times before I gave up counting. I doubt these are Swedish cliches, so I blame the translator for being a lazy hack...and his editor for not doing his job.
This is a truly terrible book on just about every level. That said, it's marginally better than TATTOO by virtue of the first third.
Book Review: Lisbeth Salander enters your bloodstream like the strongest of narcotics!
Summary: 5 Stars
A year has passed, and the Wennerstrom affair has finally calmed down. Mikael Blomkvist is no longer being hounded by the media, but he can't forget the young woman who saved his life: Lisbeth Salander. But Salander has seemingly vanished off the face of the earth, ignoring each and every attempt Blomkvist has made to contact her.
Things haven't remained quiet at Millennium magazine however. Journalist Dag Svensson and his girlfriend, Mia Johansson, have been researching the multi-billion kronor sex-trafficking industry in Sweden, and Millennium is going to run the expose and publish Svensson's book. Before all the facts have been double-checked, Svensson and Johansson are found brutally murdered in their apartment. The prime suspect? Lisbeth Salander. It's up to Blomkvist and the handful of other people who believe in this strange young woman to prove her innocence. As far as Salander is concerned, there's only one person she can rely on to do this: herself.
The first book in this series, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was one of my Top Ten books last year. I had high hopes for this second book, and I wasn't disappointed. The police investigation into the double murder was stymied at every turn. The "expert witnesses" whose opinions are to be trusted, told the investigators what a menace to society Salander was. However, when they asked the same questions of the people who knew and worked with her, they got an entirely different picture of the woman. It took them valuable time to decide which people they should trust.
Once again, the person at the center of it all-- Lisbeth Salander-- is the most fascinating. As a young girl locked away in a psychiatric hospital, she was asked "Why won't you talk to the doctors?" To which Salander replied "Because they don't listen to what I say." If you don't listen to what this young woman says, she's not going to bother with you. At all. You won't even be a blip on her radar. When I turned the page to see "Part IV: Terminator Mode", I didn't bother to hide my grin. This could only mean that Salander was kicking into high gear. I loved seeing how Larsson tied the expose of the sex-trafficking industry and the double murder into Salander's own background, for this book does give insight into what makes Salander tick.
If you want to get to know one of the most fascinating characters in modern fiction, read Larsson's books. Lisbeth Salander will enter your bloodstream like the strongest of narcotics.
Book Review: Powerful and Engrossing!
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this second book, even better than the first which says a lot as I described the first book as spellbinding. The Girl who Played with Fire held my interest from start to finish as it was such a powerful and engrossing story. I find these books very hard to review so bear with me as I don't want to give away the storyline or any spoilers. To me, this is the kind of series that you need to dive into and not know what comes ahead.
My favorite storyline and character from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was Lisbeth a twenty-something pierced and tattooed young woman with a horrible past full of secrets. She is intriguing and mysterious and her mind works at a genius level including her computer hacking abilities. In this book, Lisbeth is the focus and the heart of the story as you finally learn much more about her childhood, her family and what her life was like growing up. Her story is haunting and it's amazing that one can survive through such trauma in one lifetime. Mikael a political and financial journalist who runs and co-owns a magazine called Millenium is now tracking a story that exposes the sex trade industry in Sweden. He discovers ties to members of Swedish society, business and even government. When he is closer to exposing this, murder and mystery ensue. Lisbeth is linked to the murders and Mikael is the only one who believes in her innocence. Lisbeth is drawn into this through her own curiosity and hacking skills once again and she is finally forced to confront details from her past.
There are definitely disturbing parts to this book as in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that are graphic and violent in nature so be forewarned if this is something that bothers you. The storyline was so amazing and intelligent that these dark aspects didn't destroy my opinion of the book. As in the first book, there was a lot of violence towards women and it seems excessive. The author tends to focus on human interest stories in which women are dealt with in underhanded and evil ways. I believe that his intent was to bring attention to this issue of the sex trade/trafficking issue as it is a global one.
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is the third and final book in the Millenium trilogy. It is to be released in paperback in the U.S. at the end of October but it is unclear as to its availability. I am very anxious to read this final book in the trilogy even though I hate to see it end.
Book Review: Extremely disappointing
Summary: 1 Stars
The first book was for the most part plot-driven. The 40-year old murder mystery took a while to unfold, but was interesting when it did. So was Lisbeth, although she wasn't the main focus. The story has now turned character-driven with Lisbeth as the protagonist. But instead of having much of a plot of any character revelations about her early on, we read about her buying a new apartment, grocery shopping, and what furniture she picked out at IKEA in *great* detail. Seriously, you could go down to the store and decorate the same way if you wanted, that's the level of description he gave. I was bored out of my mind. This goes on for a staggering 172 pages.
Mystery thriller? Surely you jest! This book wasn't a mystery whatsoever in my honest opinion. No spoilers to ruin it though. More thrilling than the first book, however.
Stieg Larsson just doesn't write very interesting characters. A few major players from the first book reappear here with no apparent purpose. They do not drive the plot forward in any way or aid in developing other characters. Two or three cops at most were necessary on the case, but instead there are a bunch. All the men in these stories can be lumped into two groups: men who hate women and the good guys who like Lisbeth. Bublinsky is the only impartial one of the lot. A shame he and the rest of the cops were just bumbling fools the whole time. And Zala, the big bad who's alluded to throughout the book. Right. Maybe instead of all the pointless cop scenes Larsson could've actually developed the antagonist this time.
And the single interesting character he does have, Lisbeth, is portrayed as "The Terminator." Really. The Guardian agrees. She's so smart and such an awesome fighter. She's morphed into a superhero now. Suspension of disbelief? Gone.
The turning point didn't happen until page 172, which was about 100 pages too late to hold the interest of any reader who's not a masochist. The quick pace and interest it generates rapidly disappears until 375. Where was the freaking editor? It was more bloated than a rotting whale.
I can only recommend it over Twilight thanks to the gratuitous lesbian sex early on and the fact that Lisbeth is 100x better than Bella. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was a better book though only marginally so. I wanted to throw this one against the wall a few times. One star.
Book Review: A New Classic Heroine for Our Era
Summary: 5 Stars
The Girl Who Played with Fire features the return of the characters that inhabited Stieg Larsson's first novel, with the distinct emergence of Lisbeth Salander to the forefront of the book. The first book in this trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a fantastic, albeit flawed page-turner that established the pairing of Blomkvist, the insatiable, altruistic middle-aged journalist and Salander the young, anti-social and dangerous genius. In the latest installment, we are exposed to what makes Salander tick. She is a fantastically layered and sophisticated character that enables Larsson to focus more intently on his themes of pervasive violence against women in a supposedly just modern society.
Without giving too much of the plot away, the murders of three characters connected to Blomkvist and Salander are at the center of the novel. The illegal sex trade, violence against women, psychological manipulation, and revenge feature prominently. The systemic mistreatment of women at the hands of men who treat them at times as objects, children, or pawns is a topic that Larsson returns too here. In many ways though, this book feels more focused than the first book that at times seemed to meander between various plots of family murder and corporate intrigue.
For readers who have not read the first book, Larsson includes some exposition to tell you what you have missed. However, this book is a clear continuation of relationships and events created in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and your experience will be richer for having read that book first. Blomkvist who is clearly the protagonist of Tattoo takes more of a secondary role to Salander here. Even when Salander is missing and may either be the victim or perpetrator of the crimes at the center of the novel, she dominates the thoughts and actions of the other characters.
Larsson's style is engaging, clear, and direct. At times I find his prose too tidy. The violence and confusion in these books does not seem to be reflected in the style. Yet, where the book fails in literary prowess it compensates with the velocity of its storytelling and the force of its action. I found this book difficult to put down and when I finished it my greatest disappointment was that I will have to wait another year or so to continue with these characters in the third book.