The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like the plotting in Steig Larsson's novels, and I'm really growing fond of the character of Lisbeth Salander (i.e. the girl with the dragon tattoo).  But do we really need to know every item she purchases when she goes shopping, even though nothing she buys is essential to the plot?  Some times it seems like Larsson goes a bit overboard on the mundane details.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed this second installment of the Lisbeth Salander story.  She's an interesting character, and I've come to like her in spite of her asocial personality.  In this book, Salander is on the run, accused of a triple murder.  All the evidence points to her guilt and Mikael Blomqvist determines to prove her innocence.  First, he must prove it to himself.


View all my reviews

The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson


Nearly everyone who recommended this book to me warned me that it is a slow starter.  It is.  I was over 50 pages into it before it really sparked my interest.

The first (and slower) part of the story is also the last part to be resolved so it sort of bookends the main story involving an older mystery.  Mikael Blomqvist is hired to investigate the disappearance of a young girl 40 years in the past and in the process uncovers a dysfunctional family's generations of dark secrets.

I found the story to be good, but not really up to the hype that seems to be surrounding the book.  I don't know if something was lost in translation (the book was originally written in Swedish) but the writing just didn't seem to be particularly compelling.  However, the story eventually became interesting enough, especially peppered with bits of Swedish culture, to keep my interest and also make me want to read the sequels.


View all my reviews