The Girl Who Lived Twice (Millennium, #6)

by David Lagercrantz

[Kim Deister]

This book puts Lisabeth Salander’s past in the forefront of the story, pitted against the one person who, in a different reality, should be her greatest support. Instead, her twin sister Camilla is her biggest enemy. But enemy or not, blood ties can make resolution complicated and fraught with emotional obstacles, for Camilla, too, is another damaged member of the Zalachenko family. Lisbeth has always been a sort of anti-hero hero, her perceptions of the world and ways of handling it often extreme and violent. But there’s always been an underlying sense of good beneath it, in her quest to right the wrongs of the world. However, there’s no such sense with Camilla. Unlike Lisbeth, who used her powers for (mostly) good, Camilla has taken a very different path. Like many, I haven’t loved the Lagercrantz novels with the same ferocity as I did the Larsson. For me, there’s just no avoiding the fact that Lisbeth is somewhat less intense, less colorful than her OG version. More than once, I’ve encountered moments in the stories where I felt that the OG version would have reacted differently, made different choices. I encountered those moments in this book, too. And it’s often felt as if Blomkvist has almost become an afterthought, which I also don’t love. But it is what it is. It doesn’t make the books bad, just different. The stories are still engrossing, and I keep turning the pages!