The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium Trilogy, #2)

by Stieg Larsson

[bryannaleigh]

I took my time trying to figure out what to say about this book. From the start, all I knew was that I enjoyed it a lot more than Dragon Tattoo.

There are still plenty of details that would have been fine to miss, and some issues with the translation over from Swedish. (I'm assuming there were errors since I had some difficulty, but that might have just been me.) Over all, the story gripped me and held me in. I was kept wondering about what was going to happen with Salander, and who this mysterious Zala was. In both cases, I wasn't expecting either outcome that I received, but I wasn't disappointed in the outcome.

I have noticed people saying that these books can be read as solo pieces. I do believe that can be true from this one and Dragon Tattoo, as Larsson had given details to what had happened in the previous book. However, that may not be true with this and Hornet's Nest. With the way this ends, it almost seems necessary that you read the final installment. (And what I've read of Hornet's Nest so far, it appears you'll be better off reading this first so you know what's going on.)

Aside from the lengthy details and not complete translations that seemed to occur every now and again, I did enjoy the writing and the characters. There were a few times where things seemed to iffy with the characters, but part of me believes that it wasn't necessarily proof read thoroughly as the author died prior to publication.

Overall, without giving away too much of the story, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It was brilliantly put together (which is mostly true after you get used to the writing and set up, which is why I would recommend reading them straight through), and you can tell Larsson actually cares about the story rather than just writing it because he has to. And, honestly, I think this was a great introduction to crime fiction for me.