This is the first of a planned trilogy within the Millenium world created by Stieg Larsson and continued by David Lagercrantz. There was a different feel to the Lagercrantz novels, but they felt close enough to the original Larsson novels that they were enjoyable. This one, however, fell short of that for me.
It was quickly very clear that the author just didn’t seem to really known and understand the characters of Lisbeth and Mikael. They didn’t feel true to themselves, as they were established by Larsson. The ways they thought, the ways the acted, the ways in which they were driven. This was especially apparent with Lisbeth in the first half to two-thirds of the book. She was far more open emotionally, so much so that it felt unnatural for her character. She was almost passive, so different from the rebellious, self-contained character of previous novels. It was such a shift in her nature that it was often jarring. As for Mikael, there was so little of him in the story that there was virtually little more than a pale shade of the man established in the earlier books.
Another issue was the story itself. It was very jumbled. I don’t know if it was the original Swedish or the English translation that was at fault, but the writing felt rather choppy, which didn’t help the overly muddled story. But the plot was often confusing, meandering here and there with seemingly little purpose. The usual themes of misogyny and sexual violence were there, but the action was relatively nil until at least halfway through the novel.
The final third was truly the best part of the novel. Lisbeth is much more like herself, with much more action and some interesting twists. It redeemed the book from being a loss.