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

by Stieg Larsson

[clementine]

I definitely didn't enjoy this book as much as the first. Like the first, it's fairly slow paced at times, and it really bothered me this time around. We don't need pages of descriptions of Lisbeth's exact Ikea furniture. How did that not get cut out by an editor? It's not interesting. Even all the stuff about Lisbeth's time abroad could have been cut shorter. It just starts the book off so slowly.

I also found some of the dialogue a little hard to follow. Larsson often doesn't identify speakers for long stretches at a time, and it can get a bit confusing. Keeping track of all the characters was difficult, too. I feel like referring to them by their last names is a hindrance. So many of the names ended with "sson" or started with B that it was confusing! When they were referred to by their first names, I could keep track of them - at the very least because I could tell who was male and who was female by the first names.

Anyway, technical things aside, I enjoyed the story, but not as much as the last one. I felt like this one was less of a mystery and more about action. Which, I mean, that's fine, it's just not my thing as much. The plot was well-constructed - I particularly enjoyed how long Larsson keeps us in the dark about what Lisbeth is up to and whether or not she did commit the murders. It was pretty gruesome, although considering the first book that's no surprise.

As always, I enjoy Lisbeth as a strong heroine who doesn't take anybody's shit. She doesn't fall for Mikael, and in fact holds him in contempt. Romance is secondary to the story, which is refreshing.

Obviously a lot of it is pretty unbelievable, and parts of it were confusing or boring, but overall it's a solid and exciting read.