I couldn't put this book down, it was absolutely gripping. The heroine's fight for justice with the help of her journalist friend after being accused with triple murder was absolutely mind blowing. The author was able to put so much detail into such an exciting format that you don't want to put the book down until you are done! Fantastic storytelling!!! Stieg Larsson is a genius. ( )

Basically this is a comic book in prose. There are very few characters that are not extremes. The villains are super-villains, the hero a super-heroes. Everything is big, bold and brightly colored. When there is action it is swift and intense. When there is dialogue it’s pithy and snappy. Reality hardly enters into the equation and that’s what makes these so much fun to read. That and the convoluted plot which, however improbable, is engrossing. This book makes an even bigger statement than the first one I think. The central conspiracy is more personal since it revolves around Salander herself. Yes, she’s a Mary-Sue, but like a performer on a stage in front of thousands, he must make every gesture huge, every expression grotesque, every move exaggerated in order for it to come across to the poor slobs in the nosebleed seats. Larsson’s contempt and enmity for men who hate women is an extreme one and a light hand cannot convey what he feels.

I don’t know where he wanted to take this series ultimately since his life was cut short before he could finish, but it’s clear that this second book is only a rung on the ladder. The action ends abruptly and without resolution and I hope we get that in the next book. ( )

With 150 pages of this 550 page epic to go, I was ready to write a blistering put down of this second novel in the 'Girl Who' trilogy.
The characters were re-introduced a little too fulsomely and the soft porn concerning Salander's lesbian affair with Miriam Wu were tedious in the extreme. Zala was a poor man's Darth Vada and Ronald Niedermann, the man who could feel no pain, was an amalgam of two Bond baddies (Renard and Jaws); although slightly less realistically portrayed, if such be possible.
Solander has become a creature that makes Superman look ineffective; she beats multiple thugs twice her size, slips into police computer networks in seconds, has a photographic memory and a ridiculously convoluted childhood.
The book is nonsense: and yet, and yet, Larsson has something of the storyteller about him and I simply could not put the book down through the final hundred pages or so.
This work could do with some serious editing and I do wish that he were able to create realistic characters - only Blomkvist, the reporter whom, I assume, is an idealised version of Larsson, is anywhere near believable. The story skirts around an unconvincing plot but, after that last hundred pages, I would have to say, albeit in a disbelieving way, that I enjoyed the read! ( )

A great follow up to Verblendung - I can't wait to find out what happens in the last book. ( )

When we last left Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, one of my favorite novels of 2009, they were on the outs. When The Girl Who Played with Fire, Mikael didn't understand why and Lisbeth has been spending time out of Sweden, especially in the Carribean. Although they continue to think of each other, they both move on with their lives. Mikael is involved in a large project at Millenium, which is focused on shedding life on the ugly underground world of sex trafficking. Lisbeth, finally back in Sweden, has decided to get used to the money at her dispense. She's bought a beautiful condo and, after rekindling her mainly sexual relationship with Miriam Wu, she lets her stay in her old flat so that she can continue to receive mail at her old address. It isn't long, however, before circumstances surrounding the brutal murders of Nils Bjurman, Salandar's corrupt legal guardian, and two of the people working with Blomkvist on the trafficking story make it impossible for the two to avoid each other.

This novel picks up the intensity of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and never lets it go. Lisbeth is an immediate target and is branded as a "psychotic lesbian SM satanist." Safe for a while in her new posh condo, she is forced out of hiding and into action when Miriam, living in her old apartment, is caught in the crossfire. All of Sweden believes that Lisbeth is a serial killer except Mikael. Given Lisbeth's path and "all the evil" she has experienced, the reader is also kept guessing about so much. It was another excellent novel to listen to on audio for all of these reasons. Simon Vance is once against a consummate narrator, making the murders, the chase, and Lisbeth's past come to life.

I loved this novel. Lisbeth, breast implants and all, is such a complex and strong character. She deals with hardship as it comes along and refuses to be mastered by it. I love how her abusive childhood and all it entailed was translated from the Swedish to "all the evil." Such a simple phrase, but it conveys her situation to perfection. With this second installment, I continue to be as entranced by Stieg Larsson's Milleium trilogy. I cannot wait until Reg Keeland's English translation of the last book in the series is available in the United States next year. The only thing stopping me from buying a copy of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest from overseas is the fact that I want to finish the series with Simon Vance. This is a series I know I will revisit over the years, wondering what would have happened to Lisbeth and Mikael had Stieg Larsson lived long enough to finish this project, which was meant to continue on past the first three novels.

http://literatehousewife.com/2009/12/... ( )