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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
Gripping, compelling, and at all times a sense of disturbance just beneath the surface. Once again proves that Scandinavian crime fiction is in a league all of its own.
It is still not my cup of tea. But I respect Stieg Larsson that successfully got me hooked everytime I picked the book up.
Several things that I have noticed while reading this book:
1. too many characters. It's very confusing sometimes. Especially because I am not familiar with Swedish names (or Western names, for that matter). As with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I realised that it was hard for me to identify the characters' genders because Larsson were explaining them by using their last names.
2. (almost) all of the characters in the book are very intelligent. it made me wonder about myself. what am I excel in? I don't have a photographic memory and extraordinary hacking ability like Lisbeth Salander. I don't have strong journalistic instinct like Mikael Blomkvist. I don't have excellent editorial capability and superiority of a woman like Erika Berger. What do I have that make me stand out in the crowd?
3. I think it's a bit annoying to know what every character buys at 7-eleven. Although, it makes the story seems very real, because all the characters keep stopping for coffee and sandwiches. It makes them more humane, they need to eat :)
4. I surprised myself that I had to put down the book and uttered "disgusting" when I read the scene about Lisbeth Salander and Miriam Wu were having sex. I am not a homophobic and I hope I am not denying it. But the scene was so real for me that I had to actually put the book down because it annoyed me so much.
It was certainly a great experience to read the second book. Definitely a much better experience for me, compared to the first book.
I cannot wait to start reading the third book!
Several things that I have noticed while reading this book:
1. too many characters. It's very confusing sometimes. Especially because I am not familiar with Swedish names (or Western names, for that matter). As with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I realised that it was hard for me to identify the characters' genders because Larsson were explaining them by using their last names.
2. (almost) all of the characters in the book are very intelligent. it made me wonder about myself. what am I excel in? I don't have a photographic memory and extraordinary hacking ability like Lisbeth Salander. I don't have strong journalistic instinct like Mikael Blomkvist. I don't have excellent editorial capability and superiority of a woman like Erika Berger. What do I have that make me stand out in the crowd?
3. I think it's a bit annoying to know what every character buys at 7-eleven. Although, it makes the story seems very real, because all the characters keep stopping for coffee and sandwiches. It makes them more humane, they need to eat :)
4. I surprised myself that I had to put down the book and uttered "disgusting" when I read the scene about Lisbeth Salander and Miriam Wu were having sex. I am not a homophobic and I hope I am not denying it. But the scene was so real for me that I had to actually put the book down because it annoyed me so much.
It was certainly a great experience to read the second book. Definitely a much better experience for me, compared to the first book.
I cannot wait to start reading the third book!
Occasionally wordy but always interesting. Absolutely compelling thriller.
If Goodreads had half star ratings, I'd probably really give this a 3.5. I didn't know Larsson had died before the publication, but I could guess it from some of the sloppier writing moments (which shouldn't have changed even for the vagaries of translation). The prose is harder to judge for not being in its native language, but, in English, it's prosaic and workmanlike with far more telling than showing. OTOH, for it's flaws, Larsson tells an interesting, engrossing story that had me turning pages until the end, irritated at every interruption that kept me from it. The entertainment value far outweighed any nitpicks I might make.
I enjoyed this book much more than the first in the series. 3.5 stars
This book, as the other two in the Millenium Trilogy, has a great plot. It’s brilliant, it’s intricate, it’s gripping and twisty as hell. The story holds the reader in and all you want to do is read all the over 700 pages in one sitting. It was perfect.
The characters are amazing, as well. They’re very detailed through their actions and their narration. You get to intimately know the main characters and a lot of the secondary characters too. They all have their motives and background stories to make them who they are. They have their own personalities and that build the plot, instead of the other way around.
However, this book, as the other two in this trilogy, has a big problem, and that’s why I won’t rate it five stars. It could be half the size if we cut the useless descriptions and details. We don’t need a detailed description of the characters clothes every time they show up, most of the time it’s just pointless. A character that barely appears in the book doesn’t need a backstory of two freaking pages. No one cares what the hell is in the sandwich. These books are filled with pointless and annoying details that are pretty much filler.
A lot of the times, a put down the book because these endless descriptions bored me. I still wanted to know what was going to happen next and how’d character would react, but I just couldn’t be bothered to cross a sea of filler to find out.
I loved the story, though. I love the characters, too. If only the execution could be better, this book would be perfect.
The characters are amazing, as well. They’re very detailed through their actions and their narration. You get to intimately know the main characters and a lot of the secondary characters too. They all have their motives and background stories to make them who they are. They have their own personalities and that build the plot, instead of the other way around.
However, this book, as the other two in this trilogy, has a big problem, and that’s why I won’t rate it five stars. It could be half the size if we cut the useless descriptions and details. We don’t need a detailed description of the characters clothes every time they show up, most of the time it’s just pointless. A character that barely appears in the book doesn’t need a backstory of two freaking pages. No one cares what the hell is in the sandwich. These books are filled with pointless and annoying details that are pretty much filler.
A lot of the times, a put down the book because these endless descriptions bored me. I still wanted to know what was going to happen next and how’d character would react, but I just couldn’t be bothered to cross a sea of filler to find out.
I loved the story, though. I love the characters, too. If only the execution could be better, this book would be perfect.
One of my friends said that when Larsson wrote this, it was kind of like he learned how to write as he went along, which I think is accurate. The beginning is slow, but sticking with it reveals a great story! I didn't read anything about this book beforehand, which I think worked out pretty awesome. And, obvs, I stayed up half the night to finish.
I originally "read" this a few years ago by listening to it on audiobook; the narrator did a great job with it and I wondered how it would be to reread it (physically, with an actual book). Turns out it measures up just the same. By now everyone knows the story -- there have been movies made of it in several languages now -- so it seems redundant to write a synopsis. But I wanted to add that I liked the storytelling, the multiple layers of stories, and the twist ending. I'm not sure what else could be said about this character so I'm hesitant to start the next book in the series, but if I'm curious enough...
https://readwithme2018.com/2019/01/03/throwback-thursday-january-3rd-2019/