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A review by jblounts
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Manolo Carot, Rachel Zerner, Sylvain Runberg, Stieg Larsson
3.0
The Girl Who Played with Fire continues to follow the adventures of Swedish journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the brilliantly crafted character of Lisbeth Salander, a sort of Pippi Longstocking-meets-cyberpunk-computer hacker young woman who is, in this reader's opinion, infinitely interesting. To paraphrase Blomkvist, whose relationship with Salander is, to say the least, complicated, Salander is a "woman who hates men who hate women" and there is no shortage of opportunity in this book for her to pursue her somewhat black-and-white sense of justice, while Blomkvist assists from the sidelines.
What makes Larsson's books appealing, for the most part, is his tireless dedication to a complicated, plot-driven story. This one includes Soviet defectors, sex trafficking, and corruption in the Swedish government, among other layers of intrigue. The narrative perspective of the book is third person omniscient in the truest sense...the reader gets into the heads of dozens of different characters. This is interesting, of course, because of the multiple viewpoints one gets on the situation, but the point-of-view switches happen so quickly and so frequently that it is impossible for the reader to get a full understanding of any one character's perspective, so you're left wondering why you are provided with that perspective in the first place.
The two things that are most fascinating about this world that Larsson has crafted are the character of Lisbeth Salander and the magazine that is the namesake of the series, Millennium, and there simply isn't enough of either of these in this second book in the series. The irony is that it probes Salander's mysterious past, which readers of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will appreciate and will not be disappointed by, but at the same time, her character is conspicuously absent for the vast middle of the book. Likewise, Blomkvist's magazine plays a key role in setting in motion the events of the plot and is all-too-close to the violent crime around which the story centers, but I would rather have remained focused on the journalists' investigations into the crime rather than the tedious politics and goings-on of the police that ensue.
To sum it up, the beginning, which culminates in Salander's dramatic involvement in an abusive relationship while she is traveling in the Caribbean, and the end, which is so fantastic that I dare not even hint at it, are what I love about Larsson's storytelling. The problem is that the big, sagging middle of the book is less than satisfying.
While I can easily see past Larsson's fact-by-fact, journalistic style when I'm engaged by plot and character development, I think I need to take a break from it before I move onto the 3rd and final book in the series, even though this one ended with something of a cliffhanger. I need some poetry and nuanced language, which is definitely not Larsson's strength. But, rest assured, I will return to the Millennium series...Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander are way too intriguing to abandon now and I hold out hope that this book was simply the bridge to something greater.
What makes Larsson's books appealing, for the most part, is his tireless dedication to a complicated, plot-driven story. This one includes Soviet defectors, sex trafficking, and corruption in the Swedish government, among other layers of intrigue. The narrative perspective of the book is third person omniscient in the truest sense...the reader gets into the heads of dozens of different characters. This is interesting, of course, because of the multiple viewpoints one gets on the situation, but the point-of-view switches happen so quickly and so frequently that it is impossible for the reader to get a full understanding of any one character's perspective, so you're left wondering why you are provided with that perspective in the first place.
The two things that are most fascinating about this world that Larsson has crafted are the character of Lisbeth Salander and the magazine that is the namesake of the series, Millennium, and there simply isn't enough of either of these in this second book in the series. The irony is that it probes Salander's mysterious past, which readers of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will appreciate and will not be disappointed by, but at the same time, her character is conspicuously absent for the vast middle of the book. Likewise, Blomkvist's magazine plays a key role in setting in motion the events of the plot and is all-too-close to the violent crime around which the story centers, but I would rather have remained focused on the journalists' investigations into the crime rather than the tedious politics and goings-on of the police that ensue.
To sum it up, the beginning, which culminates in Salander's dramatic involvement in an abusive relationship while she is traveling in the Caribbean, and the end, which is so fantastic that I dare not even hint at it, are what I love about Larsson's storytelling. The problem is that the big, sagging middle of the book is less than satisfying.
While I can easily see past Larsson's fact-by-fact, journalistic style when I'm engaged by plot and character development, I think I need to take a break from it before I move onto the 3rd and final book in the series, even though this one ended with something of a cliffhanger. I need some poetry and nuanced language, which is definitely not Larsson's strength. But, rest assured, I will return to the Millennium series...Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander are way too intriguing to abandon now and I hold out hope that this book was simply the bridge to something greater.