The Girl Who Played with Fire
Stieg Larsson
July 2009
519 pages
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For the FTC: I bought it. Then I gave it to my mom, who doesn’t blog or own a used book store (unfortunately), so don’t go hunting her down.
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This is Book 2 in the Millennium Trilogy. I read Book 1, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a few months ago.
I’m totally going to ignore the plot, except to tell you it is definitely a sequel, and it focuses more on Lisbeth Salander. Also, re: the ending…holy crap! It’s quite a ride.
However. (You totally saw that coming, didn’t you?) I have two bones to pick.
1. The writing. It is becoming almost unbearable. I’m now on the third book, and I had to take a break. Larsson can draw out mundane descriptions of the most minor characters. It’s boring (it’s more than boring…it’s painful), it’s unnecessary and it is making the book hella long. This isn’t to say I don’t like the story, but good grief, the story often disappears in the paragraphs of tedious descriptions.
2. The titles. Lisbeth is a kick-ass heroine. Literally. And she’s 25 when The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo starts, 27 by the end of The Girl Who Played with Fire. Why, for fucks sake, is she called a girl in the titles?!?
I enjoyed Girl Who Played With Fire as well, although not as much as Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Yep, the descriptions were annoying – I mean, I don’t really need to know each and every item she picked up from the grocery store – but, I still found the plot well-built.
As for the titles: originally, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was supposed to be called Men Who Hate Women or something (that’s what the Swedish title was, anyway). Not sure who decided to change the title or why!
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Happy New Year and thanks for your kind comment left on my most recent post. It means a lot. I also want to thank you for all comments left in 2009, which has certainly made it much more fun to blog. I would probably blog anyway, but still, comments DOES make it funnier.
PS. I agree about the girl thing in the titles, but to be fair, only the second book in the trilogy has girl in the title originally. The other two does not have girl in the title. And I don’t remember that many descriptions…? I agree the books were long (and I wasn’t overly crazy about the second one myself), but then again its been a while since I read them, so maybe I just forgot
Louise´s last blog ..Happy New Year & Welcome to 2010
LOL! Keep coming with these awesome interesting tidbits of your rx to stuff.
Care´s last blog ..Snowin’ In the New Year
I am excited to read this one but I think I will wait awhile since I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a little over a week ago. Reading both so close together may be a bit of overload for me.
Stephanie´s last blog ..Best Books of 2009
I haven’t started this series yet, but I do have The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in my TBR pile. I’m wondering if I’ll like it since it’s full of mundane descriptions.
Kathy´s last blog ..Review: Julie of the Wolves
I am looking forward to reading this series. It sounds like such edge-of-your-seat reading. And yeah, the girl thing in the title is a bit annoying.
Literary Feline´s last blog ..War Through the Generations: Vietnam War Challenge
Ha! Why, indeed, is she called a girl? I have wondered the same thing! I read the first book, have hesitated to read the second, partly for reasons you mention. I liked the style of the first book, but found there were some slow bits…
Happy New Year, by the way! Happy New Decade, too!
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I’m taking a break from this series after finishing Dragon Tattoo a little while ago – I liked it but I needed a break from the violence!
Karen´s last blog ..2010 – Another Wonderful Year of Books!
I am now reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and to be honest, when it gets a bit wordy…I skim through those paragraphs. The story is interesting, which is compelling me to keep reading, but I kind of don’t care about the entire history of one town.
As for your comment about “girl.” I agree. I keep reading and thinking that Lisbeth is 17 and she’s not…which completely alters my image of her.
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I’m starting this series this year … I have to see what these books are all about for myself.
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I need to read these. The titles are probably why I haven’t jumped on these sooner. Yes I judge books by titles sometimes.
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Because she is so small and petite and child-like. That is why she is still referred to as a “girl.” The author mentions it quite a bit. It didn’t bother me too much until you mentioned it. I guess I didn’t notice it before. But in Sweden the first book was called Men Who Hate Women so I wonder who changed it to Girl…the U.S.?
I am on the wait list for book 3.
Ti´s last blog ..The Sunday Salon: Life. Rushing. At. Me.
So intrigued! I just started reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo a few days ago (picked it up in the airport on our way home) and so far so good. I have heard mixed things about the series, so I’m interested to see where I fall on the spectrum!
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It is sounding as though I shouldn’t bother reading this one. I didn’t see what all the fuss was about with the first book, so am disappointed that you thought this was predictable and that the descriptions were too long. Enjoy the third!
Jackie (Farm Lane Books)´s last blog ..The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
Yep, your review is dead on correct. He does go on and on and on about descriptions of characters. The sad thing is, at times he ruins the story and flow because of the long paragraphs of descriptions. I’m on page 401 of “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and I can hardly set the book down. It’s painful. Hopefully by tomorrow AM, Saturday, I will be done
Great review.
Gayla
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I’ve gone back and forth on this series. I’m still on the side of not reading it. lol.
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hahaha! You had to come with something.. i was looking fwd to this one!
u r right, the description part – a bit tedious
and well i never thought abt the title
the 3rd one is out and is named AGAIN The girl …