Well, hello there. It's nearly March and I'm just making my debut. Allow me to explain my late arrival. I wanted to finish this entire series before writing a review, as I imagined a comprehensive review would do more good than individual reviews.
This is one of those series that I wouldn't recommend reading out of order, nor did I find either the second or third books to be worth reading without reading the first. Don't misunderstand me, the second and third books were worth reading, but not without the background of the first book (if for whatever reason you were inclined to read them out of order).
*A cautionary note to the feint of heart. Or to the sensitive. These books are filled to capacity with the F word. Not an occasional PG-13 F-word. I'm talking multiple times a page, nearly every page. If you're like me, you can drown it out because for some reason you find it less abrasive than having to hear it that much. But others may not be able to do so, and if that is the case, these books are not for you.
*These books also contain numerous explicit, non-explicit, heterosexual, homosexual, and/or violent sexual references. A few of span several pages. If you do choose to read them but want to skip the three particularly bad scenes, let me know and I can provide page references. The worst of them are in the first book.
As is the norm with series, the first book was definitely my favorite. Set in Sweden, it's about Michael Blomkvist, a journalist for Millennium magazine unjustly sentenced to serve a prison sentence for libel, who is hired by a wealthy businessman to investigate the 30-year-old murder/disappearance case of his niece. Along the way, Michael enlists a strange computer genius, Lisbeth Salander (the girl with dragon tattoo) to help solve the mystery, and to help him clear his name.
Larsson knows how to write a serious page-turner. He tells bits and pieces of stories 2-3 pages at a time, leaving each storyline unfinished so you have to keep reading to find out what happens. It's frustrating and invigorating. His characters are complex and imperfect. He begs the reader to question the judicial system, the government, and humanity in general.
The translator is a genius. It is one thing to be a good writer in your native tongue. It is another thing entirely to translate a well-written book into another language and maintain the voice and style.
Does this book deserve all the hype? Probably. That's not to say I don't have any qualms with the book. Larsson is, at times, obsessively detailed. I could have whittled out several pages here and there. It's also unnecessarily sexual and crude. I could've done with a few hundred less f-words and all the sexual references. There's also a lot of financial talk in the first few chapters that nearly put me to sleep multiple times. Additionally, reading this book, I realized how little Swedish I know. I had a hard time keeping track of a lot of people, as Larsson uses a lot of last names--and a lot of similar last names at that--in reference to characters.
All in all, though, a satisfying read. I'd give it four stars.
The Girl who Played with Fire & The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
My least favorite of the series. However, Larsson hooked me from the prologue. This book was a continued storyline of our friends Michael and Lisbeth, but this book delves into Lisbeth's story--which was starkly absent from the first book. She takes the lead role, and we get to know more about what makes her tick. Lisbeth begins the book abroad, enjoying spoils earned in the last book, and returns to Sweden to find her face plastered across every newspaper and television accused of three gruesome murders. There is conspiracy running in the deepest parts of government that no one even knows exist, centered on a very dark person from Lisbeth's past.
Be warned that the second book contains several lesbian references.
If you read the second book, you pretty much have to read the third one. Larsson ends the previous installment with a character on the brink of death, so to not read the third book would be impossible. I don't really know how to describe it without giving away some important parts of the second book. There were parts of this book that made my heart race with anticipation. It was a culmination of the first two books: mystery-thriller plus the inner workings of the two main characters, complete with scandal, suspense, and lots of f-words.
I'd give the third book 4 stars and the second book 3 stars.
Man, it was a let-down to finish this intense series. It left me feeling like my life was so boring. A good reason to start another fantastic book.
Yay! Thank you for such a detailed review. I love it when my main questions about a book are answered without even having to ask. :)
ReplyDeleteLovely first review! I've had a copy of it sitting on my Kindle for almost two years now, but after another friend (and prolific reader) gave me a rather ho-hum review of it I hesitated to even start it. You have inspired me to give it a chance.
ReplyDeleteI'm like you in that I can ignore the f-words. Eventually it does get really annoying, though. Of course, when I worked for FedEx my coworkers really did talk in multiple f-bombs per page, or per sentence sometimes depending on the person. I'd much rather read it than have it screamed at me at the top of a person's lungs at 5:30 AM. *shudder*