The Girl Who Played with Fire

Stieg Larsson

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government.

But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander—the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire.

As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

There were a lot of characters in this book and it was hard to keep track of them!

Alicia Evans

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Luke Harkness

A truly wonderful story that's utterly unique

What I loved about reading this book is that it constantly surprised me. I remember loving the first and truly loved this second also. You forget the different genres this story transcends and it's a joy to read. It feels like a spy/thriller story but also a crime mystery with a very unique main character that not only adds wonderful depth to her as a character but also the story.

C Fernando Maciel 

Very intricate plot. The story really gets the reader's atention.

I enjoyed a lot being with the Millenium Trilogy.

garnet

I have been completely pulled in by this series. Lisbeth is the best female MC I've read in a while, and I'm so excited by the themes of this novel. I was initially tentative about the author's approach to sexuality and sexual assault, but it is so well done. Larsson approaches the topic very well, and exposes the truth about how women are treated in a way that doesn't victimize the women in unfavorable ways. I'm entranced, and cant wait to read the next one. 

Mikael is a simp tho lol.

The electrifying follow-up to the phenomenal best seller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The fierce heart of this novel is Lisbeth Salander: the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who teamed up with crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This time, Lisbeth is implicated in a murder: her fingerprints found on the weapon used to kill two journalists the night before their explosive story about sex trafficking in Sweden was set to be published. Now, while Blomkvist—alone in his belief in her innocence—plunges into his own investigation of the slayings, Lisbeth is drawn into a hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

Book Two Of The Millennuim Trilogy

Laura Mauler

Holy shit this book is good, it blew my mind. I actually like it a little better than the first book because there is minimal sexual violence against women this time.

Peggy Walker

This is the 2nd book of the trilogy. After being sucked in to really like Lisbeth Salander in the first book, for me things went off the rails in this one. It doesn't seem likely that she is murdering people right and left, but we are set up to believe that she might have. There was certainly enough action to keep the reader engrossed, but there is no actual resolution at the end. You could read the first book and not read the sequel, but you definitely need to read book 3 to find out how things turn out. I liked this book less than the first because it seemed as though they were turning Lisbeth into a completely different person.

Shape Mismatch

This is the book which finally got me interested in the Genre. Exceeding my expectations by leaps and bounds, the way Larsson uncovers the layers of the plot, one by one, like layers of onion, leaves me spellbound. Piece of advice - don't read this book looking out only for the plot.

Jonathan Tysick

An enjoyable page-turner with a questionable sexual ethic. Looking forward to reading the 3rd book.

Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. Two Millennium journalists about to expose the truth about sex trafficking in Sweden are murdered, and Salander's prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society - but no-one can find her. Mikael Blomkvist, Millennium magazine's legendary star reporter, does not believe the police. Using all his magazine staff and resources to prove Salander's innocence, Blomkvist also uncovers her terrible past, spent in criminally corrupt institutions. Yet Salander is more avenging angel than helpless victim. She may be an expert at staying out of sight - but she has ways of tracking down her most elusive enemies.

The Girl who Played with Fire

Ed Kay

So. Boring. Unlike the first book which constantly unfolds with new characters and revelations, this one takes 200 pages for something to happen and another 200 for people to start making progress understanding it. In the meantime we read, and reread, that the characters involved in three separate investigations have so many questions and just don't get it. "Blomkvist puzzled over these questions and then made himself coffee and a sandwich". Ugh.

Caitlin Hooker

Sooo good!! i loved it and can't wait to read the next book!!

A little slow at the beginning and quite detailed about the characters, unlike the first one. But like the first one the story has a great plot twist and is mysterious and makes you want to never stop reading the next page

Ana Vales

Lacy W

Holy cow, this was an incredible book! It is one of those books that you have to take your time with. There is a lot of information that is packed into this and a lot more side characters but what you find out about Lisbeth and her past makes it all worth it in the end. Which of course I'm not going to talk about here because it's a lot better to find out on your own. 

I found that Lisbeth's growth was incredible from the first book to this one. She is finally starting to realize that other people do care about her and she can't just disappear off the face of the earth although I wish she had made up with Mikael. I know that what she has gone through as a child definitely didn't help her socialization anything and I definitely think Lisbeth has some sort of autism. But truly her growth is just so awesome. I hope she continues to grow in the following books. 

Speaking of what Lisbeth has gone through, ah! My heart just hurt for this poor child. No one should have gone through what she did. It's just heartbreaking. Don't worry, it's not super descriptive but for those that have been abused might want to gloss over that part. 

Mikael was still the same old Mikael. I like that he worked so hard to prove Lisbeth's innocence, even though she wanted nothing to do with him. He really should have been a detective with the way he was able to connect all the missing dots. I wasn't even able to put those all together but then again, I suck at mysteries. I just found that I enjoyed Lisbeth's POV more. 

I have read a few reviews of this book while reading the book and I know there are some people that don't like Lisbeth for what she does. Yes, she is incredibly violent BUT only when pushed to be. She lives her life by her own set of morals, which I think is awesome. She hates men who hates women. So if you are a man that abuses woman, yeah, she isn't going to like you. Also, I think with the possibility of her having autism of some degree, she just looks at the world at the world differently. There isn't anything wrong with that. I am and will always be a fan of Lisbeth.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. Maybe even more than the first one. One of my favorite things in book series is finding out the backstory of characters. There was so much hidden about Lisbeth in this first book that I very nearly frustrated. But a lot of things were answered in this book and I'm grateful for that. I can't wait to start the next book!

Rohan Uddin

The book heavily sagged in the first act. When Salander was gone in the second act, I felt somehow cheated. However things finally went straight and the thrill factor came back. The book may not be very well written in terms of prose, but the story is top notch. The third act was the best; quick, satisfying, and closed all loose ends. In my opinion, this isn't as good as the first book, but is great material for a film.

Beatriz Aguiar

the end wrapped up a bit too quickly but... wtv the book is too good

Arturo Hernández

I appreciate the way the author showcases Lisbeth Salander as such a complex character and somehow manages to make you want to know more and more about her background as the chapters go by. I wish this book had a faster pace, however, I got hooked by the final ones and will continue reading the series ASAP.

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium Trilogy)

Gayathri Jinesh

The girl writing this review looked up over to her bookshelf, and sighed at the size of Hornet's nest.
I wanted to love this book. I started this book hoping I would end up giving this a 4 or 5. Most reviews promised it to be better than the Dragon Tattoo, but sadly I don't feel so.
This continues about 1 year after the events of the first book. And this time it is Blomkvist's turn to help Salander out of a pickle. Since it's Salander, you can imagine how that would go.
I tried to write what I felt about what I was reading, while reading, since the book was too long and I had so little time to read and could not make it to more than 20-30 pages a day. It's a good thing I did that, because this book feels different at different parts. There are parts where I felt like reading without missing one word; pages I read multiple times and lingered on every word. There are parts when I felt like throwing the book, right out the window.
Blomkvist is a dry character. Considering how major a character he is in the book, he is surprisingly one-dimensional. I don't suppose the author put much effort into him - or purposefully made him dry, so that his masterpiece would stand out.
But she wished she had the guts to go up to him and say hello or possible break his legs, she wasn't sure which
She had stared at him for a whole minute and decided that she did not have a grain of feeling left, because it would have been the same as bleeding to death. Fuck you
She loved having company that left her alone (Me too Sally, me too)
There is some thing that imparts a dark quality to this book. It is probably the view we get of the world, from over Salander's shoulder. It feels cold, damp, and lonely. I don't remember the last time I read a book where the author put so much effort in chiseling the personality of their lead character. It evolves, it's original. It's perfection. You have Salander's character development to savor during the initial few chapters until a turn of events happen.

A comparison with Dragon Tattoo
Dragon tattoo had a direction - a sequence of events. And the book hung on suspense. This book is multiple parallel investigation, pointing to an obvious solution. Though the whodunnit isn't clear, who did not do it is pretty clear and the whole investigation shebang loses its intrigue. Our interest becomes in knowing what happens after.

The dearth of conversation between Salander and Blomkvist or at least Salander and Armansky is disheartening. Salander talking to anyone, even a dog would have sufficed - to suck on till I reached the final chapters.
There's another turn of events (or rather a turn of understanding) later in the book, when things get interesting again. When the girl lazing through the pages drinking cheap-something-that-tastes-like-coffee, perks up. Something that makes her read the rest of the book, probably around 90 pages, in one sitting.
In short, this book is for patient readers, who love dark psychological thrillers. For those who read the Dragon Tattoo and would like more insight into Salander's life, but are prepared to face a lack of Salander-Blomkvist dynamic, that made the first book so lovable.

Rishabh

Building on the trails from the first book, this one soon heads dashes off into a murky world. The character of Lisbeth Salander becomes all the more fascinating and the pacing of the book is excellent.

Kirsten Simkiss

I enjoy figuring out what's going on in a murder mystery. In fact, I'm fucking good at it. I've always been pretty good at it, so needless to say I knew exactly what was going on pretty much as soon as Lisbeth showed up at the apartment in Enskede. I finished this book literally to confirm what I had guessed 300 pages prior. Aside from one part that threw me off a little - I thought the author had done something far more diabolical than he actually did - it was an enjoyable crime drama, as the last one was. 

I enjoyed the prose of the plot, although most of the characters made stupid, boring decisions that overall screwed the plot. I don't know what it is about Larsson's characters, but I find it very hard to connect and therefore to care about them. For Lisbeth, of course, that's a given. She doesn't really connect with people. And Blomkvist, though well intentioned, is always a day late and a dollar short when it comes to the mystery at hand, which frustrated me. Meanwhile Lisbeth has everything - literally all the information - and refuses to share it with anyone due to trust issues despite them having proven themselves in times past. It makes me just want to smack the two characters' heads together and let them sort it out on their own.

I also find that the character that are side characters tend to be one of three ways. 1] Unimportant. They serve as footmen, literally there to relay information to more important side characters. 2] Anti-gay and misogynistic douche canoes. You'd think, "Surely there will only be one, maybe two in this book." Nope. Two more outspoken ones perhaps, but every male that doesn't fit into the first category with the exception of Ronaldo the boxer (Seriously where the fuck did that character come from and why the fuck was he even necessary to the book? I don't get this character's real purpose at all.) fits into this category. 3] Decent human beings. Remarkably, this seems to be one or two men and few female characters in the book. You'd be surprised how few of those there were.

I love that Larsson condemns racism and misogyny, but I don't really love the sexual violence that haunts his books. Even though there isn't much described, not like the rape in the first book, there are multiple mentions of sexual assaults and rapes. It's not really something I enjoy spending my personal time dwelling on, something that as a woman I have to be constantly mindful of in the everyday world.

Overall, I'm giving this book a 3.5 out of 5, but I'm rounding down on Goodreads since that will bring the average closer to my ideal rating. This is a solid B book for me if we're going by letter grades. I definitely don't recommend this to others if they haven't read the first book, as it definitely plays into the characters in the second book.

Ahmed Salem

إثارة اسكندنافية سويدية مفتخرة تدور حول تحقيقات صحفية تكشف عالم إجرامي مبني على تجارة الجنس و الرقيق الحديث... انا احب شخصية إليزابيث و تمردها

اكتب لكم هذه الكلمات و قد وقع بالأمس فقط انفجار أطاح بصحفية مالطية قد ساهمت بشكل كبير في فضح ملفات أولئك المتهربين من الضرائب فيما اشتهر بأوراق بنما

في الغالب لا يوجد فارق بين الخيال على الورق و العالم القاسي الذي نعيشه

Sanat Gersappa

Liked the first one in the series better. I'll probably avoid the third one :-).

Cams Campbell

I enjoyed this book very much. Once again, I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Saul Reichlin. He does a brilliant job with the Swedish names and voices for characters. His high-pitched voice for the blond giant was great!

And so to the book. I don't know why I left a gap of years between the first and second books of the trilogy. But enough of the first tale was related to in the second that it wasn't long before I had the plot of the first back in my head again. I suppose that's a job that the author has to see for those such as I with poor memories. I don't intend to leave a gap between two and three though, mainly because two doesn't really end as such. It wraps up the whodunnit nicely but leaves it wide open for the third book. It reminded me of Empire Strikes Back, of which, incidentally, it also reminded fellow goodreader, Steve Betz!

The timeline and pace of the book are just right. We get Salander's visiting Svensson and Johannson's flat* and then she's not in the book for ages after that while the tale of her suspected guilt is built up. Brilliant! 

It reads like a book written by a master of his craft. It reminded me a little of the early Jason Bourne books in the suspense and twists and turns. It made me want to walk the dogs more than usual and delete a few podcasts from my queue, so it certainly deserves four stars for that reason. 

In terms of literary weight, I'd mark it down to three, so I guess overall it should get 7/10. Four seems a little too high and three a little too low. 

*Forgive my spelling if it's not quite right; I had the audiobook!

Fraser Simons

While different than the first book pacing wise, the second instalment is still very enjoyable. It still interrogated systemic injustice/inequality and has a modern day cyberpunk feel. Everything Lisbeth ends up possessing is appropriated from others and progress is made through the use of technology. You learn more about her backstory, which was sketched out previously. Great characters, interesting plot. Only complaint is it drags a bit pace wise when compared to the first book, which has a more thriller feel to it after the initial infodump.

Yulande Lindsay

Quite good so far. I love his style, very straight forward and clean.

Sarah Escorsa

Okay, after loving The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (one of the best books I've read in a long time!) I was afraid the second volume in the Millennium series would be a disappointment. Well it turns out "The Girl Who Played With Fire" is as fantastic a read as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, so the same review applies: well-written, full of suspense, intelligent and offering very interesting insight into contemporary societies. The characterization is fantastic and the book is an engrossing read! And the ending of the book is one of the most gripping I've ever read: you get to the last line, turn the page expecting more and... nothing! So now I have to wait for three whole months before the third volume is published!!!

The Girl Who Played with Fire

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