Well, it’s the end of an era, friends. I have finally finished the Millennium series. This journey started many years ago, and it ended on a very flat note. David Lagercrantz had no business picking up the series. I gave him a chance, but The Girl Who Lived Twice was just another let down.

The Story

The girl with the dragon tattoo is finally ready to confront her nemesis, the only woman who is evidently and in many ways her match. Salander will not wait to be hunted. When she strikes it will be a double blow: vengeance for recent atrocities, and the settling of lifelong scores.

For months now Salander has been closing in on her target. She has moved from Stockholm, her hair is newly styled, her piercings are gone. She could pass for any other businesswoman. But not all businesswomen have a Beretta Cheetah beneath their jacket. They do not wield the lethal power of a hacker’s genius. They do not carry scars and tattoos to remind them that they have survived the unsurvivable.

The new episode in David Lagercrantz’s acclaimed, internationally bestselling continuation of Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tattoo series is a thrilling ride that scales the heights of Everest and plunges the depths of Russian troll factories. It begins with the discovery of Mikael Blomkvist’s number at Millennium magazine in the pocket of an unidentified homeless man who died with the name of a government minister on his lips.

Blomkvist, at extreme risk to himself, tracks down his old friend and will protect her as far as he can. But he is powerless to crush her enemies on his own.

And for Lisbeth Salander, the personal is always political – and deadly.

Be sure to check out Bookshop.org for all your book-buying needs! You get to help your local bookstores too.

My Thoughts

If my intro wasn’t enough, I will repeat it: David Lagercrantz should have left the series alone. His capitalist mindset was intelligent enough to select such a well respected series. However, he did not do the books justice.

In my last review, I mentioned how Lisbeth and Mikael were essentially living separate lives. Mr. Lagercrantz took two characters and just gave them each their own story in the same book. To me, that means laziness. If you can’t bring the storylines or “cases” together in the end, then don’t bother!

Plus, Mr. Lagercrantz’s Lisbeth is completely different than the badass we came to love (or at least respect) in Dragon Tattoo. She became reckless and disorganized. Mikael is super different too. Also, (semi-spoiler alert) why on Earth did he feel the need to drop Berger’s divorce in there? That was a completely unnecessary plot point that did nothing to move the story on and undid 5 books’ worth of explanations.

In the end, I will likely keep the first three books in the series and sell or donate the rest. After years of build up and finally making my way through the series, I feel very let down.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, so I may receive a small commission from sales generated (at no additional cost to you). Every penny goes to paying off my student loans while simultaneously buying more books. 😉