I finally made my way through The Girl Who Played with Fire. It felt like this one took quite a while to get through, but I have been struggling my way through a reading slump anyway. I have some real thoughts about this one, so read on.

The Story

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.

My Thoughts

If you recall in my review of Dragon Tattoo, I was remembering a part of this series that I thought was in the first book. Turns out the pieces I was remembering were, in fact, two different parts of The Girl Who Played with Fire. I’m glad I wasn’t losing my mind and those pieces actually were part of this series. It was about to turn into a mad hunt for that storyline if it wasn’t.

As a whole, I did not think this was quite as good as the first book. It was (I thought) unnecessarily long. There is the huge story of exposing the sex trafficking in Sweden among officials, and then it doesn’t happen. Now, this was the last book I completely finished when I tried to work my way through the series the first time, so I’m hoping Hornet’s Nest resolves the story. This book left you with a bit of a cliffhanger.

Now, my real gripe with this book was about its portrayal of women coming from men. Salander’s character does not identify as a lesbian, but there was so much focus on the fact that she has relations with women. There were almost pages about her breast augmentation. Mention after mention of how certain male characters just don’t handle assertive, strong women. I know it’s a running joke that men exaggerate when they write for/about women, but this felt excessive.

I have four more books to go, and I’m excited to finally see where the series goes from here!

Note: This post contains affiliate links, so I may receive a commission from sales generated, at no additional cost to you!