The Girl Who Played With Fire.

I’ve been waiting for this to come out in paperback since I read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in paperback and I like my books to match. (YES HELLO VIRGO TENDENCIES. NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN.) Problem is, it took so long that it’s been nearly a year since I read TGWtDT… for the first time. Yep. I got two-thirds of the way through The Girl Who Played With Fire and went back, bought a new copy of TGWtDT (because I had “loaned” mine to Nuno’s brother in Portugal, where it still resides) and read it all over again.

I don’t necessarily think that you need to do this. The story of TGWPWF stands up on its own, certainly. There are a lot of references to TGWtDT, but they’re very well explained and there’s absolutely no reason that you need to have read it first – unless you’re a nrrrd like me. I went back because I couldn’t remember the details, which was making me mental. “Oh yes, I remember something about that… but, I don’t remember exactly how that happened…” As mentioned, I’m a Virgo and so there is this tendency towards completism that sometimes borders on neurosis. Certainly this is true with me and books.

My neurosis may have to bend on the “matching books” thing when The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest comes out. It’s either buy the hardback or re-read the first two in the series when the paperback comes out. CONUNDRUM. I could always buy the hardback, and then sell it to the used book store and buy a paperback copy later… IT IS VERY HARD TO BE ME.

… coming back to this draft, having now finished TGWPWF – it is no longer difficult. I will buy that book in hardcover the NANOSECOND that it is released. In fact, I am pre-ordering it on Amazon RIGHT. NOW.

The ending? I have never before read a book that literally got my heart rate up. I usually read at night, before I go to bed, and last night I got to the climax of the book. The perfectly paced book that leaves you a nice little trail of bread crumbs here and there. I figured out the big reveal about fifty pages before it’s unveiled, which is certainly what Larsson is aiming for and I don’t feel like any big genius for figuring it out. It’s not spelled out point blank, but any reasonably clever person who’s read a mystery before can figure out the mystery identity by the time it’s revealed. I honestly couldn’t keep reading as I’d taken a sedative before I started reading (a common occurrence for those of us who otherwise don’t fall asleep until 4AM and yet need to live normal lives), so the second I got up this morning I picked up the book.

Note: I never do this. Ever. I never read in the morning. Maybe in the afternoon, but it’s just not my habit to read first thing in the morning. Even on a Sunday. But I had to. I had to finish the book. And now I’m cursing myself that I finished it before TGWKTHN has been released because AAAHHHH EFFIN’ CLIFFHANGER GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…

Which seems an appropriate note to end this post on.

The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Lisbeth Salander kicks some serious ass.  That’s really all there is to say about the Swedish punk private investigator/hacker featured in Steig Larsson’s books, and after finishing the second book in a flurry, I am really lamenting his loss and already dreading the end of the third book.  It took no time at all after I finished the first book for me to bite the bullet and shell out for the second, even though it is still in hardback.

The Girl Who Played With Fire does drop off a bit from the first in storyline quality, although that’s to be expected when one of the main characters becomes a murder suspect and spends half the book in hiding.  Throughout the book, Larsson deals with sex trafficking and violence against women in Sweden, which makes Lisbeth all the more impressive (to me) as a survivor.  This is reminiscent of Dragon Tattoo, of which the original title translated to be “Men Who Hate Women.”  Good times, clearly.  Larsson’s books aren’t for the faint of heart, however, as he never shies away from details in disturbing situations.

Long story short, if you liked the first one (and I can only think of a few people I know I wouldn’t recommend that book to, primarily because of triggering scenes), you’ll probably pick up the second, and while it won’t top Dragon Tattoo, it will still leave you wanting to read more of Lisbeth Salandar and Mikael Blomkvist, and hey, if you hate those characters, each book is packed with at least 50 others to entertain you.