The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Played With Fire

By: Stieg Larsson

I’ll assume that if you want to read this book or already bought this book that you’ve read the first book: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. If not, I’d like to kindly ask you to stop right there and go back to the first book. You can not read the second book in this trilogy without reading the first.

That being said, this book does have a completely new story-line, but you need the history to gain the full understanding. It’s so difficult to explain Larsson’s plot line within these books. I’ll leave it at saying that  Lisbeth Salander is back and is working with journalist Mikael Blomkvist again on unraveling some criminal activities and mysteries. However, the relationship between Salander and Blomkvist has changed drastically since we last heard from them, so that adds a twist to the feel and direction of the plot.

General thoughts on this book – it made me immensely nervous right from the beginning. I was terrified for Lisbeth and worried about what would happen to her next. I felt this way a little bit in the first book, but this book intensified those feelings and did so right from the start.

As per Larsson’s first book, it’s a fast-paced, intriguing page turner. I cancelled plans and skipped the gym to go home and read this book. I did not want to put it down. However, toward the end there were a few details and situations here and there that I found to be a bit unbelievable or far-fetched. This disappointed me momentarily, but did not affect my overall opinion of the book.

The end of this book way okay, but nothing entirely amazing. Overall though, if you liked the first Larsson book, I can pretty much guarantee you will enjoy this one as well. But remember – it’s not for the faint of heart, there are some serious thrills and chills in these books.