The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium #2) in All Ears Audiobooks

Aug 04, 2009 Roxanne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: page-turners

This is my kind of thriller. Woman protagonist who can do it all, tatooed, armed and dangerous. Also, did I say brilliant computer hacker? She is my hero. Rebels against the good old boys and wins. We need more characters like her.

Stieg Larsson's second of three in a series. His first, "The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo" was every bit as riveting. Read this first if you can. His third and final novel has yet to be published. Sadly, he died in 2004 just after submitting his three novels, so we not s ...more

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Nov 01, 2009 Lars Guthrie rated it it was amazing

The most worthy of sequels: all the elements that made 'Dragon Tattoo' so wonderful, with, if it's possible, even more nail-biting action, new characters who I hope to see again, and most enticing of all, the mysterious Lisbeth Salander's backstory filled in. Like 'Tattoo,' this one also qualifies as literature way beyond any genre. As an exposé of the Eastern European sex trade, it has a serious message that dovetailed nicely with recent news of an installation done by Emma Thompson and a survi ...more

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Apr 06, 2010 Spuddie rated it it was ok

#2 Millenium trilogy featuring Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Salander returns home from her year-long sabbatical away from Sweden, settles into a new home and tries to figure out what to do with her life. She hasn't seen or spoken to any of her acquaintances since returning, but when she hacks into Blomkvist's computer to see what he's up to, she's stunned to see that he and his colleagues are working on an exposé of the sex trade in Sweden, specifically in importing penniless young gir #2 Millenium trilogy featuring Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Salander returns home from her year-long sabbatical away from Sweden, settles into a new home and tries to figure out what to do with her life. She hasn't seen or spoken to any of her acquaintances since returning, but when she hacks into Blomkvist's computer to see what he's up to, she's stunned to see that he and his colleagues are working on an exposé of the sex trade in Sweden, specifically in importing penniless young girls in from foreign countries to essentially become slaves. She gathers some information and goes to see the young couple who are working specifically on the issue and the couple ends up brutally murdered just after she's there.

Blomkvist, who had called them to say he'd drop by some paperwork that was needed, discovers the bodies. When Salander's fingerprints are discovered on the weapon and her guardian is also found dead, she becomes the victim of a frantic witch hunt with painful details of her past splashed all over the papers--but for some reason, no one including the police, the prosecutor, or the newspapers has any information about the most important incident of all, the thing she calls "All The Evil" which occurred around her thirteenth birthday. Blomkvist and his team try to solve the murders of their co-workers independently of the police, as he does not believe Lisbeth is guilty.

Ok. I'm going to say right now that it took me weeks to read this book. I give the author an A for the storyline and plot, but the execution of the idea was, in my opinion, rather poorly done. The book seriously needed editing--it was way too long with way too many insignificant tangents and details about minor characters that were totally unnecessary and irrelevant. The writing style itself was very uneven--sometimes I was captivated and sucked into the story, but then a few pages later I had trouble concentrating because the writing had changed to superficial claptrap--for example, when Salander was furnishing her new home, there were three pages of prose listing the furniture (including brand names from Ikea) and the decor, yet when I was done reading that passage, I had no sense at all of what the place really looked like.

It was almost like there were two people writing. There was also the dichotomy with the characters--Salander was fascinating to me, but Blomkvist was dead boring. I also had to wonder why, with the supposedly wonderful medical care Sweden has, no one even whispered the term "Aspberger's Syndrome" in connection with Salander. I'm not a professional, and yet it was fairly clear to me (even in the last book!) that she likely had some form of that malady.

I've decided I'm not going to torture myself and read the third one. I know a lot of people loved this book, and when I had such an opposing reaction, I really did take some time to figure out if this is just me being contrary (as I have been known to be on occasion!) or if I had some valid criticism. I think my criticism is valid. The whole premise of the book and the story was a superb idea, but in my mind it was just poorly brought to life. This was not a book I couldn't put down, this was a book I HAD to put down and read in small bits in order to finish it. I can't help but wonder if the author had lived if the editing done would have been better. I guess we'll never know. ...more

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Jan 16, 2010 Chris rated it liked it

Shelves: series, mystery-thriller, europe, mystery, fiction

I did not care for this book as much as the first. Although I did finally get into at the end, I put it down for about a month. I think part of the problem is that everyone is working on their own in this book and you don't really get attached to any one character. Blomkvist seems very one dimensional here. If nothing else, you certainly end up with more sympathy for Salander. It will be interesting to see what happens in the third book. ...more

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Jan 01, 2010 Julie rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, mystery

After finishing The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I couldn't wait to listen to the sequel The Girl who Played with Fire. I saved it for vacation and was not disappointed. The first book leaves you wondering about Lisbeth Salander's life and wanting more of this intriguing character. This sequel focuses more on Lisbeth's life and past history. I love Larsson's gritty dialog and clever plot twists - a mystery author who goes way beyond plot, he has created another literary suspense novel. Although ...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Tara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: foreign-country-author, fiction, mystery, read-in-2011

It was a great story line and interesting twists and turns in the plot and a very surprising ending, just like the first book in the series. The problem I had with this book was that the mystery to be solved was introduced very early in the book and it took a llllooonnng time to follow the different characters that were working on solving the mystery - I think they could have cut out some of it. I might have missed it but how did Bloomkvist know where to go at the very end of the story? Can some ...more

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