I enjoyed this much more than the last one - it lacked the vicious, undermining ending that I so loathed about Dragon Tattoo, and if the unconvincing exit from the grave wasn't particularly plausible here it at least didn't make a mockery of everything that came before. Like the first in the series, I found the middle of the story the strongest part, with the beginning a bit slow and the ending, well. I've commented on that (those) already. As for the subject matter... Larsson continues to focus on crimes against women as a measure of social and national dysfunction. I did find the sustained misogyny of so many of the characters hard to take, especially at first, but I came to understand that Larsson was making a point at just how embedded this particular toxicity is in the society he was writing about, so while I can't say that I particularly enjoyed that aspect of the book, I did learn to appreciate it for what it was. Far more enjoyable to me was the increased focus on Lisbeth over Blomkvist - he's a decent enough character but she's far more compelling. A bit less believable, too, to be honest, but her function as a character isn't to be the pinnacle of realism; she's closer to a grimdark superhero really, and it's very satisfying to read.