This was really fun to listen to. It’s not a wildly well written story but seems like it’s written to be something a studio would want to produce. The cast and production are amazing. Glad I got it.

The final act is quite good but the first two are not very well paced and filled with more contrivances than it can reasonably get away with. The previous books are meticulous, even when plodding, in order to generate some faith from the reader so that when something contrived happens there is so much detail buttressed into the fiction that the contrivances don’t matter.

Unfortunately the new writer just doesn’t have the same chops as the previous one. The psychology and headspace of the characters is shifted so that some actions sometimes don’t feel aligned with what’s known about them from previous books. It’s a bit jarring and takes a bit to get used to. The style shifts from a very detailed account to a more generic feeling thriller. The contrivances are around tropes in that genre. Evil twin, hyper sexualized manipulative femme fatale, and Lisbeth seems more toned down. The previous novels are completely unapologetic about the authors stance regarding systemic problems. It feels a bit toothless.

What I did like however, was the payoff at the end. The book felt a bit inflated as it recounts the same events from multiple view points, but the wrap up at the end was pretty satisfying. It’s still interesting, if somewhat commercial fiction feeling. Still fun and still engaging to return to a story with these characters. The technical information feels well researched and detailed. Things like hacking and burner phones and A.I and the like augment the story beyond what I’d typically consider pure commercial fiction. I’ll continue on with the next book still.

Holiday hand jobs are sad for everyone.

Why does somebody who has no interest in the characters and the spirit of original trilogy continue to write these books? There is again no character development to speak of, all them actually feel like they never had arcs and remain static so buddy can think up contrived plot lines.

Salander is again toothless and relegated to a secondary plot thread for the most part, with Micke, who is actually never called that again I think?, is investigating everything and tying it all together. Who cares that she’s better than him about it because when she knows she just doesn’t feel like telling anybody anything except for little hints. Again, all the character progression from the original movies just being erased.

It’s tropey as hell again too. More twins. Of course there’s Muslim extremists demonstrating how shitty they are to women. It’s all just so contrived and not bolstered with a larger political stance yet again. The author clearly has nothing to say—whether through the characters or through the premise or plot. It’s a cash cow being milked. A standard arrangement for a thriller with a kind or mystery. Which, had it been arranged different, would have actually been far more compelling too. And on top of that, when it does flashbacks there is suddenly no formatting so it’s actually annoying to read it.

Had the end actually been a prologue—especially considering it’s uhhh the f*ing past—the mystery would have been planted right away. He could have teased a part of WHY Lisbeth is in prison at the start beyond the original excuse as well as planting a little seed of what the heck happened in those woods? And then each part just continued those stories until the woods come up again.

Instead it’s been arranged in as boring a way as is possible. We are neither allowed to hear the inner workings of most characters, nor do we get prose that actually explain anything. It’s completely sterile throughout. This guy hates similes. I guarantee you this is a “show, don’t tell” author, ironically who just doesn’t show very well at all.

The result is very, I don’t know, “meh”, thriller. At least it was shorter than the last one, though.

I was pleasantly surprised after the last book. I actually wondered if half the trouble of the last one was translation, since the formatting in the book was off sometimes too. It seemed like a half assed effort all around. Luckily this book has two things the previous one did not: A coherent, decent mystery and plot, and the good flow. This made it less of a chore to read as it was far less boring.

I still feel like this trilogy deeply misunderstood fundamental aspects of Lisbeth and Micke. It’s toned down. Less political, very little to none character growth, and less feminist. As with the others I would call this one toothless. The plotting is not great, but serviceable. It’s an alright commercial fiction book, which yet again, didn’t pay much attention to Lisbeth. It is however, a much better effort than the last two books and I recognize that and appreciate it.

This was quite interesting. I like parable type stories that also have a story that makes sense, and this did that very well, I thought. The pacing dragged a bit because it is quite granular with detail at the start. It serves a purpose in showing what life on a reservation is like. But in doing both it does have a bit of stutter step effect for the first bit.

Another solid entry. I really like how each plot is rooted in research and history. The mystery in Iran was interesting but i felt this one dragged slightly because of Rachel being in Canada for most of it. The characters had less interaction and lots of the dialogue is by text or letters and the impersonal nature of it made it less engaging. Still, the plot itself I found to be very interesting and once the characters sync up it’s fantastic.