I didn’t want this book to end, mostly because I knew that there aren’t any more after it, but also because — like the first two — it just plain kicked ass.The man known as Zala is still alive, but the biggest danger is his son and the possibility that they will get away with the crimes they both committed against Lisbeth Salander. Mikael Blomkvist, journalist and publisher of outspoken magazine Millennium, must race against the clock to make sure that the Zalachenko conspiracy is exposed.
Note: I apologize for the shitty image. Usually I take a picture of myself with the book using my webcam, but it’s almost midnight while I’m writing this and I’m invoking my rights as a woman and not showing you my hair! My scanner just could not do the super shiny jacket justice, though.
If you’re new to the Millennium novels, check out my reviews of the first and second:
At the end of The Girl Who Played With Fire, I was terrified for Lisbeth. Some part of me knew that of course she would survive, but I still had to wonder. I was amazed by her ability to keep going, no matter what. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest starts off with Lisbeth being brought to the hospital by helicopter. Dr. Jonasson, the surgeon on duty, operates on her and gets her stable. He tells his colleague that the bullet hit the side of the brain that handles math and numbers, and that even if he can get the bullet out cleanly, the bone fragments could still damage the brain tissue. We get the foreboding feeling that, if Lisbeth survives, she won’t at all be the same person if she loses her mathematical abilities.Meanwhile, Mikael is working around the clock to expose the Swedish government’s coverup of the Zalachenko affair. He hires his sister, Annika, as Lisbeth’s lawyer. Niedermann — Lisbeth’s half brother — goes into hiding, and eventually the manhunt turns to him.
In this novel, we get a lot of backstory on Swedish Internal Security (SIS) and the Security Police (Säpo). We learn that inside of SIS is an organization called the Section, created solely to find Russian spies in Sweden, and known only to a select few. When Alexander Zalachenko shows up and requests asylum, only a few of those select few are chosen to be involved in the affair. That group is known as the Zalachenko unit. There are a lot of names for these things thrown around in the book, and even after going through it again it’s a little confusing to me. For example, Gullberg refers to SIS as the Firm, Blomkvist and friends refer to the Section as the Zalachenko Club, and so on. Sometimes the Section is even referred to as the SSA. I’m going to refer to SIS as Säpo, the Section will be the Section, and the Zalachenko unit will be the Zalachenko Club.
The backstory also tended to be boring at times. It was interesting, but there were, on occasion, paragraphs and paragraphs on Säpo and the Section, and even a small section at the back of the book explaining the assassination of Olaf Palme and several other historical events relating to Säpo, the Section, and other things in the novel. As long as I remembered that Olaf Palme was assassinated and there are a lot of conspiracy theories — similar to JFK — I could stay on top of it all (for the most part). At times, I felt like the inserted history lessons didn’t do much to move the story along. I definitely think that, of the three novels, The Girl Who Played With Fire had the best pace and least amount of slow parts.
It was really weird seeing Salander on the sidelines for so long. I was relieved when Blomkvist got her Palm smuggled in to her. Sure, she was planning on taking action on her own by sneaking out of the hospital, but I loved seeing her regain some control of the situation.
It was also weird to see Blomkvist finally settle down a little. He really is a wanderlust… in the most literal sense of the word! I liked him with Erika and Salander, and I do like him with Figuerola, but I have to admit that throughout all three books, I hoped it would work out so that Blomkvist and Salander ended up together. Still, I’m glad they ended up as friends.
I’m glad that Erika go to go on her own for a while at SMP, but I was very, very relieved when she returned to Millennium. I think she’s a lot like Salander, though Erika is a little less fearless than Salander.
I’m sad that we didn’t get to see much more of Mimi or Paolo Roberto. I thought they were great characters, and made some of the best sidekicks I’ve seen.
I have to say that I really like the way The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest ended. I like the Lisbeth regained her freedom, rebuilt her friendship with Mikael, and let the police handle Niedermann rather than take things into her own hands and sacrifice her freedom (even though she was completely justified in killing him).
Like The Girl Who Played With Fire, this novel is full of almost nonstop action. I had to work hard to keep myself from finishing it too soon, because there aren’t any other novels and I knew that I would be sad once I finished this one. I like that some of the book was a Swedish history lesson, even if it dragged in some places.Aside from the core group of characters — Mikael Blomkvist, Lisbeth Salander, Erika Berger, Miriam “Mimi” Wu, Ronald Niedermann, Detective Bublanksi, Detective Modig, and a couple others — it was hard to keep track of all the characters in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I kept getting confused between several of them, and kept forgetting who was who completely in some cases. I kept confusing Niedermann and the biker guy with the N name for a while, for example, and at one point completely forgot who Sonja Modig was. They were all necessary characters, but it was still tough sometimes. (I think Larsson should have included a character list in all three novels, the way that Stephen King did in Under the Dome. Maybe I’ll put one together, once I finish my list of The Walking Dead characters.)
Of the three Millennium novels, The Girl Who Played With Fire is by far my favorite, but The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is a nice end to the trilogy. I wish there were more books, but unfortunately, Stieg Larsson passed away not too long after giving his publisher all three manuscripts. Apparently, Larsson had plans for at least three more novels, but we will probably never see any of these. At least, I hope we don’t; since none of the three novels are complete, they would have to be ghost-written, and I absolutely hate the idea of anyone else continuing the trilogy. Unfortunately, it’s human nature not to leave things alone, so we might see at least a fourth novel. Do you think the fourth novel should be published?
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In my eyes, even if another book ends up being published, this one is the last.
Format: Novel
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (Random House, Inc.)
Pages: 563
Price: $27.95
I bought my copy at Barnes and Noble. Since I have a membership card, I got it for 40% off, bringing it down to $16.77 (before tax). I usually buy paperback when I can, but couldn’t wait for The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest to come out in paperback, so I had to suck it up. It was a pretty decent price, though, considering I bought the first two novels in paperback at Target on sale for $5.99 each (regular price $9.99 each).
I highly, highly recommend this and the other two Millennium novels. Even if you’re not normally a crime fiction fan, you’ll really enjoy the relationships between the characters, and all of the characters’ realistic qualities and behaviors.Pick up the Millennium novels individually, in a bundle, or in audio format in my Amazon store and support Freaking Bookworm!
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