Sam Strives For 55 - Week 26

Here is week 26 of Sam's reading journey, the metrics and first week can be found here

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium #2) by Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland (Translator)

1. Intrigue
   1. Those who loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will either really like, or love this book. A journalist contends with wealthy men and a sex-traffic conspiracy. A brilliant hacker is forced to contend with her past, playing cat-and-mouse with criminals and police alike. It’s a novel full of the exploration of dark criminal work, and the struggle to expose it. A really excellent crime novel. Larsson is a master(mind). 
2. Writing Style: 
   1. The translator, Reg Keeland, does an impeccable job at creating the work on a sentence level that never distracts, and that keeps the beauty in the words. An efficient writer, Larrson has a random sentence that is nice or beautiful, when he writes beautiful sentences they are there to serve the story too. 
   2. Juicy quote:
      1. “There are no innocents. There are, however, different degrees of responsibility.” 
3. Flow of storytelling:
   1. This book lists a bit more than the first one - typical of sequels - it’s not as tight on the story. This may be due to more setting changes than the first book, or trying to reign in the behavior of Salander who seems to be able to do whatever she wants with her brilliant mind. It’s hard to always believe that this is the path Salander chose because she could choose so many others. 
4. Re-readability 
   1. Larsson’s books are never simple. Like any good re-readable experience, one could go through this series many, many times and catch new anecdotes, barring you not being too disturbed by the content.  
5. TESS
   1. Does not qualify. 

Final Rating: ★★★ = Give it a go. It’s good! It didn’t quite make it into the For Sure Absolutely Read This category, but hey, it’s all subjective.

​J. Sam Williams is an illustrious black-tailed hawk, longing to eat as many vegan mice as possible. In his human form, he is a High School English Teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lives with his wife, one dog and two cats. A somewhat retired breakdancing teacher, he is now a co-host on the Alohomora Podcast! He has been published on Lunch Ticket, immix: a journal for justice, Mugglenet, and a slew of small sports journalism publications. You can find him on twitter @Jabbernator.