I am getting so frustrated with this book...does anyone know if there was any editing done to the author's work, or did they just publish it verbatim since he was already dead when the books were published? Because this book seriously needs an editor, as did the first one.

I have no gripe about the storyline, the characters or anything like that...there is just so much extraneous JUNK in there....I am on page 153 and it feels like I've been reading for 500 pages. I'm seriously thinking of giving up on it, BUT....the story itself is very intriguing. What to do, what to do?? If I stick withit, it will probably take me most of the rest of the month to read as I can't read more than small bits at a time, and I'm definitely going to start something else in the meantime.

Cheryl

I can't really give you any advice Cheryl, because when I was reading the book I felt the opposite way you did.   I had a similar issue with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.    To me, that book dragged a little and needed an editor.   I thought the best thing about that book was the character of Lisbeth.   So when The Girl Who Played with Fire turned out to be all about Lisbeth, I devoured it.   Don't remember any boring or extraneous material.

If you're not getting into it, put it aside.   You can pick it up later if desired.

I think I am more in Cheryl's corener than Lynne's. I will say the last half of the book is better than the first half. I think you had to get to page 152 until you found out there was going to be a mystery. Lisbeth is still an outstandlingly complex charater. Do finish it Cheryl. The twist at the end is good. Larsson could have chopped 100 pages out and not missed a thing.

Alice

I will finish it...really, I need to as I received this as an ARC from Amazon Vine and you have to review at least 75% of what books you get to review or they won't send you more. And I won't review a book without reading all of it.

Lynne, examples of some things I'm talking about are the author listing a dozen items (food items) Lisbeth buys at the convenience store...multiple times. By the second time, I totally GET that she likes Billy Boy pizza (or whatever the brand was....) so why keep listing it every single time. It's like he had some deal with the company to work the name in as many times as possible or something. There is one section that is three PAGES of the description of the furniture and decor she bought for her new house, including name brands of everything...yet when I was done, I didn't really have a sense of what the place looked like or of the atmosphere...it was as though he was just presenting the items as LISTS of THINGS. Argh!

And yes, Lisbeth is far and away the more interesting character. Blomkvist is just...boring as hell. I will finish it, because the story itself is very interesting, and because I do want to see what happens with Lisbeth. But I confess I probably will do some skimming if there's more stuff like the above along the way.

Cheryl

Finish it!

Just FYI, Kroger's is selling these 2 books and others in a buy 2 get one free deal. Saw them in the store today.