7.5.2023 | Wednesday

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye

Item: The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye
Rating: 4.5
Author: Kim

category: Book Reviews
tag(s): adult
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title: The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye
author: David Lagercrantz
series: Millennium #5
published: 7 September 2017
publisher: Knopf
genre(s): thrillers
pages: 315
source: library
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | StoryGraph | Goodreads

rating:

| series rating:

the blurb

The girl with the dragon tattoo does not forgive.
Salander is confined to the secure unit of a women's prison, with violence all around her, but for a hacker of her skills, there are no boundaries.
She gives Mikael Blomkvist a lead that could give him an important exposé for Millennium magazine, an investigation into a sinister experiment that may also unlock the mystery of her harrowing childhood.
The dragon inked into Salander's back is a constant reminder of her pledge to fight the injustice she finds on every side, and she will discover the truth, whatever the cost.

a few notes

content warning: ❗some graphic violence❗

steamy rating: 0🔥s
language level: 🤬🤬

POV: 3rd person
keywords/phrases: murder, assault, family dysfunction

my review

The difference in writing style continues to be very apparent in this 5th book, the 2nd by Lagercrantz. As I mentioned in my review of the previous book, perhaps it’s because the original three books by Larsson truly set a precedent for the feel of the series. Larsson’s novels were incredibly detailed, sharing the minutae of the characters’ backstories and everyday goings-on. Lagercrantz has eliminated all of that, which feels as if it takes an essential element away from the series as Larsson created it. Because of it, the reader never really gets to see/understand how the characters think or their motivations. As a result, at least for me, it makes the story feel a little less Millenium-y. And adding to that less than Millenium-y feeling was the lesser role that Blomqvist seemed to play in this story. Lisbeth truly had the starring role of this book, and while I love her as a FMC, I do miss the interaction and dynamic between them.

However, I appreciate that the storylines continue to be unapologetically hard-hitting. This one had twin storylines. One focused on a Muslim woman who was regularly brutalized in the same prison in which Lisbeth served her time. Faria’s story was often uncomfortable to read, as it toed the line between cultural issues and a woman’s rights. The other storyline married Lisbeth’s past with the present, as dark and deeply convoluted as much of her history. It was an intriguing story with a lot of twists and turns that I couldn’t get enough of!

About David Lagercrantz

David Lagercrantz, born in 1962, is a journalist and author, living in Stockholm. His first book was published in 1997, a biography of the Swedish adventurer and mountaineer Göran Kropp. In 2000 his biography on the inventor Håkan Lans, A Swedish Genious, was published. His breakthrough as a novelist was Fall of Man in Wilmslow, a fictionalised novel about the British mathematician Alan Turing. In David Lagercrantz’ writing you can often see a pattern: major talents who refuse to follow convention. He has been interested not only in what it takes to stand out from the crowd, but also in the resistance that such creativity inevitably faces.

In 2011 his best-selling sports biography I am Zlatan Ibrahimović was published, one of the most successful books in Sweden in modern times. The biography was nominated for the prestigious August Prize in 2012, as well as shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. To date, the book has been published in over 30 languages around the world and been sold in millions of copies.

In the summer of 2013, Lagercrantz was asked by Moggliden (the Larsson Estate) and Norstedts to write the fourth, free-standing sequel to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. The Girl in the Spider’s Web was published – in August 27, 2015 – simultaneously by 26 publishers (in 24 languages) worldwide, ten years after the Swedish publication of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

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