The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

“She was genuinely worried. First Kalle Fucking Blomkvist, then the name Zala, and now Nils Fucking Slimebag Bjurman together with an alpha male on steroids with contacts in some gang of ex-con bikers. Within a few days, several ripples of disquiet had materialized in the orderly life Salander was trying to create for herself.” – Chapter 10, pg. 141

“The three parallel investigations into the murders in Enskede churned on. Officer Bubble’s investigation enjoyed the advantages of authority. On the surface, the solution seemed to lie within reach; they had a suspect and a murder weapon that was linked to the suspect. They had an ironclad connection to one victim and a possible connection via Blomkvist to the other two victims. For Bublanski it was now basically a matter of finding Salander and putting her in a cell in Kronoberg prison.” – Chapter 18, pg. 258

“When all the media assertions were put together, the police appeared to be hunting for a psychotic lesbian who had joined a cult of Satanists that propagandized for S&M sex and hated society in general and men in particular.” – Chapter 21, pg. 313

“I’ve never been sympathetic towards people who take the law into their own hands. But I’ve never heard of anyone who had such a good reason to do so. At the risk of sounding like a cynic, what happens tonight will happen, no matter what you or I think. It’s been written in the stars since she was born. And all that remains is for us to decide how we’re going to behave towards Lisbeth if she makes it back.” – Chapter 32, pg. 490

So those were some of my favorite quotes from The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Again, I didn’t come across too many quotes worthy of copying down. Larsson seemed more concerned with storytelling than with describing mundane events in an interesting, amusing way that has never been done before. Which is probably best because “she had cut him out of her life as surgically and decisively as she deleted files from her computer” is one ridiculous metaphor. Let’s just blame the translator, shall we? Oh, and keeping with the status quo set by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it took 200 pages for this book to finally pull me in. In fact, for the first hundred pages or so, I was completely at a loss as to where the story was headed.

Is this going to be about some super hurricane/tornado named Matilda? Bjurman? Zala? Perhaps a 503 page spread advertising IKEA furniture? For a moment there, I mistakenly thought it I had picked up my old algebra textbook. At least this time the police were involved. It made things a little bit more realistic. And I definitely did a double take (those are always fun), when reaching for my water glass as I read the most important line of the book. Now I know why so many people were anxiously waiting for the third novel in the Millennium trilogy to be released… this book just ended. Without any sort of wrap up or tying of loose ends. On to the next!