Apart from travel-related topics, we occasionally talk about books on the blog. I(Chris) just finished “The Girl Who Lived Twice” (original title in Swedish: Det som inte dödar oss, or ’She Who Must Die’) in audiobook format. This book is the sixth in the Millennium series that was started by Stieg Larsson. The English translation of the first book in the series, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was the worldwide best-selling fiction in 2008.
The music provided below is unrelated to the book, it is included merely for atmosphere.
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Two movies were made from the first book of this series. The first movie, a Swedish-Danish production, was made in 2009 (Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor, lit. ’Men who hate women’) and Noomi Rapace played Lisbeth Salander, the Girl.
The second movie in English was made in 2011 starring Daniel Craig (the most recent James Bond) as the journalist Mikael Blomkvist, and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth, the two main characters.
Needless to say, I enjoyed the first series and wrote about them in this blog (click here to read).
Stieg Larsson unfortunately died in a heart attack in 2004 and the first 3 books were published posthumously as the Millennium series in 2005. The publisher asked David Lagercrantz to assume the responsibility of extending the story line. Mr. Lagercrantz authored three more books in the series: The Girl in the Spider’s Web, The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, and now The Girl Who Lived Twice.
Here is my take on the book. It is a bit disappointing in that the story is less intense (relative to the earlier books in the series), and there is less interaction between the two main characters – the Girl and the Journalist. There seems to be less investment into the plotline, although the characters have previously been well drawn and are loaded with dramatic potential. Perhaps, because this is the last book in a second trilogy and the loose ends are being hastily tied up.
Spoiler Alert
In this book, Lisbeth has become a single-dimension omnipotent hacker/street fighter helping Blomkvist mostly remotely. Meanwhile, her mind is playing tricks on her while she attempts to take revenge against her own evil twin sister, and putting herself in danger. Many characters and aspects of the story that made the earlier books enjoyable are present (lovers, the police, journalists) but their presence is non-consequential and merely serves a decorative function. I find the last third of the story which concludes the conflict between the Salender sisters and ends with the rescue of Blomkvist, is the weakest. The action at the end is cartoonish.
However, I enjoyed the unspooling of the mystery of the dead street-dweller who seemed to have suffered hardship or torture, especially the part where the forensic scientist used hair sample to determine exposure to psychoactive drug. The story that happened on Mount Everest was nicely set up and explained. The street names and description of Stockholm are still prominently mentioned which I appreciate. I would say that the villains are more interesting in this book than the good guys.
End Spoiler Alert
I read other reviews which share some of my observations – “a story which lacks a clear direction and a plot that seems to be flat and without … twists and turns”. On the lack of development of Lisbeth in the story, one reviewer analogizes a James Bond film which features Moneypenny, and James Bond is merely a character. Another reviewer dislikes the story on Mount Everest and viewed it as a parallel story rather than a back story; and another found the earlier events on the mountainside too distant and did not care much about it.
Overall, this is not bad fiction and I enjoyed it, but it is the weakest in the two series (6 books). There is less violence but more mystery here. For many authors, it is hard and hard work to follow up with fresh content that can match the start of the series when the charismatic characters were first introduced. Apparently, David Lagercrantz had announced in 2017 that he will write only three books, this one being his last. See the photo below of him and the original Swedish edition of the three books. But Stieg Larsson originally planned to write 10 books; let’s see what Larsson’s estate will do next with this intellectual property.
By the way, in 2018, the fourth book “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” in the series (or the first Lisbeth Salander book penned by David Lagercrantz) was made into a movie. But it did rather poorly in the box office and we did not even know of it until now. Here is the trailer.
I recall enjoying the fourth book (original title in Swedish: Det som inte dödar oss, or ‘That which does not kill us’) quite a bit as the evil twin sister, Camilla was first introduced.
I also read the fifth book – The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye (original title in Swedish: Mannen Som Sökte Sin Skugga, or ’The Man Who Chased His Shadow’). If I were to rank the books in the series from best to worst, it would be in the same order as the six books were released.
All 6 books are good, go read them, you would not waste your time. To read more about the Millennium series on this blog, click here for Part 1, then Part 2 and Part 3.