It’s finally winter break, which means that I will finally have some time to read fun things! Which I did last night. Until 3 in the morning. It was one of those situations where I just couldn’t put my book down, I had to know how it ended before I went to sleep. And unfortunately, I had had quite a bit left to read. But no worries! I had nothing to do today, so staying up that late didn’t affect me that much. And I finished my book. Which was fantastic, I might add. You’re probably wondering what book I finished. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest by Stieg Larsson. It was a fantastic way to end a trilogy. And I don’t think there was a dull moment throughout the whole book. I loved it.
It’s kind of hard to give a summary of this one without giving away The Girl Who Played with Fire. Hornets’ Nest literally picks up right where it left off, so I’ll give you a basic overview of what’s happening in this book. Basically, Lisbeth has gotten herself into a lot of trouble, and Blomkvist has stumbled into a bigger mess than he actually thought. I won’t say much more than that, because too much more will give it away. But hopefully, I sparked your interest. If you want to know more about what the whole trilogy is about, visit my previous posts on the matter, “Slow Beginnings” and “A Thrilling Read.” They contain excellent summaries to get you started. 🙂
The thing that I liked the most about this book was the way Larsson wove different conspiracies throughout the book. The reader really has to pay attention to who’s speaking at that part in the book, because it switches points of view a lot and sometimes it’s difficult to keep track of what’s happening. My absolute favorite part of the book came towards the end, at the trial of Lisbeth (this is on the back cover of the book, so I’m not giving anything away). The way Larsson wrote this part really kept my attention, and I found myself smiling at points. At this point, you know who you’re rooting for, and when something happens in their favor, you just can’t help but smile. At least, I couldn’t. Everything in the book is building up to this point; everyone is scrambling to come up with an argument and defense for this trial. To see how it all came together was awesome. And definitely worth the wait.
Larsson also does a good job not leaving the reader with any questions. The book is quite long, but by the time you reach the end of the 600 pages, all of the loose ends have been tied up. And being that all the books are about this long, there were a lot of loose ends to tie up. The ending also doesn’t really leave much for another book, which I think is a good thing, especially since Larsson is no longer alive to write anything else about Lisbeth Salander. And if anyone else tried, I think they would fail miserably. Overall, once you get passed the slow beginning of the series, you won’t be disappointed. Because, from that point on, there is nothing slow about these books. There’s never a dull moment in the life of Lisbeth Salander.
One interesting thing that I would like to mention is that I actually got to read the UK edition of the book, which I know probably doesn’t impress some people, but I thought it was really cool. My sister had gotten the book from the thrift store we both work at, and I realized that it was the UK edition because the price on the back was in pounds. There wasn’t all that much different in the book, at least I don’t think there was, I just thought it was cool to have a book that was published in another country. And that really classifies me as a major book nerd. Anyway, next I’m not reading anything new because I really wanted to re-read the Hunger Games series before the movie comes out in March, and I don’t think I’ll have much time once classes start up again. So I’m currently reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. And if you haven’t read it yet, I would highly recommend it. Another great trilogy.