The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Hardcover)

~ Stieg Larsson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Reviews from the United Kingdom:

"Fans will not be disappointed: this is another roller-coaster ride that keeps you reading far too late into the night. Intricate but flawlessly plotted, it has complex characters as well as a satisfying, clear moral thrust."
—Evening Standard
 
"Salander is a magnificent creation: a feminist avenging angel . . . I cannot think of another modern writer who so successfully turns his politics away from a preachy manifesto and into a dynamic narrative device. Larsson's hatred of injustice will drive readers across the world through a three-volume novel and leave them regretting the final page; and regretting, even more, the early death of a mastery storyteller just as he was entering his prime."
—Observer
 
"Larsson has produced a coup de foudre, a novel that is complex, satisfying, clever, moral . . . This is a grown-up novel for grown-up readers, who want something more than a quick fix and a car chase. And it's why the Millennium trilogy is rightly a publishing phenomenon all over the world."
—Guardian
 
"[The trilogy] is intricately plotted, lavishly detailed but written with a  breakneck pace and verve . . [Hornet's Nest] is a tantalizing double finale—first idyllic, then frenetic . . . Larsson has made the literary moods of saga and soap opera converge—with suspense as the adhesive. And, behind the quickfire action, those great chords of moral and political witness continue to resonate."
—Independent
 
"[These are] extraordinary novels [with] astonishing impact . . . breakneck plotting, sympathetic characterization and the kind of startling denouements that occur more frequently than is conventionally considered possible. There is a comparison with that other great work of contemporary entertainment, The Wire, in the rage and clarity with which injustice becomes the driver of a novel way of looking at a society. Be warned: the trilogy, like The Wire, is seriously addictive."
—Guardian (editorial)

Product Description

The stunning third and final novel in Stieg Larsson’s internationally best-selling trilogy

Lisbeth Salander—the heart of Larsson’s two previous novels—lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she will plot revenge—against the man who tried to kill her, and the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.

Once upon a time, she was a victim. Now Salander is fighting back.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (May 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030726999X
• ISBN-13: 978-0307269997
• Shipping Information: View shipping rates and policies
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

213 of 223 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Conclusion to an Almost Perfect Trilogy, October 8, 2009

By	J. Avellanet (Williamsburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Paperback)

Just as Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings" is held up as the trilogy to which all fantasy trilogies are inevitably compared, I've little doubt that Larsson's Millenium series will play that benchmark role for mystery thrillers over the next few decades.

"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" is an incredibly worthy successor to the previous two books in the trilogy. And toward the end, there will be moments when tears are brought to your eyes. Larrson knew precisely how to play with timing, rhythm, and wording to pace the story and its ending just right. I'm hard pressed to even guess how else he could have ended this series.

The story follows the natural conclusion of the events in the first two books as everything dovetails toward a "behind-closed-door" trial. Larrson did a very good job of the first part of this book that takes place in the hospital where Lisbeth is recovering. I really enjoyed reading things from her perspective, then spinning out to others involved and each of their limited pieces of the evolving puzzle. And things just get better as the book moves along.

Frankly, once you hit part three of the book, it's almost impossible to put down. I picked it up just once...just to read a chapter or two in the second half of the book...only to find that three hours had gone by and the book was over.

Larrson's tying up of many loose ends throughout the book - and this is key - throughout the book (not all in the last few chapters like so many other writers) is masterful. And that emphasizes the one tragic aspect of this final book: knowing that we will never again be graced with Larrson's storytelling mastery.

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for fans of this trilogy, but..., December 28, 2009

By	E. Jacobs - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Paperback)

For the ending of this book alone, it is worth reading. However, while I wish I could say that this book was of the same caliber as that of the prior two books, in my opinion it was not. The book picked up right where the last left off, with Salander in the hospital being treated for her injuries. Blomkvist continues to sleuth on her behalf in order to expose those who have made her life hellish and attempted to frame her for all manner of crimes. Of course, in his spare time he also still manages to attract every woman within a 500-yard-radius like a bee to honey, but I digress. All of the other familiar characters from the prior books return.

I don't want to spoil the plot of the book, so I will give a general review. The overall feel of the book to me is that it was the least edited and least considered of the three. This would make sense if Larsson had intended to go back and do some more tweaking and editing before publication, but he was obviously unable to do so after his death. There are entire sections of the book that meander on and on with no apparent purpose with regard to moving the story forward. These sections would have benefited greatly from some serious editorial paring.

To me, the plot did not at all move along at the same clip as the prior books. The suspense just wasn't there to the same degree. I recall that I simply could not put down the previous books, but I was nowhere near as riveted by this one. In addition, there were a number of somewhat annoying grammatical errors, sentence fragments, etc.

For the good points of the book, the ending (if that is what we can call the last 150-200 pages) is a very nice, tightly written section that ties everything together beautifully. Again, it struck me that perhaps Larsson had written the ending earlier than the rest of book three, as it appeared to be the best-constructed section of the entire book. For the ending alone, this story is worth reading. I wavered between a 3-and 4- star review for this reason. Ultimately, I considered whether the book, standing alone without the other two, would be a 4-star book, and I don't believe that would be the case.

As an aside, one minor issue is that on the book cover of the copy I picked up while in Belgium, the first blurb says "The Trial", as if the book is mostly about Salander's trial itself, which it is not. The trial itself takes up about the last tenth of the book. Whether this type of advertising will occur with the North American edition I don't know, but I write this warning simply so you might know what to expect.

In summary, anyone who has read the first two books simply will not be able to deny themselves the final installment, nor should they. Although I did not find the book to hold the same level of suspense and I sometimes found it rather dull, the ending of the book makes it very worthwhile reading. It is a great loss that Mr. Larsson passed away before he could really fine-tune the final book, and before he could write another.

64 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No spoilers review, October 9, 2009

By	doggroomer (lehigh valley, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Paperback)

I bought my hardback from Amazon.UK because I couldn't wait until next year to finish Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy. The US publisher should move up their release date for this book, what the heck are they thinking?

No spoilers here! At 600 pages it's a whopper. The first half of the book is filled with at least 6 different stories being told and is a little hard to follow, but hang in there. It's when the stories begim to cross each other that makes it hard to put the book down. When you get to the last 200 pages, it's just impossible to stop. There are parts where the suspense builds and you get that awful feeling something really bad is going to happen. All in all, Larsson wraps his very feminist trilogy up nicely. I wasn't disappointed at all, only sad because that's all, folks.

4 stars because I loved "Played with Fire" as a 5 star book. Larsson wrote Salander as a remarkable unapoligetic feminist hero, and there is more of her in "Fire" than "Tattoo" and "Hornet's Nest."