The Girl in the Spider’s Web (Millennium #4)

I really cannot comprehend the overly harsh critique in this book and the continuation of the legendary trilogy of the late Stieg Larsson by David Lagercrantz. It is not possible for a writer to complete such a difficult task by simply copying and imitating the previous one, he has to develop and adapt his personal writing story on a specific book with a specific set of characters. In Lagercrantz’s case, this fact became even harder if you think the global success of the trilogy, of both the book and the film(s), and the unique and widely popular character of the cyberpunk hacker, Lisbeth Salander. In my opinion, Lagercrantz makes a decent effort and succeeds in key aspects as both the story and the characters are satisfying without betraying the spirit of S. Larsson’s storyline. I, too, prefer the previous books written by Larsson because of their tiny details which made the books an unforgettable experience, but i think all the fans of the first three books should at least give David Lagercrantz’s book(s) a chance because he shows respect to the original creator of the series and, furthermore, proves to be a worthy successor of Stieg Larsson’s legacy.

As a Millennium novel, it misses the mark by miles and is full of cliches.

The theme of this story is way off base for a Millennium book. In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the reader is lead on a deep, dark chase for a serial killer of women. The Girl Who Played with Fire started off with Dag and Mia’s work the sex trade and helping bring justice for the women who were victimized. The third novel, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, delved into Lisbeth’s own struggle for her rights and independence. Then there’s this book which has shaved off all layers of women’s issues, and has decided to focus on hacking and stealing other people’s work. There is no depth, no intrigue, and no grit. I felt bored while reading this.

I can’t figure out why this book involves the NSA. My guess is that the publisher wanted to appeal to more American readers. The inclusion feels forced and unappetizing. Lisbeth needed to hack into it to find out more about her “arch nemesis,” Thanos, but Thanos isn’t even American, so she probably had hundreds of other European agencies she could have hacked into just as easily.

There are many inconsistencies in this book. Early on, Lisbeth is writing down names of people at the NSA. Lisbeth has a photographic memory, she never had to write things down before. She’s also making notes in her books. Not once in any of Larsson’s novels did she ever need to make a note, aside when she was working out a math problem. Another main inconsistency I had an issue with was that in the late descriptions of Lisbeth (aside from her trial), she had traded in a lot of her punk/goth look for H&M, had gotten rid of most of her piercings, and even got her wasp tattoo removed. In Larsson’s novels, Mikaal even takes note of this. Yet in this book, she’s magically back to looking like a punk boy with “lots of piercings”.

I hate the story line involving Camilla. As children, it was said that Lisbeth and Camilla were exact opposites, so her personality in this book does not surprise me. Though I feel that she has been exploited for this story and she was warped in such a perverted way, that she feels fake.

The Thanos/Wasp rivalry is also really cliched. It was never mentioned in any of the previous novels the Lisbeth was into comic books, so it feels odd now that they were such a large part of her childhood. If they were so influential in her life, why is there no sign of them now? It’s like Lagercrantz just used comic books as a wrapper for sibling rivalry. The connection is a cop out.

For a “Lisbeth Salander Novel,” it sure doesn’t include much of Lisbeth, or Mikaal. At least, not in their active states. They feel more like secondary characters in this book. There’s hardly any violence, and much of the dialog feels too soft.

The writing as a whole is very linear, with no depth or side intrigues. I did not feel any empathy for the Balder character, Camilla felt cliched and fake, and the characters I was supposed to be familiar with felt like shells of themselves. I did not find this book engaging and had to stop reading every few chapters because I was so bored.

As a work of fiction, this book isn’t terrible. But if it were not a “Lisbeth Salander Novel”, I wouldn’t have even looked twice at it.

Had this been the release of a 4th novel by Steig Larsson about Lisbeth Salander, I would have been beside myself with anticipation and excitement. As it was, I approached this read with a bit of trepidation but open interest. The story is good and it makes a credible (enough) fast paced suspense novel. What is lacking is the electricity and visceral intensity that filled every scene with Lisbeth contained in the trilogy by Larsson. I felt like I was viewing Lisbeth from the outside in, rather than the inside out. Larsson’s Lisbeth is the strongest and most unpredictable female character in modern fiction, or maybe of all time. That is why we couldn’t put his books down and couldn’t wait for the next. Lisbeth raised our blood pressure, kept us up all night, and we rooted for her success in vengeance like no other. With this book, I was 95% complete and had no trouble putting it aside to go to the grocery store. That says a lot. I felt distanced from the characters. I was aware it was just a story, not THE MOST EXCITING character and scenes I felt like I lived and died with in the earlier books. Would Larsson approve? Of the story itself, yes. Of the story telling, no.

I’ve now read this twice. Didn’t enjoy it much the first time around so read it again, to see if I’d been blind but no – it still wasn’t Millenium. Dull, stodgy: it was hard to keep picking it up and plodding grimly on through to the end. So … I re-read Larsson’s “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest” just to remind myself that I wasn’t viewing the original books through rose-tinted spectacles or some such. I wasn’t: it was fast, pacy (most of the time 🙂 and SO difficult to put down. I resented any interruptions when I was reading the original trilogy but when reading “The Girl in the Spider’s Web”, interruptions came as a welcome relief. So sad 🙁

I can’t help thinking that this is the Salander and Blomkvist of the extremely underwhelming Swedish film trilogy, and not not that of Stieg Larsson’s wonderfully drawn and nuanced original Millennium trilogy .

It’s full of illogical non sequitur’s and both the characterizations and relationships at the core of Stieg Larssons trilogy appear to me to have been fundamentally altered by Laggercrantz. They lack any of the subtlety of Larsson. Salander now appears to have been turned into some sort of “Super-Woman-esque” Superhero by Lagercrantz. I also can’t help speculating that the Salander and Blomkvist of Larsson would have strongly disapproved of Lagercrantz’s self same characters.

Characters reappear unblemished in Lagercrantz’s world who had been left in disgrace in Larssons original. (e.g. Ekstrom, Faste)
Characters disappear into the ether in Lagercrantz new book without explanation who were fundamental to Larrsons original (e.g. Figuerola/Edklinth)
It is almost as if the Millenium magazine expose had not been published.

I also have to wonder whether there is a degree of “product placement” involved in this text with obsessively repeated references to certain drinks brands. Additionally there were a hat-full of references to meals and food prep that add nothing to the plot. There are also obsessive references that could have come out of a Stockholm route finder app. When Larsson used these devices sparingly, they had purpose and added to the story. In Lagercrantsz’s hands it just felt like interminable padding.

Moments from Larssons original are represented and re-hashed with slight if any alteration.

I only read this under prompting from a book club, having previously decided to respect Eva Gabrielsson,s views and immediately regretted it. I hope that no further books along these lines are commissioned and will avoid any further Largercrantz adaptions of Stieg Larssons.
( I would however consider reading a book based upon Eva Gabrielsson,s original archives/notebooks of Larsson)

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