The Girl Who Lived Twice: A Lisbeth Salander Novel

but that’s not saying much...“The Girl Who Lived Twice” is book #6 in the Lisbeth Salander/Millennium series that was started by Stieg Larsson. It’s a pale imitation of his robust, quality fiction. David Lagercrantz tried to use the plot as the driving force of this installment but he was not successful. In order for a book to be driven by the plot it needs strong characters and Lagercrantz fails at this task, in a big way.The heroine in this story is hollow and empty and this is her 6th book; development is seriously lacking. Actually, the new character of Mikael and the secondary “baddies” were far more interesting. The relationship between Lisbeth and her sister Camilla could have been the driving point for the story but it got lost in the uneven plotting.Parts of the story read well and are engaging. Lagercrantz can write thriller and mystery fiction and that aspect of the book flowed well, at times. There are lots of layers and complexities that make the story interesting during the central part of this novel. Unfortunately, all the necessary pieces just don’t come together to support the arcs.The ending of this book is just preposterous, contrived and convoluted. Plot points need to be tied up, questions need answers, people need resolutions books need quality endings or they are just a collection of words. This is not a cliffhanger, it’s a very sad bon voyage for this once premier series📚

The two main characters are back for another action mystery, but I found this latest installment in the series to be mediocre. I agree with the other reviewers' criticisms, especially that the character of Lisbeth Salander is poorly developed. She becomes like an invincible cartoon character, which is a far leap from the troubled vulnerable young woman of the early novels. In addition, the plot seems unnecessarily complex, and I found it difficult to keep track of (or care about) the numerous characters. If you haven't read the first three novels (by Steig Larsson), by all means read those.

Let me begin by stating that I was in favor of the continuation of Millenium series by an author other than the late Stieg Larsson and I've enjoyed the first two books ("The Girl in the Spider's Web", "The Girl Who Took An Eye for An Eye") but this one failed to meet my, admittedly high, expectations. It is an overall mediocre attempt in bringing beloved fictional characters such as Lisbeth Salander or Mikael Blomkvist back to life, in a story which lacks a clear direction and a plot that seems to be flat and without the necessary esciting twists and turns that usually make a crime novel a success.Lisbeth has a secondary role here, and even though her conflict with her sister Camilla is built from the early pages, she is mainly busy with hacking in order to help Mikael to uncover the truth about a suspicious suicide of a foreign man who was once a guide at Mountain Everest. The main plotline seems compelling enough in the first part of the novel but it quickly reveals its weak structure and lack of inspiration. When the reader learns the truth about the beggar's suicide in the third and final part of the book, he is not sure if he really cares any longer. The subplot concerning the feud between Lisbeth and Camilla is equally dull and the final showdown is so implausible that almost makes you laugh.David Lagercrantz's prose has a nice flow, but seems to be rather naive in some parts while the characterization in "The Girl Who Lived Twice" is not as strong as it was in the previous two novels. Both the two protagonists, Mikael and Lisbeth, seem to be constantly out of depth, while the secondary characters and villains, who were one of the most interesting aspects in S. Larsson's original "Millenium" trilogy, are outlined in an awkward manner. Lagercrantz tries to connect the book's plotline with those of the previous two but even that is unsuccessful as the result seems -more or less- forced.There was a major conflict between the Larsson's family members, Stieg's father and brother, and Eva Gabrielsson, Stieg's partner for more than thirty years, regarding the rights in the "Millenium" legacy. Gabrielsson claims to be the only person suitable to continue the series, as she was involved in some parts in the original trilogy -though not in the writing process itself- mainly having to do with some of the characters and locations used in the novels. Thus, she was not supportive to D. Lagercrantz's writing endeavor, but the Larsson family, who finally inherited the rights, aggreed and gave him the green light to extend the series. The reading audience was divided into two groups, with some absolutely loving the new novels and others hating it. Personally, I was positive from the beginning as I'm in favor of bold writing experiments like this one. Unfortunately, "The Girl Who Lived Twice", which is the last book in the series written by Lagercrantz, left me with a bitter taste and as I finished reading, I couldn't help but feeling kind of nostalgic remembering the original trilogy's brilliance.

First of all I am a big fan or the original three Salander novels and the first book by David Lagecrantz was actually pretty good but its gone downhill since and this is the worst. The author has turned Salander into just another character. Can you imagine a James Bond film that features Moneypenny and Bond is just another actor? Someone needs to write this series who understands Salander. I must add even on its own terms this book is a bore. The main plot about what went on top of Everest has barely enough substance to fit into a short story and I found myself skipping paragraphs looking forward to the end of this book.

I am of that group of readers who felt relieved and excited when the fourth book, and the first by Lagercrantz, brought about the prospect of a continuation of Lisbeth Salander's story with a quality of writing not too far removed from the original trilogy. I enjoyed 'Spiders Web' as much as those that preceded it..only to be hugely disappointed by 'Eye For an Eye', as characterisation, plot, and the overall level of the writing fell away. I suspect I am now joining a new group of readers who bought the 6th installment with hopes that the 5th was an anomaly, but who regrettably feel that the new book is as disappointing as the last. I enjoyed the melancholy feeling of the opening stages as the two main characters tried to drag themselves out of a well described depression, but as the book progressed their grew an unavoidable impression that the author has completely ran out of ideas for the characters. The book rapidly descended into a bad movie script of recycled ideas, awful liberties with plausibility, and weak writing of jarringly poor descriptive powers that reminded me of how my 3yr old children make up stories as they go along...this happened, then this happened..then this happened. 'It's time for a new start' was the books closing premise - I had the overwhelming feeling that is Lagercrantz's sentiment about this book series, and if the series is to go on surely it is time to find a new author (for the next three(?)....optimism is slow to die). I hoped to be feeling more positive, and it's only an opinion, but there it is.

To begin with the book does not deserve to be part of Stieg Larsson's marvelous trilogy, Millenium. I purchased it thinking that it was going to be about Lisbeth Salander, that fascinating character created by Stieg. I found a poor novel about spionage in the Everest and very little about Lisbeth and her friend Mikael Blomqvist. In his previous intent to keep Millenium alive Mr Lagerkranz already made the useless mistake of killing Holger Palmgren, one of the best characters in the series. Secondly, Larsson would have never put a gun in Lisbeth's hands. She found subtler ways of eliminating undesirable characters like Wenerstrom, the husband in the Caribean and Niederman. They were always characters who abused women, probably the most important feature of Millenium. The scene in which she goes trhough windows on a bike is totally unreal. The only redeeming feature isl a certain amount of suspense at the end and her cutting links with her past by having Zalachenko's home and school burned..

We are never told why Salander has enemies. There is no thread to the plot. You cannot follow it in sequence. Characters are there seemingly only because they have been there in previous Salander novels

When David Lagercrantz picked up Stieg Larson's baton, I was delighted with the results; rarely can some other author turn out work to match the original author when it's such great quality but Mr Lagercrantz pulled it off. Until now.This is still a pretty good novel, it's just not up to the very high standard set by all of the previous works (by various authors). The main plot is just a bit too thin to support the weight of the events depicted although, to be fair, it might be a bit more important to folk in Sweden.Then there's the way in which the story unfolds. Chapters are punctuated by 'flashbacks' or tales relayed by those present at the time. As a result, the story is very slowly teased out over the course of the entire book. Not only did this story fail to grip me but I guessed the 'shock revelation' part way through. And it wasn't that shocking. Part way through the book I just couldn't care what had happened all those years ago on a mountainside.As with other, similar, books, I also struggled a bit with the unfamiliar names. It wasn't helped by the author, confusingly, alternating between referring to characters by their christian names in one sentence and their surnames in the next.But the worst sin of all was the way that the action sequences were handled. I could cite incidents here but that would involve spoilers so suffice to say that Ms Salander escapes a series of tricky situations by increasingly unbelievable means. In one instance, in the middle of a gunfight, our heroine leaps onto her motorbike and rides away while an array of armed villains stand and watch. The credibility of the whole story is broken by these sequences.While I'm on about stretching credulity, again I can't give details without a spoiler but Blomquvist suffers horrendous injuries from which no one could, possibly, recover yet we are told that he will, in fact, be OK.So, I'm sorry, but this is far from the best book within which Lisbeth Salander is a major character. But, as she is in it, it's still worth a read.

This has been a riveting series, the novels have kept us on edge and reading late into the night but unfortunately I found this one lacking , I am not sure why , I just felt the spark was missing at times and the whole plot disjointed by the usual standards we have come to expect from stieg and also previously from DavidAs his successorThere was plenty of content , a mystery within a mystery, a historical story line that was seemingly unconnected but ultimately the root of the problem and a conclusion to lizbeth family troubleStill worth reading and perhaps you’ll disagree with my assessment