Dang it…wanted to like this one. I really, really did. Especially after feeling forced by peer pressure and sales pressure and all those other pressure type things I’m so susceptible to…I wanted to be pleasantly surprised with this series…and I was, but only with book 2.

Overall, the legal mumbo jumbo in Hornet’s Nest was too drawn out, there were STILL too many characters I couldn’t keep track of, and the conspiracy that went all the way up to Sweden’s prime minister never felt resolved enough. Salander is still pretty bad-ass, and Blomkvist is still a womanizing, slightly immoral, do-gooder, but it worked for him (and Salander) here, I suppose. No resolution was forthcoming about Salander’s twin which would have been awesome and NO DAMN EXPLANATION OF THE TATTOOS. (And, is Niedermann a eunuch????) The stupid titles, which were I guess symbolic or metaphorical, were NEVER explained. And the whole hornet’s nest image seems like Salander was the one INTENTIONALLY stirring up trouble…that never happened. She was so completely a victim here; even her less-than-legal computer hacking stuff seemed like a product of her background, not something she did just because.

I did like the nail gun bit at the very end, but in the end, it felt like three books worth of build up for pretty much nothing. See, I TOLD YOU I don’t like the same books as everyone else :/