The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest : Stieg Larsson

Image Credit: Penguin

I have slackened my reading pace these past few weeks. Every day brings with it draining challenges, and at the end of a long day, the only thing I look forward to is sleep. Not to read. But to sleep. Ah, life and the changes it brings. Or rather, life is just the way it is. The changes we bring to ourselves, rather. We all love punishing ourselves and then convince ourselves that it's the only way to move forward in life.

So, I am done. I finished the last of the Millennium trilogy - Stieg Larsson's epic The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I wasn't very impressed with the first, liked the second and now hate the third. As I had said in my review of The Girl Who Played With Fire, that book clicked because of Lisbeth Salander. She is an intriguing heroine, and this third book failed because of Lisbeth Salander. Why so? Because there is very little of her. Hornet's Nest begins from where Fire ended - and we are treated to the last saga between Zalachenko and Salander. Very soon though it is over, and then it's a long-drawn out dreary tale that delves deep into the Swedish secret police, Sapo and a special section that was created within Sapo to handle this dynamite called Zalachenko. This was the part that bored me the most. I found this section the least credible - and there is a re-enactment of Blomkvist as the man who women can't keep their hands off. Salander is restricted to a hospital bed for some 400 odd pages, I think this is where the book becomes flat. As flat as stale beer. As flat as a hacked computer.

A new love interest is added here, but not one that seems to be etched in detail, but rather one that seems to be added on for some extra masala. As a reader, I still don't understand Blomkvist as the lady killer - although he does turn out to be a pretty good friend to Salander. The only point where Hornet's Nest picks up is towards the end when a neat little courtroom drama is enacted. And there is a sub-plot involving Erica Berger that was shoddy beyond belief. Other sub-plots including Salander's half-brother's chase just gets lost for long periods while we reading boooooooooooooring details of Sapo. I mean...this is Sweden, and Sapo is not the CIA. Just how interested can I be in knowing the inner workings of this organization? And I could be dumb, but I wasn't sure why Zalachenko was so important in the first place. Yeah, he was a former Russian spy, but it didn't seem enough justification. Let me not bore you, dear reader, with my rant. I am now one of the proud souls to have finished all 3 of this Series - and let me tell you, I have been here, read this. And fallen in love with Blomkvist. (duh).

Verdict : A disappointing end. Boring and insufferable. 

Rating: 1/5