The Girl Who Played with Fire

by Stieg Larsson

English language

Published Nov. 3, 2009

ISBN:: 978-1-906694-18-0

(43 reviews)

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Swedish: Flickan som lekte med elden) is the second novel in the best-selling Millennium series by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2006 and in English in January 2009. The book features many of the characters who appeared in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005), among them the title character, Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant computer hacker and social misfit, and Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium magazine. Widely seen as a critical success, The Girl Who Played with Fire was also (according to The Bookseller magazine) the first and only translated novel to be number one in the UK hardback chart.

13 editions

outofrange reviewed The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (Millenium, #2)

Review of 'The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium, #2)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Goes back and forth between sugar fiction mystery thriller and delving into soberingly real issues. This one tipped a little more to the thoughtful side for me. The setting names are so detailed, I enhanced the experience a little by following some of it on maps. All the while wondering how Swedes can ever sleep on the amount of coffee they drink...

seabelis reviewed The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Review of 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Consistent with the first. One must remember when reading it that the story takes place several years ago and allow for the dated technology.

Yashima reviewed The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Review of 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Incredibly suspenseful. Especially this part. While the first book and the beginning of the second were good, once this one gets going there is no stopping until the end of book three.

J. J. Zepfanman @book reviewed The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (Millenium, #2)

Review of 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This one played a lot like a long episode of CSI (which I don't enjoy). Also, I'm not the kind of person who cares very much about eloquent sentence structure, but Larsson's awkward phrasing makes me chuckle - to the point that it too oft interrupted the flow of reading.

I did like the book, though. Larsson continues to do a great job with the suspense, action, and character development in this second book from the trilogy. Also, on a personal note: it may just be my horrible memory, but similar to my reaction to the first book, I didn't remember most of the details from the film (even though I loved all of the Swedish-language movies from this trilogy). The third book is in the mail!

Michael @ Knowledge Lost reviewed The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (Millenium, #2)

Review of 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

First The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo did a modern take on the 'Trapped on an island' who-done-it plot; now The Girl Who Played with Fire does a take on the 'It wasn't me, it was the one armed man' plot

Thomas Gaffney reviewed The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (Millenium, #2)

Review of 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wow! This was INCREDIBLE! A phenomenal follow-up to The [b:Girl with the Dragon Tattoo|2429135|The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)|Stieg Larsson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275608878s/2429135.jpg|1708725]. I thought there might be some let down, cause the first good was so good, but Played With Fire might be better! Still the police/mystery thriller is not my favorite genre, but Larsson has created stories that just suck you in from the beginning.

One thing that I'm wary of however... The end of Dragon Tattoo clearly leads into Played With Fire. And the end of Played With Fire is almost like a cliffhanger into The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. Considering that Larsson died while the 4th book was an outline and while he was planning 10 books, I'm afraid there won't be any really ending to the next book.

But that won't stop me from reading it as soon as I get my hands on …