latest read - the girl who played with fire & the girl who kicked the hornet's nest

I was very eager to read the second book once my interest on Lisbeth Salander was sparked after reading the first of the three-book series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I must have finished reading The Girl who Played with Fire about 3 months ago but didn't bother to update it here since I though I'd read the last installment of the series - The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Here I am now all done with the book series and I must say, I like them a lot. I normally stay away from mystery and crime genre but as mentioned before, the hype about the movie adapted from this book series, intrigued me. Well, I'm glad that I caved and read these books.
Each book has character and they each play a part in the overall story.
The first is introducing the main characters namely Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, especially who they are, their personalities and their specialties, what made them who they are. The second and third books, in terms of story line, is more related. The mystery deepens and you get more and more involved in the characters' quest to reveal the mistreatment on Lisbeth throughout her whole life and to some extend, correct every wrong that were done.
Although the damage has been done, sometimes closure is all you need.

latest read - the girl with the dragon tattoo

I now totally, totally understand the hype and buzz behind this book.

I simply could not put it down until I got to the end. And then, reaching the end sparks the need to start on the next book in this three-book series. Thank God I bought all three already.

The book starts by slowly building up the characters and the story line. So, you are always kept wondering and guessing what will happen next, which feeds to the can’t-put-it-down syndrome. There are also quite a few surprises in the plot that make you go "WTH?!" and of course that makes the syndrome even worse. I was reading one night and did not even realise that it was already 2.30 in the morning! I love a good book but man, it sure is not good for my health. But that's not stopping me from reading.

Anyway...

The mysterious disappearance of Harriet is the drive behind the story. We are introduced to the Vanger family which was once a powerful industrial family in Sweden, a Mikael Blomkvist - the journalist - and of course, the girl with the dragon tattoo, Lisbeth Salander - a master researcher. We learn that the Vanger family is a very troubled family shrouded with secrets and family feud. In particular, we discover the sick, disgusting and murderous acts of Gottfried and Martin Vanger.

There’s still quite a mystery behind Lisbeth Salander but three things we know about her by the end of this book:

1. She is a master hacker (Reading what she can do with hacking makes me worried about the security of my info on my PCs. Yikes!)
2. She has photographic memory
3. She had quite a rough childhood, though it was not described in detail in this book but hinted here and there, which made her very asocial and very mistrusting of people in general but mostly in man.

What will happen next?

Can't wait to dive into the next book!