1 ★

Alex Verus runs a magic shop where he sells real magic. He tries to stay away from the rest of the mages because of different incidents in his past. However, this does not protect him from getting into a conflict between good and evil. Alex is a psychic - a rare kind of mage, who can see the near future. This ability is highly in demand and can cost him his life…

At the beginning I liked the writing style and Alex as a character. He is very sarcastic, but also – and this is partly due to his abilities – arrogant and presumptuous. These character traits were entertaining at first, but they became quite annoying in the long run. I was also annoyed at the repeated hints about something in his past, but none of it gets explained further. Only relatively late in the story, Alex’ (of course very dramatic) past gets revealed, but at that point I wasn't interested anymore.

The magic system is divided into white mages and black mages. Black mages are absolutely evil and enjoy hurting others. But the white mages are not much better either – both sides just want power. Since no one is "good", I found it difficult to take a side and root for someone. Because no matter how you turn it, you can only lose… The group of black mages appeared repeatedly and chased Alex, while he repeatedly fled successfully. That got annoying fast. In general, not much happens in the story. The plot takes place in too many different locations and many events remain unrelated and were therefore unnecessary.

Alex is always in danger because he is hunted by other mages, but for a very, very long time he is unaware of why they do it. Since this reason is also withheld from the reader, it’s a constant cat-and-mouse game, a back and forth without a superior goal or a plan. The suspense is there, but it is more of a stumbling forward – the feeling of threat doesn’t set in. Since the same thing often happens without getting new information, I quickly got bored.

But what totally ruined the suspense was Alex's ability to look into the future. By knowing what will happen next, he is able to escape from everything or at least change situations in his favor. This never led to any real conflict or danger. Unfortunately, this quickly made the story boring and annoying.

The ability to look into the future is pretty cool. Unfortunately, it was used so often that any suspense was killed. In addition to that, a lot is repeated and none of the characters were very likeable. Overall, I found the book rather boring and partly annoying. 

DNF 19%

Nothing about this book is about "doing nothing". This is false advertisement. The author keeps talking about nature, birdwatching and art in a pretentious way and from a privileged perspective. I couldn't relate. I don't care. Honestly, this should have been an essay.

The journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by the entrepreneur Henrik Vanger to investigate the mystery of his family for a year: the sudden and traceless disappearance of his niece Harriet. He suspects several of his family members of having done something to Harriet. To be able to examine all the records, Mikael asks the security expert and hacker Lisbeth Salander for help. But in doing so, they get themselves into danger…

The Millennium series by Stieg Larson was on my "I would like to read this someday" list for a very long time, mainly because I liked the US adaptation, which was released in 2011. Unfortunately, the book did not meet my expectations, but disappointed me on multiple levels instead. The pace of the story was too slow, the characters inauthentic and unapproachable for me, the plot too confusing. But let's start at the beginning:

Mikael is an economic journalist and a major part of the initial plot includes his revelations about the Wennerström group. I found everything that had to do with Wennerström boring, as it was absolutely irrelevant to the actual plot - yes, there is a slight overlap, but this aspect of the plot was completely unnecessary and only dragged the story. Mikael is called "womanizer" quite early on, and this attribute is underlined several times throughout the book. To be honest, all the scenes gave me the feeling that the author projected his fantasies onto his main character. Ugh. Actually, these two things are everything that represent Mikael: journalist and womanizer. That's it.

Lisbeth is seen as "different" and "not normal" by everyone else because she has piercings and tattoos and her social skills are limited. She describes herself as a "freak" and is aware of her otherness. On the one hand, Lisbeth has some autistic traits (communication problems, little understanding of feelings or social relationships, special interests, photographic memory), but on the other hand she is manipulative, cunning, deceiving - that doesn't match. For me, it was just inauthentic. It felt like her whole character was put together to fit into the story. Multiple times throughout the book, it is hinted that Lisbeth has been sexually abused as a child, but it is never discussed in more detail. Her mother is mentioned a few times and Lisbeth visits her, but nothing about her character or the mother-daughter relationship gets explored. 

Overall, there is no character development except that Mikael and Lisbeth develop something similar to a friendship. I couldn't identify with any of the characters or build a bond with them. Because of that distance I couldn't really immerse myself into the story.

The pacing is so slow, I would have dnf’ed the book if I hadn't watched the film years ago/the book wouldn’t be that popular. Due to the sheer mass of story lines and characters, it takes a very long time to learn about Mikael's actual assignment. Only after halfway through the book (!!!) he discovers something in his research, and it takes a few more chapters until he and Lisbeth meet at all! The investigation of the murder series and Harriet's disappearance is suspenseful, yes. But it takes up so little space within the story that I was simply disappointed. It was too easy - everything can be explained by a series of coincidences, pure luck and Lisbeth's talent in hacking. This makes the plot and the revelation of the mystery unbelievable.

Many things are touched upon or characters are introduced that take up a lot of space in the plot, but are totally irrelevant in the end. Why waste so much time with that? There are so many story lines, why add additional ones that don't matter for solving the mystery? In the end, these red herrings end abruptly without being explained in any way.

When Lisbeth first appears as the first woman in the story and her appearance is described, it is immediately clear that the book was written by a man. Unfortunately, the male gaze is so evident throughout the book that I found it disturbing. In addition, despite her "otherness" Lisbeth is permanently portrayed as appealing and attractive (although it is mentioned several times that, relating to her body, she looks like a 12-year-old girl - this is worrisome), while all the other women characters are very cliché and "typical female". Also, no one has a problem with having sex with strangers. 

There is an explicit rape scene during which I wondered why this description is even part of the book. Is it necessary to write about this? Why, pure shock factor? For me, there's no rational reason why the rape happened at all. It should probably point out that some men are assholes and

show how Lisbeth deals with them. However, this was never mentioned again in the following plot. Lisbeth never talked to anyone or thought about it, and it didn't even bother her the sleep with the next best man.

For the amount of misogyny in this book, there is definitely a lack of elaboration, reflection and social criticism. I also think it's bad that

there are no consequences for the perpetrators. The cover-up is justified by protecting the victim as well as the success of the family business. I understand their motives, but it feels wrong. In addition to that, a lot could have been prevented if Harriet had simply gone to the police…

Of course, it wasn't all bad. The first chapter immediately caught my interest and the case around Harriet's disappearance is fascinating. I wanted to know what happened. The investigation of the serial murders was also exciting. Nevertheless, the negative impressions outweight the positive ones. The actual case takes up too little space. It is swallowed up by the confusing side stories. Because of that, I was very disappointed in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and I will not continue the series.

To be honest, this was a bit disappointing to read because almost all of the stories are backstories - most of them get told/mentioned in the main books, and the short stories are a more detailed version of that. Sadly, this doesn't add depth or anything new to the characters or main story. I think whether you enjoy reading the short story also depends a lot on which characters you like the most/find the most interesting!

The Keeper 2 ★
Glitches 3,5 ★
The Queen's Army 3 ★
Carswells Guide to Being Lucky 3 ★
After Sunshine Passes By 4 ★
The Princess and the Guard 2,5 ★
The Little Android - 2,5 ★
The Mechanic 3 ★
Something Old, Something New 4 ★

Eliza is a hard-working, over-archiving, (self-) critical and rather cold person. She is portrayed as unlikeable

(I kind of agree, but I have found other characters in other books far more annoying and despicable!)

and she doesn't care about her appeareance or popularity. As a senior editor at her school paper, she expects to become chief editor - but that title is snatched away from her by newbie Len. Out of frustration and anger, she writes an article about the blatant gender inequality at school, with no intent of ever publishing it. Except, somebody does. It goes viral overnight and Eliza finds herself in the midst of a feminist movement - and starts to develop feelings for the enemy.

You can argue about whether Len or Eliza is better suited for the position as chief editor. You can argue about whether or not Eliza is a "real" feminist (even though I personally think the book makes it clear that she questiones that herself multiple times and the whole point of this book is to challange your views and the meaning of feminism). But you can't deny that this book is full of situations in which girls are judged and treated differently than boys. It perfectly displays the struggles girls and women have to deal with every day. I really enjoyed how this book shined a light on many aspects of sexism and (internalised) misogyny and how it effects day-to-day life.

I was looking forward for that enemie-to-lovers-trope, but it did not get as much space as I expected. I actually find the relationship between Eliza and Len not fleshed out enough, it lacked depth. They had some really cute moments, but that's it.
Throughout the book, I had this feeling of doom. You know that something bad is going to happen and it will hurt the main character. I kept reading the story with this uneasy feeling, waiting for the moment where it all falls apart. Because of that, I couldn't fully enjoy the story. The whole plot makes it very easy to predict how it's going to end. Overall, I found some parts of the book a bit overdramatic and cringe, but other than that I enjoyed reading it!

Loved the Zou arc! I'm excited for what comes next!