Neon Bibles

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest

Stieg Larsson delivered the manuscripts for this trilogy to his publisher in 2004. Very soon later he met his death in the shape of a heart attack after climbing the many flights of stairs to his office as the lift was not in use. Some say it was induced by the death threats he received as editor of Expo. This itself sounds like a solid foundation for any crime thriller. The manuscripts Larsson delivered would soon become bestsellers, by December 2011 they had sold 65 million. He called it the “Millennium Trilogy”, this final installment was the best selling book of all 2010 in the USA. 

The book continues immediately from it’s predecessor “The Girl Who Played With Fire” , which left us with our protagonist - Lisbeth Salander - in hospital with a bullet in her head, ready to be taken to prison. The plot of the third novel would make little sense at all if it were not for the second one. However, the first book is a completely different story altogether. It seems as if Larsson’s final two could have been merged into one, but who wants to read a 1500 page book? Certainly not me, and there was a definite split between the two books: ‘Fire’ was the one with all the major thrills, murders and car chases. Whereas ‘Hornets’ Nest’ was the epic conclusion, a long one at that, but it didn’t leave a single stone unturned. Anyone finishing the trilogy cannot help but feel a clear sense that everything is coming together, finally. 

The underlying message of the whole trilogy is of women and how they are treated in society - as editors of massive newspapers to slaves in the Eastern European sex trafficking rings. This does not mean to say the book leans into the feminism side of things, but I can’t for the life of me think of a female character who wasn’t looked on as inferior by some males. This message comes across strongly - there are still men out there who are self-absorbed and arrogant with unflinching views on women, and this has to be stopped. There were so many times when reading this book when I paused and thought, ‘Larsson really makes a good point here, women really do have the short straw.’ And I’m no feminist. 

The novel is written in the third person, with the main characters being Salander - ‘The Girl…’ and  Blomkvist - the good guy. There are plenty more but these two being the main focus of the novel. Blomkvist is supposed to come off as this good looking, intelligent, determined guy who provides many of the thrills. For the most part this is true, but he does have his downfalls. In the middle section of the book his part becomes rather boring, repetitive; every time he appears he’s always doing the same thing. However, at the end of the novel, his involvement becomes clear and the fast paced action returns with a series of astonishing plot twists and revelations. Although it explains his need to blend into the background, before you know of this it’s not exactly exciting. The same is true of Salander, I mean how thrilling can you get when the main character is locked in a hospital? However, Larsson easily makes her story even better because of this. Instead of focusing on the fights, chases, and near death experiences like book two; we can focus on her past, which is so full of mystery and complexity that it takes a whole 740 pages to understand. 

The novel introduced itself as slow paced, like there was nowhere left to turn for our ‘good guys’, as readers we are left wondering what could possibly be filling the whole book? However, Larsson was clever here, by giving this impression we feel disheartened, almost upset, but very soon the plot explodes as he introduces a number of new characters, both detestable and charming adding to the empty stage for the story to continue. 

Overall the book was most certainly a page turner, and by the end of it I felt a sort of sisterly love for Salander, and was genuinely happy with the result. Even now I miss the characters, I was connected to them before, I shared their hatreds and celebrated with them when everything went according to plan. I shall most definitely be seeing the films very soon, if only to be reunited with my Swedish friends. 

8/10

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS 

Everyone should read this book. It’s beautiful. 

That statement is basically the conclusion of my review. But why waste time getting to it, the sooner you read this book the better. 

Written by John Green, The Fault in Our Stars is the story of Hazel Lancaster and Augustus Waters, two teenagers who meet at a Cancer Kid Support group. Narrated by Hazel, the tone of the novel takes a witty, intelligent tone that relates to readers such as myself. For example Hazel and Augustus rapport with each other with quips about the word ‘literal’, how it’s thrown around so carelessly nowadays. Although this book deals with a topic talked about in hushed voices in reality, cancer is not seen as the enemy here. But the universe. Everything wants to survive and be noticed, even cancer, all it wants is to live, and if the only way it lives is by taking other lives, then so be it. As Green puts in his book, “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”

The two characters are so lovable, memorable and relatable that I sincerely wish they were my best friends; the boy with one leg (Augustus) and the girl with the oxygen tank attached to her nose (Hazel). The fact they have cancer is obviously a massive part of the story, but this is what makes it such a thought-provoking one. When do you ever see someone truly looking past the disease of a cancer sufferer? They become the illness, and everything they do has to be weighed against the fact they have cancer. Why does it have to be like this? I don’t know if I could ever feel this way for someone in reality, but it is surely how I felt for them. They want to be noticed by the universe for sure, but not for having cancer, for living as full a life as they can: falling in love, going for dinner in fancy restaurants, talking for hours about their favourite books. We all know death is inevitable, that’s a fact, some people accept it and others try to ignore it. In short the reason I fell in love with A and H was because although they knew death was approaching very quickly, they didn’t wallow in self pity and depression, but attacked the life they had left together. Due to this the book is a roller-coaster of emotions, shown by Green’s internet following with the popular meme: 

Even though the story is narrated by Hazel, it is undoubtedly un-self-centred. We see a lot of the romantic relationship between the two and the inner thoughts of Hazel, how she doesn’t want to “be a grenade” and ruin everyones lives by dying. However, we are also privy to the breakdown of love, the attempted redemption of a cruel past and the methods of dealing with cancer: all of which are to do with other characters. Many of these subjects pop up unexpectedly, adding to the unpredictability of the book, which is what makes it so enjoyable. 

Calling the book a page turner would give the wrong impression, page turners are usually associated with thrillers containing wild car chases and abundant suspense (these are things I’m thankful Green’s book lacked in). Yet I think it deserves something similar, such as ‘unputdownable’ (I may have made this up…) because once you understand the situation of the characters, it would take a harsh soul to replace the bookmark and leave it on a shelf for more than a day. The story drags you in, the outcome unknown. Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, couldn’t have been more right when he said this about the book: “You laugh, you cry, and then you come back for more.” It’s Green at his best, and I look forward to reading more of his work. 

so much so that I’m going to post my first two right here! I’m proud of them!