The Girl in the Spider's Web

If I didn't already know that the original Millennium trilogy's author, Stieg Larsson, was dead, I probably wouldn't have realized that the fourth book in the series was written by a different author. That seemed to be off-putting to some people (I read a lot of Amazon reviews while I was reading the book, because I loved it and I didn't understand the haterz), and there was a lot of controversy about Larsson's estate and whether David Lagercrantz should have continued with the series in the first place.

Anyway.

The story was excellent, quick-paced, action-packed, and most importantly, includes way more Lisbeth Salander awesomeness. I was very sad when the first three books ended (presumably with no more to come, at the time) because Lisbeth is one of those characters that just vibrates right off the page, and the more books she is in, the better. One of the best-written female characters of all time, in my reading experience so far.

But that's more credit to Larsson than to Lagercrantz. I felt that Lagercrantz did a good job of keeping in the tone and the spirit of the original trilogy, and even managed to bring up subjects that were hinted at in the trilogy but that were never delved into deeper. The ending wrapped up cleanly (a little too cleanly, in my opinion, but what can you do), while still leaving space for more books to come.

Definitely a 4.5 star read.