Review 2: The Girl Who Played with Fire

The publishers chose to highlight the colors red, yellow, and orange obviously because the title is The Girl Who Player With Fire. It includes messy blonde hair that appears to be fire. This makes no sense when you first see it, but readers will be intrigued to find out. Advertising is also helped by associated this sequel with the first best seller. The hair symbolizes girls involved in sex trafficking. This is the underlying problem that leads to exposure, murder, and conflict. The blonde hair only has meaning after reading. I like that about the cover. The text is in big, black bold. I think this is because publishers want people to know that in no way is this a fun, light-hearted read. It also makes it look very mature because it’s probably not a subject for younger readers. The author’s name is the same size and font as the title, which I do not like. I think it takes away from the title because there is so much print. All of Stieg Larsson’s books are formatted this way: a small ambiguous image relating to the book with the title in large font. Larsson’s books always have several different plots that seem irrelevant to one another, but always find a twisted way to completely relate. For example, you have Lisbeth’s life and then the investigation of murders leading to the sex trafficking business. They seem separate until you find out that Lisbeth, authorities, and journalists are all looking for a man named Zalachenko, a prostitution organizer who turns out to be Lisbeth’s dad. At first glance I’m more attracted to covers that easily explain what a book will be about, but the books with covers that only make sense after reading are much more fascinating. I love the feeling when you can finally connect the title or cover art to the story. I feel accomplished.