The Girl in the Spider's Web - David Lagercrantz

We're going to see how this works on mobile, because the laptop is too cumbersome with baby! Apologies for any weird formatting or missed auto-correct shenanigans.

I finally finished a book! I focused on The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz, mostly because it was a library book and I was determined to get it done before I would have to renew it.

If I were to use the Goodreads system to rate this one, I'd probably give it three out of five stars. I liked it, but sadly, I didn't love it. I'll start with the positive: Lagercrantz did a phenomenal job picking up the characters and mimicking the style of the original Lisbeth Salander series. All of the original characters he brought back sounded almost exactly like Steig Larsson's creations. That is no easy task! Because the transition was so seamless in that regard, this book was as quick and almost as engaging to read as its predecessors.

Unfortunately, there were a couple of negatives, as well. Although the characters remained true to themselves, I got the sense that they weren't pushed to do anything new in this one. Blomkvist cracked a big story, but he was clearly smarter than the villains and therefore was never really in danger. Lisbeth did more of the life-threatening work, but after the trauma she endures in the first three novels, working with a bullet hole in her shoulder seems like next to nothing. And that leads into my biggest complaint - this novel lacks grit in a major way. There are violent scenes, but most of them - indeed the worst of them - happen offstage, as it were. For normal mysteries, that would be fine, but Lisbeth Salander's world was built on violence. It's what made her the woman we meet on the page, and it's how she's forced to survive. Without the violence, the book loses that sense of urgency that made the trilogy so great.

Of course, like most mystery authors do these days, Lagercrantz left the door wide open for a sequel. I'm sure I'll read it when it's out, but I won't hold any illusions about how it's going to hold up to what is easily my favorite mystery series in print.

The Excitement Builds

I'll admit I don't actually have anything to review at the moment, since 99% of my energy is going to Olivia these days, but I've been missing this blog. I've got three different books started at the moment, but I'm far from finished with any of them. (For the curious, those are Unnatural Creatures, edited by Neil Gaiman; The Best American Short Stories of 2015, edited by T. C. Boyle and Heidi Pitlor; and The Girl in the Spider's Web (A Lisbeth Salander Novel), by David Lagercrantz.) I'm still devouring The Magicians on Syfy as fast as they can air new episodes, although I've completely given up on any comparison to their source material. And, of course, I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Everything You've Come to Expect, which will finally be available this Friday. Basically, I've got a lot going on but nothing that warranted its own blog post. So, I decided I'd modify my own rules for this space a bit.

I wanted to tell you guys that I'm excited. Excited to read these books, even if I can only do so in 10- or 20-minute increments during my daughter's cat naps. Excited to get back to writing my own book, even if I have to wait until she's down for the night to steal a little bit of time with pen and paper before I go to bed myself. Excited to bring some of the artwork in my head to life, although I haven't quite figured out when I can fit that into my new routine. (The ideas are currently just...maturing? We'll say they're maturing. That sounds plausibly productive.) Caring for a newborn is by far the hardest thing I have ever done, and it's overwhelming and rewarding and frustrating and hilarious all at once, but it has also been exactly the inspiration I needed to let go of some of the things I've been stressing over and start dreaming again. I want Olivia to grow up with a mother who trusts her own intuition, not a mother who got lost in a existential crisis because her life goals didn't necessarily match anyone's expectations.

I'm sure this all sounds very cliché to some, but to a new mother who is only beginning to stumble out of the "no sleep" fog, it feels like a revelation. Maybe I'm just delirious and hopped up on caffeine, but feeling my creativity return after months of second-guessing every decision I've made in the past year is the biggest weight off my shoulders I could possibly imagine.

Long story short, keep watching this space for upcoming reviews and other news as it comes up! At the very least, I'll be back soon with my thoughts on The Last Shadow Puppets' second album and probably a few schemes about how I might possibly manage to see them play at Lollapalooza this summer. When I find time to get some artwork underway, the VanDuinen Studio Facebook page will get a lot more active, so feel free to follow that if you're so inclined. I've also got my work out to several short story contests at the moment, so fingers crossed on that front!

And now, to sleep. At least for an hour or two.