by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
As I continue to read this thriller, I feel my sense of competitiveness kicking in. I have a fucking huge chip on my shoulder as it is when it comes to this project, to see someone else’s interpretation of Lisbeth Salander on the page is enough to get my juices flowing.
I’m beginning to get the sense that the author is really trying hard to appeal to the overlap of Lisbeth Salander and Jack Reacher fans. There’s something less-than-organic about this. To me, the point is to tell a great story with a clear vision and then, to figure out how to fit that vision within the general conventions of the genre you’re trying to fit within.
For the moment, at least, I find this novel…meh.
Something about it grates on my nerves and I have yet to pin it down. It all seems very by-the-numbers. The author is screaming on the page, “PLEASE LOVE HER, SHE’S JUST LIKE WHAT YOU REMEMBER OF LISBETH SALANDER.”
Ugh.
There are two things about Salander that make her iconic — one, she’s not very likeable, and, two, her character was fleshed out before the whole kicking ass and taking names part started. Now, obviously Larsson was gratuitous in the amount of backstory and exposition he wrote to get to that point, but the fact remains that we gradually got to know Salander.
But there is one thing I realize now — I need to make it more clear what kind of novel readers are getting into from the get-go. I just don’t have any wiggle room. I have to throw everything I have at the audience from the beginning to hook them.
