"The Girl Who Played With Fire," by Stieg Larsson is the sequel to, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo." The first book is an introduction to Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomskvist, and the mystery of Harriet Vanger. On the other hand, the sequel explains the events and issues that resulted in Lisbeth being the way she is. It elaborates on what occurrences led to Lisbeth acting so violent towards others, yet it explains why she is so introverted.
As a child, Lisbeth regularly watched her mother being brutally abused by her disgraced father, who has entered and exited Lisbeth's life as often as she would beat someone up or get kicked out of school. There's a direct link to Lisbeth's troubles as an adult, and to her suffering as an adolescent. The actions of Lisbeth's childhood are in no doubt the cause of her shortcomings-leaving Lisbeth with a nonexistence father, a now dead mother, and a sister who is ashamed of her. Lisbeth become so enraged by her father's abusive ways, that she firebombed his car as he was pulling out of the driveway. Her father survived, but it forever affect Lisbeth for the rest of her life.
Lisbeth is the way she is, because of her childhood. That's nothing new. It's the destructive way of how it affected her that is so troubling. This reminds me of kindergarden, when the teacher told us that we should think before we speak. It's not that we should think before we speak, but that we need to realize how our actions affect our consequences. There is no greater example of that saying than in this book.
