This doesn't happen very often, and when people told me about it, I did not believe them. How could book 2 in a trilogy be better than book 1? That's not how trilogies work. Trilogies work like this: book 1 > book 3 > book 2. In many trilogies book 2 is almost forgettable, just stepping stone to get from 1 to 3. Well, the people were right The Girl Who Played with Fire is better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 
 There is a lot of stuff in the beginning of this book that did not really matter in the end (the first 200 pages were almost as bad as the first book). The book could have easily been cut down to 400 pages I would have liked it just the same, perhaps more because I wouldn't have to trudge through the beginning. The Girl who Played with Fire was less disturbing than the first book (it's still not a light and fluffy subject, I just think it's less graphic). 
 I loved Lisbeth even more in this one than the last. You find out so much more about her as a person now, and you find out what "all the evil" is. "All the evil" wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be, but that was a good thing. Lisbeth is such an amazingly complex yet simple character. 
 This mystery is much more personal to Lisbeth as well as Blomkvist. I enjoyed watching it unravel. Lisbeth and Blomkvist don't' have a lot of personal To say anything else would be considered a spoiler, but that's why I liked this book better than the first. 
 You get to know a few characters better that you only briefly meet in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I hope they reappear in the next book as well. Every character is pretty well written and enjoyable.