Reviews with content warning for Lesbophobia - Hannibal

An astonishingly flagrant and bold "fuck you" to people who had become fans of the series' star serial killer and his world, Thomas Harris conjures up a very bleak yet also batshit insane world populated by eccentric weirdoes from all walks of life. The plot hook allows Harris to indulge in some brilliantly executed gothic touches melded with the familiar police procedural elements from the prior novels in the series. But I cannot go any further without detailing just how transgressive this one is, I can only assume intentionally so as a part of the "fuck you". It is incredibly resistant to your expectations (which I in fact welcome), very bloody gory and foul, yet still retains all those higher level elements of Harris' novels concerning human nature, relationships, psychology, etc. A modern (intentional) trash classic.

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caidyn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I find that this book is my favorite out of all the Hannibal Lecter series. It focused more on Hannibal, which I really enjoyed because he is, quite honestly, the most fascinating character that I've read in all my years. I did see the movie first but I couldn't follow it. I could only follow the book because of how spelled out they were for me to follow and understand. The book was an easy read, nothing too challenging to it, but one that I really enjoyed because of the focus done on my favorite character in this series.

I only had two problems with the book. The first being how the tense switched so often; sometimes in the beginning of the chapter it would be present tense and in the end or middle it would suddenly be past. Being a writer myself, mainly sticking to private works that I don't share, it bothered me, especially since I can stay to one tense and a man who's been published multiple times and his books are very well known can't. The second problem was with the details of minor characters, such as Margot, that I didn't need or care about. Sure, hearing about how much she wanted a child with Judy was sweet but wasn't that interesting or needed. The motivation for her killing Mason could have simply been because she had hated him, but that's my own opinion.

My favorite part of the book was seeing the development in Clarice and Hannibal's relationship. Ever since they had been introduced together and Hannibal had taken a special liking to her, I had hoped that they would wind up together either as a couple in a friendship or in romance. Yes, I do know that Hannibal had her drugged but he did reach her and understand her more than even she had until the end when she seemed to have become herself but in a new way that was far more elegant. The ending of the book was very good, but, again, the part about Barney was unneeded for me. Krendler's ending was really symbolic; Clarice ate her problem, clearing it away, almost turning into Hannibal in doing so because of the sudden change in elegance as her last problem, that being Krendler, was gone.

All in all a very good book that I would recommend to people looking for an interesting read that you don't want to put down.

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