Reviews tagging 'Death'

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

11 reviews

thursdd4y's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Stalking, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Grief, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Body horror, Child death, War, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

mlovesbooks's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Racism, and Genocide

emsmeat's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

Not as good as the sequels but a much more palatable read. Ending was somehow boring and we never get Hannibal in his golden years of being a psychologist serial killer and I'm salty about that. 3.0 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, War, Violence, Murder, Cannibalism, Child death, and Child abuse

plantkitt3n's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Death, War, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Child abuse, Gore, and Death of parent

hocuscrocus's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

On the positive side, this book contains plenty of the beautiful prose I love in Thomas Harris' novels.

On the negative side, it's a slow crawl to find the plot, and it's not very satisfying when it finally shows up. 

On the extra subjective side, I found it very slow going in general. It felt like Hannibal was 13 forever and then he was 18 forever. I get that these were the parts of his life that were most significant but I still found it very slow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Incest, Sexual violence, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, War, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Deportation

gabbyreynolds's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Gun violence, Murder, and War

cyanide_latte's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

To be quite honest, I thought this book was rather middle-of-the-road. Some people I've talked to thoroughly enjoy it for the fact it serves to step behind the mystery of why the character of Hannibal Lecter is the way he is. And indeed it serves as a very interesting insight into that aspect of him! And some other people I have talked to dislike this book for the sake of the fact that it eliminates that mystery; they prefer Hannibal to remain a larger-than-life, frightening figure in their own minds. And likewise I can also understand why that might cause this book to be off-putting.

Personally I neither loved nor hated it. It was simply interesting to go through.

I think my largest criticism of this book is that it doesn't have great re-read value. It's the sort of thing that once you have read it, it's going to stick in your mind while going through the remainder of the books. And if it doesn't have great re-read value, then I look at it as an almost unnecessary book within the quartet when going through the series another time. It was good to read this once but I'm not sure how often I'll return to it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Grief, Alcohol, Death of parent, Incest, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Hate crime

Minor: Genocide

freshbatchofbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The focus was on Hannibal’s childhood, but the first 50-75 pages focused on the antagonists of the novel, which made it a little difficult to follow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Grief, Violence, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Medical content, Murder, War, Torture, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Genocide, and Gore

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Misogyny, Bullying, Stalking, Trafficking, Hate crime, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Sexism, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Confinement, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Slavery

fatkidatheartreads's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

4.0

"What is left in you to love?" she said.

I'm not saying I agree with the decisions Hannibal Lecter made, but I'm saying I get it.

Hannibal Rising is an exploration of his rough upbringing in the midst of German invasion and war and all the losses he endured that eventually 'broke' him. There is a conversation in the book revolving Hannibal that happens between a police Inspector and his assistant and it goes like :

What do you think he is? 
The little boy Hannibal died in 1945 out there in the snow trying to save his sister. His heart died with Mischa. What is he now? There's not a word for it yet. For lack of a better word, we'll call him a monster.

.. which goes to show that big bad terrifying Hannibal Lecter is a result of all his circumstances and childhood traumas. 

This book also introduces insightful tidbits into Hannibal's character and mannerisms e.g we learn about how he came up with the Memory palace, what drove him to commit his first murder, how he ended up retrieving hidden memories, his inner demons or even how he became so skilled in surgery and human anatomy. 

I really enjoyed reading this thrilling and gruesome book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Blood, Cannibalism, War, Animal cruelty, Child death, and Gore

kkalicky94's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Grief, Medical content, Murder, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Trafficking, and Pedophilia

Minor: Antisemitism