Reviews

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

lethaldose's review against another edition

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3.0

Like many people I read this book because I am a huge fan of the tv show. All my favorite characters were here and the story is basically the first season of the series.

I have seen movies that were just as good as the books, but here is a case where the show far outstrips the book. The characters are basically the same, but they are better in the show. Dexter is a show where you love the characters in spite of their major flaws. Here every character other than Dexter himself are very uninteresting.

But the story should have been bette too because it is the story from the show, but it really isn't. There is none of the flavor here, and apparently the series writers are more clever than Jeff Lindsay because the came up with better spins on the story than he did. And the end of the first season of Dexter was very satisfying, here the end of the book is aggravating and cheap.

This is not to say that this is a bad book, it isn't, but I think most people are coming to this book because they are fans of the show. And that might not be a good reason, because like the book fan that gets upset when the movie doesn't live up to the book, here is a book that doesn't live up the show.

I am not sure at this point if I will bother continuing with the book series, maybe I will just stick with the Michael C Hall Dexter, and leave the Jeff Lindsay Dexter on the shelf.

waniasajid's review against another edition

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

2.75

alindeman's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

dhasenkampf's review against another edition

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3.25

Pretty good. A little ridiculous but still engaging. 

thinkingbookishthoughts's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

skarijay's review against another edition

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4.0

An enjoyable, quick read, quite similar to the series. I pretty much immediately started the second one after the first I liked it so much.

em_i_a's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I think this was a good introduction to Dexter, I went through this book fairly quickly more because I had to know what happened next. It’s an easy read, not too dark, and it veers away from the show.

heckle6's review against another edition

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dark lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

roshek's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

heathercottledillon's review against another edition

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4.0

So creepy and disturbing, but also funny. The ending is a big surprise and I like that, but it finishes abruptly and I would have liked some more wrap up.