A review by jobinsonlis
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

3.0

I vaguely remembered liking this one more the first time I read it but I think I just liked the Brett Ratner movie a lot. Ralph Fiennes makes the Tooth Fairy killer so compelling in the movie but here he's just kinda generic--abandoned by people who should have loved him, check, abused by an older female relative, check, abnormal in a way that immediately makes him an outcast in his community, check, tortures animals to feel like he has control, check, sexually confused and frustrated, check, check, check. It's all pretty standard stuff for the genre. Even Will Graham feels pretty generic here without Edward Norton giving him all that tormented depth. Hannibal still feels unique and presumably that's why Thomas Harris decided to make him the through line of the series rather than Graham, which was smart. I'm curious if I'll still like the next book because I remember really liking it the last time I read it.