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A review by songwind
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
4.0
Like many others, I got interested in Dexter by watching the Showtime TV series.
The books are a very different experience. In the show, Dexter comes off as much more noble - a nice guy, and a vigilante taking down people who escape justice.
The Dexter of the books is much darker. Sarcastic, full of himself and more than a little cruel. He's not a vigilante meting out justice, he's a murderer who promised his dad he'd only murder in certain ways. This creates a character that is more entertaining in many ways, but a lot less sympathetic.
Dexter is also an unreliable narrator, and sometimes taken by surprise when his uniformly low opinion of the people around him isn't born out.
This is not a book for anyone who is too squeamish, though the exact processes of how Dexter commits his crimes is left vague. However, the glee with which he contemplates it, and the casual disregard he feels for every living thing over the age of 18 or so can be pretty distasteful.
I'll be continuing the series, but only with some breaks to cleanse my palette.
The books are a very different experience. In the show, Dexter comes off as much more noble - a nice guy, and a vigilante taking down people who escape justice.
The Dexter of the books is much darker. Sarcastic, full of himself and more than a little cruel. He's not a vigilante meting out justice, he's a murderer who promised his dad he'd only murder in certain ways. This creates a character that is more entertaining in many ways, but a lot less sympathetic.
Dexter is also an unreliable narrator, and sometimes taken by surprise when his uniformly low opinion of the people around him isn't born out.
This is not a book for anyone who is too squeamish, though the exact processes of how Dexter commits his crimes is left vague. However, the glee with which he contemplates it, and the casual disregard he feels for every living thing over the age of 18 or so can be pretty distasteful.
I'll be continuing the series, but only with some breaks to cleanse my palette.