Hannibal by Thomas Harris
āThe first step in the development of taste is to be willing to to credit your own opinion.ā Goodreads Synopsis
Invite Hannibal Lecter into the palace of your mind and be invited into his mind palace in turn. Ā Note the similarities in yours and his, the high vaulted chambers of your dreams, the shadowed halls, the locked storerooms where you dare not go, the scrap of half-forgotten music, the muffled cries from behind a wall.
In one of the most eagerly anticipated literary events of the decade, Thomas Harris takes us once again into the mind of a killer, crafting a chilling portrait of insidiously evolving evil--a tour de force of psychological suspense. Ā
Seven years have passed since Dr. Hannibal Lecter escaped from custody, seven years since FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling interviewed him in a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane. Ā The doctor is still at large, pursuing his own ineffable interests, savoring the scents, the essences of an unguarded world. Ā But Starling has never forgotten her encounters with Dr. Lecter, and the metallic rasp of his seldom-used voice still sounds in her dreams.Ā
Mason Verger remembers Dr. Lecter, too, and is obsessed with revenge. Ā He was Dr. Lecter's sixth victim, and he has survived to rule his own butcher's empire. Ā From his respirator, Verger monitors every twitch in his worldwide web. Ā Soon he sees that to draw the doctor, he must have the most exquisite and innocent-appearing bait; he must have what Dr. Lecter likes best. Ā
Powerful, hypnotic, utterly original, Hannibal is a dazzling feast for the imagination. Ā Prepare to travel to hell and beyond as a master storyteller permanently alters the world you thought you knew.
My Rating: 3 Stars
I don't want to say this book was disappointing per se, but it didn't grab me as strongly as Silence of the Lambs did. What I loved most about that book was the interactions between Clarice and Hannibal and that's what I wanted from this book. I wanted to see more of the emotional and mental fallout of all that. This book was kind of a slog to get through for the first half because it's just full of so much injustice towards Clarice, because her career was crippled by the toxic and wounded egos of the men who wanted to be the ones to take down Jame Gumb. I wanted more of the story to be about her doing her job and hunting down Lecter, and it was frustrating that such a small part of the novel focused on that. I hated the parts that focused on Pazzi and Verger because they were such flat characters. I only really enjoyed the last 30% or so of the book and breezed through the ending, but after everything, the book was pretty unsatisfying.



















