Author: Jeff Lindsay
Series: Dexter #1
Published: July 2004
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
288 pages (paperback)
Background: I’m a huge fan of the Dexter TV show. I have a large poster of Michael C. Hall portraying Dexter in my bedroom (a bloodless and not-creepy poster, which was a little difficult to find given the nature of the show). So obviously, since I love the show and I love to read, it was only a matter of time before I got my grubby little hands on the series. Which I recently did thanks to my mother, who gifted them to me as a birthday present. (Speaking of which, I really should do an IMM post soon). My point is — this review is probably a little bias, although I tried not to be.
With all that said, I did try to forget everything I know about the TV series while reading this book, although some comparisons will inevitably arise. Darkly Dreaming Dexter is about a guy named Dexter (duh). He’s a blood spatter pattern analyzer for the Miami Metro Police force on the outside … but on the inside, he’s a rather successful serial killer. But never fear, he only goes after bad guys; people who have killed other people.
Dexter’s life is going pretty okay. He’s kept up his cover as a normal human being for many years now. But there’s another serial killer in town and Dexter is, for once in his life, a bit frightened. Whoever this killer is, he’s copying Dexter’s killing style, and leaving some very strange messages for him. Friend? Or foe?
I swear I’m not intentionally being bias here, but this was a good book. It’s short, which obviously factors into the reason why I got through it in less than a day, but also, it is addictive and difficult to put down once you start.
It’s entirely in first person, so we’re inside Dexter’s head the whole time. Now, you might think it’s creepy being inside the head of a serial killer, but Dexter is a very interesting character, and for a serial killer, he really isn’t that creepy. He only kills bad people, and he recognizes that what he is doing is not socially acceptable so he isn’t psychotically trying to justify himself, which makes the reader feel a little less guilty about liking a serial killer character. And he’s very likeable. He’s got a wicked sense of black humour, and he (or the author, or both) loves alliteration. Oh, the alliteration! Dexter’s got some style there. I mean, come on, reading “very careful cold coiled creeping crackly cocked and ready …” is kind of cool. I think Dexter is what makes this book so interesting. I don’t read a lot of crime fiction (barely any) but I’ve always been under the impression characters in such books are usually the detectives chasing down the criminals. I like Dexter a lot because we’re inside the criminal’s head instead … though, being a part of the police force, he is still chasing down criminals. Criminals chasing criminals, who is going to come out on top? Love that.
Even if you’ve watched the TV show, you should try reading the book for sure. The first season was loosely based off of this first book (and subsequent seasons are not based off of any of the subsequent sequels, so this is the only one), so while there are similarities, some things are different enough that even I did not know what was going to happen, and thus, was glued to the pages. As a whole, the general plot is the same, but the TV show really expanded the book (which, like I said, is quite short) and changed a bunch of things. Some of the characters aren’t even in the same roles. I can’t really say which is better, the show or the book — I really love both of them.
Now, the ending of the book is considerably less conclusive, less well-done than the TV show. The ending is markedly different from how the first season of the TV show went, so everything that happened in the ending was a surprise to me. I liked the ending in general, but it was rather abrupt and I felt like it left way too many questions than answers. The epilogue also felt a bit rushed and too short.
I’m super excited to read the sequels though! Since they are completely different from the TV show at this point, I have no idea what to expect and I’m tremendously excited to find out ;P
My Rating: 5/5
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