Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

The Book:  Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Summary (taken from book cover):
Meet Dexter Morgan, a polite wolf in sheep s clothing. He's handsome and charming, but something in his past has made him abide by a different set of rules. He s a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likeable: he only kills bad people. And his job as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department puts him in the perfect position to identify his victims. But when a series of brutal murders bearing a striking similarity to his own style start turning up, Dexter is caught between being flattered and being frightened -- of himself or some other fiend.


What I Thought: 

I've been on a huge Dexter kick lately, so when I found the book that the T.V. series was based on, I was curious to see how close the story lines were.  Turns out that they based the first season of the show very closely on Lindsay's first Dexter book up until the very end.  In an odd turn of events - at least for this book-lover - I definitely like the television version of this storyline better than in the book!  Don't get me wrong, this was still a good book that really kept my attention (even though I new what happened for the most part) and it was interesting to really have access to the serial killers thoughts, even as he thought he was going crazy, but  something was missing.  Maybe it was the odd conversations with himself, the some arrogant reactions,  or that he was more "empty" than the Dexter on the show, but I never really feel in love with print Dexter as much as screen Dexter.  This could be the further characterization for the show or maybe Michael C. Hall is just that good.  Either way, I was surprised when I finished the book and I realized I'd rather watch Dexter than read Dexter.  All in all a good read though, whether you've seen the show or not.

Rating:  7/10

P.S. Read more about Lindsay's Dexter books here!