Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris (2006, Hardcover)

Warning: Spoilers included in this review.

I have read all of Thomas Harris's books except for Silence of the Lambs and liked them all except this one. By the way, Black Sunday is his first and a good read; and I liked the farensics and horror in Red Dragon.

This one was stupid. I expected alot more out of it. I found myself skimming it about half way through because I wasn't being engaged in the reading. Who's-who is very confusing because the characters all have strange Russian names and last names, or French names, or German names... names....

Anyway, it was confusing most of the time on trying to figure out who the story was talking about and why they were important. All the reader knew that by the middle of the book is that Hannibal wanted to kill some men from the beginning. Whatever.

Also, there is alot of unneccessary text filling in the book. There is alot of foriegn reference to locations and people and the like. It is a little confusing and it seems as if it has almost nothing to do with the real story.

All the French words, locations, and descriptions create an obstical and detachment from the main plot. No one cares about La Chataue Buttcrust and all the other French mumbo jumbo. If it was just put in simple language, it would have been a lot more interesting and easy to read.

Also, it wasn't creepy enough. Decapitation gets old after a while. Hannibal did some really weird and sick stuff in the other books which made those stories a scary thrill ride. This was kinda dull. I was expecting to read about how he becomes this great villan, but it just wasn't... I dunno... thrilling?

And the reader never really learns why Hannibal becomes a cannibal in the end. It would have been cool if - when Hannibal blacked out when he was a child and couldn't remember what had happened -if he later remembered that he had somehow killed the men and eaten them all. THAT would have been creepy.

Then again... why did the Russians bomb the forest lodge? Did they just go around bombing houses when they liberated the area? Wouldn't that have been killing innocent people? And how did the men in the house get away in the snow? Or better yet, how did they get away with all of the art work?....

Or why didn't the asain stepmom get deported after the uncle died? I guess I must have been daydreaming through those explainations...

And, how is it that a 13 year old kid can kick a full grown mans ass? I mean if the butcher character was really a notorious, brawling, bar fighting, butcher guy - could a 13 year old kid could hurt him? Let's get real.

Also, if he was bleeding when he got shot in the end... Where did the blood come from if the sword stopped the bullet? Or why didn't any type of revenge happen to the detective? WE WERE ALL WAITING FOR IT.

Also, why in the heck were there crowds of people screaming/demanding the release of Hannibal again? What in the heck was that all about?

Plus, we all know Hannibal as a psychotic serial killer, yet in this book he is portrayed as an anti-hero who beats up bullies, avenges the rights of women in the name of chivalry, and lusts after his step mommy. OK?...

I am selling this book used on ebay so I should probably give it a good review but I just can't. Go ahead and read it if you like, but don't expect much.