A staple of the genre. I love Will Graham passionately, reverently, forever. The largest short-coming of this book is the knowledge that Will and Hannibal's relationship will be replaced by Clarice for the rest of the series. Much like The Silence of the Lambs, for a book supposedly about Hannibal Lecter there is a surprising lack of both him and the titular cannibalism. I think therefore my biggest gripe is a lack of gore and not enough Hannibal.

Would read again with or without a nice Chianti.

TLDR: read this to see how different it was from the series adaptation Hannibal (NBC), and it is very different. will and hannibal aren’t really explored as much nor is their relationship dynamic, in fact there really ISNT a relationship between the two at all, they barely ever talk, which is a bummer because i really thought that will would be consistently using hannibal and i guess his unique expertise to try to catch the tooth fairy. will’s character isn’t expanded upon as much because the book is so heavily focused on the Red Dragon/The Tooth fairy, though we do learn some interesting aspects of him sprinkled throughout the book, but still not much. some parts of this book is admittedly very slow paced or flat out boring, not much going on, but later on in the book the suspense really starts to pick up. this first book in the series introduces the question on the ethicality of murder and lightly explores the concept of nature vs. nurture, which makes me excited for how the other books in the series will be.

devoured this shit like it was a five-course meal. i decided to read this after watching the show Hannibal (nbc) to see the similarities and differences between the two, and safe to say they’re VERY different. here’s a well thought out and organized list of things i liked and disliked:

1. I loved how deeply the book explores Dolarhyde’s character, as in the show it focuses more on Will and Hannibal’s relationship, leaving out key details about the Red Dragon in the process. yet in the book, we see the clear the parallels between dolarhyde’s childhood and his victims and why he specifically chose to kill THEM, and that made me understand his character a whole lot more. but also he’s so damn pathetic too, like bro got mommy issues and insecurities and instead of just talking to a therapist about it, he decided to just kill people during a full moon like he a fucking werewolf or some shit. 
 
2. there’s so little interaction between Hannibal and Will, in contrast to the show where they interact VERY heavily. it feels almost slightly misleading because i really thought that-similar to the show-will would be really trying constantly to like use the knowledge of Hannibal to get closer to the Red Dragon, but instead they talk like i think once or twice and that’s it. i guess that’s why i like the show a little bit more because it really explores the complicated relationship between the two. 

3. I kinda wished that the book delved into Will a little bit more, because he’s such an interesting character that I think could be expanded on yet thomas is straight up just giving us breadcrumbs, nothing truly substantial about his character. like for example, in the show bryan fuller really goes deep into how Will was slowly starting to turn into Hannibal, adapting his mindset and his viewpoint on murder, becoming more and more mentally unstable, essentially slowly becoming the very thing he ought to destroy. in the book, while there are slight, SLIGHT mentions of this (ie Hannibal asking Will in his letter if perhaps he only felt bad about shooting garret jacob hobbs to death because killing to him felt good, Will questioning whether or not he

purposefully set Lounds up to get him killed

, as well as the ending scene of the book), they’re not really looked at any further because the book is so heavily focused on the tooth fairy/the red dragon, which again i don’t mind because the series gave so little info about him, but i just wished we also expanded on will’s character just a tiny bit more. the book does also lightly touch on his deteriorating mental health, like for example showing how much Molly hates Jack Crawford (which….same girly) because he really doesn’t give a fuck about will’s mental state, he’s just like “nooo you’re fineee you’re not mental ill, now go look at those corpses :)”, but again it’s more so slight mentions and then immediately the conversation shifts back to Dolarhyde, like i would’ve LOVED to see flashbacks of maybe will’s past and seen how bad his mental health got because of how triggering his job is and how he had to kill hobbs, and i guess just showing a little bit more why he was so hesitant to come back to the FBI to solve another case, ie the Red Dragon, but again i watched the series adaptation before i read this so maybe my expectations were just a bit too high. 

4. i loved the suspense, and the characters desperately trying to connect the dots and figure everything out. although, some parts I thought ultimately were very boring and slow, but then there were other parts of the book that had me gripping the edge of my seat about to nearly shit myself and go into cardiac arrest. 

5. the book kinda explores the morality of murder along with the cruelty of humankind, why some people have this inexplicable urge to kill, and what truly makes someone capable of such an act, and man i adored that shit. i’m guessing perhaps in the other books of the series where they dive deeper into Hannibal, that concept will be explored a whole lot more, which i’m really looking forward to, as it basically kind of the nature vs. nurture debate, and whether or not killers are the way that they are because of genetics and just inherently being that way, or if it’s the experiences that shapes them into who they are, very interesting.

Will Graham just one chance

will graham, hannibal lecter, and francis dolarhyde are all complex characters that reflect each other at times which makes this book so interesting 

The second half is way more interesting and tense than the first wich is a real slog to get through. Also Hannibal Lecter is advertised as a major character on the front and back of the book but he only appears on like 10 pages. Overall I'd save the time and watch the 2002 movie with Anthony Hopkins instead.