Great premise, entertaining narrative - but thin on plot and characterization

Fun read, but somewhat flat supporting characters. | Darkly Dreaming Dexter | Jeff Lindsay

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	• Darkly Dreaming Dexter Jeff Lindsay Vintage, 2006 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 226 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Show is Better

My day job happened to have a connection to the Dexter show - the sister of one of my coworkers worked on the set. My curiosity was already piqued by the premise of a serial killer turned vigilante, and I thought that as a show it would either be a marvelous achievement or a glorious disaster. Since it was on Showtime, and I don't get Showtime, I didn't get the chance to find out.

Eventually, Dexter came out on DVD and much to my relief the show was phenomenal. Dexter is every bit as charming and cold-blooded as you might expect from a sympathetic psychopath, and his occasional narrative aside serves to add both humor and horror to the events on screen. And those events are the political machinations of the Miami Police Department.

Dexter was raised by his foster father and former cop, Harry, to follow a particular code. This code regulates everything Dexter does, from how he dresses to whom he kills. Dexter's bloody murders are further complicated by his beard of a girlfriend, Rita, his half-sister Deborah, and his day job as a blood spatter analyst. Then one day a serial killer starts committing murders with an underlying message, a message meant only for Dexter. And then things get REALLY complicated...

The show is surprisingly true to the book. Every character is there just as I imagined them, except one: the main antagonist. In the television series, Dexter's antithesis is smart, conniving, believable, and capable of far worse than Dexter himself. In the book, he's a one-note ghoul who, in the span of five pages or so, expounds upon his entire background, his reason for killing and tempting Dexter, and their relationship.

And therein lay the problem. Darkly Dreaming Dexter tries to be both an ironic reflection of our fascination with serial killers and a murder mystery, but the mystery is severely lacking. Lindsay can only come up with "maybe Dexter's committing the murders in his sleep." It's telling that the producers of the television series discarded that notion right away, choosing instead to introduce the villain gradually.

The other problem is that the book escalates a conflict in Dexter's personal and professional life to such a level that it's something of a cheat; killing an antagonist off is easy, defeating them is hard. The end of Darkly Dreaming Dexter doesn't even give us closure with the other serial killer. He just gets away, leaving the reader with an unsatisfying conclusion and the creeping feeling that Dexter's personable façade has been completely discredited.

Nevertheless, Dexter is a marvelous read. As narrator, Dexter himself toys with language, using alliteration at it fancies him. As an author, Lindsay's writing skills are above par, and some of his descriptions are almost poetic.

Given the choice between the two though, I'll stick with television Dexter, thanks.

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Great premise, entertaining narrative - but thin on plot and characterization

So often a novel is turned into a film and is dramatically edited in order to fit it all into a 2 hour movie. The opposite is true when a book is turned into TV show, like Darkly Dreaming Dexter. In this case, the premise and basic story-line of a 300 page novel is stretched into a full season of hour-long cable TV shows. The result, of course, is that the TV show features considerably more detail, subplots, and character development. Fans of the show are inevitably disappointed by the `thinness' of the novel.

That said; some of the grievances are quite valid. I'm a fan of the TV series, but putting that aside and reviewing Darkly Dreaming Dexter on its literary merits, there are some significant shortcomings to this novel. While Dexter is fleshed out as a character, the secondary characters are woefully underdeveloped. In particular, the character of Deb, who Dexter describes as an intelligent capable cop, is portrayed as `not being the sharpest knife in the drawer' and a little whiny to boot.

The premise for the novel is ingenious and Dexter's narrative is ripe with sardonic humour, but the plot itself is unremarkable. The ending feels rushed and the whole novel is somehow unfulfilling - a great idea that just isn't executed well.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter isn't a bad novel. The story zips along quickly. Unlike the end of series one of the TV show, the novel's resolution is a little nastier and more ambiguous. I like that. This novel is worth reading as a kind of curiosity for fans of the TV series, and it's a reasonably entertaining quick read. While not at the top of my reading list, I suspect I may well read the second instalment to see where Lindsay takes Dexter's story. 3 ½ stars.

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Fun read, but somewhat flat supporting characters.

I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't really as good as I'd thought it was going to be. I love the concept, and I think the author does an excellent job developing the main character so that he is complex and believable. The problem both my husband and I had was that we felt that none of the other characters received much development at all. They all seemed flat, two-dimensional. My husband, who is a police dispatcher, complained that neither Deb nor La Guerta had any business being police at all, since apparently none of them can think for themselves, and need Dexter to do all of their work for them.

I recently started watching the TV series, and have to say that the show does a better job rounding out and developing ALL of the characters, not just Dexter.

The book was engaging and I enjoyed it, but I think I'll just stick with the TV show and not bother reading any of the additional books.

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The TV Show is Better

If you are looking to read this book because you are hooked on the tv show, then you may be surprised. The book Dexter is a bit more cold and crazy, though still funny at times. What surprised me most is that the tv show was actually better than the book. I can't remember the last time (if ever) that I have come to that conclusion. The story is quite different, but a lot less things happen and before you know it. . . the book is over. I won't be giving away any spoilers, so you'll just have to find out for yourself. I would give the tv show a 5 star rating and the book a 4 star.

The one thing I really hated about the book were the constant repetitive ramblings about the fact he is a killer and why he even bothers to pretend. Over and over pages are wasted saying the same thing. By book #2 I am just skipping over these pages.

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The Basis for a New Showtime® Original Series Starring Michael C. Hall

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.

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