Rating: 
Summary: The Ending Isn't The Only Cheesy Thing About The Novel
Review: Three different novels: one third action film, one third flat, quasi-literary travelogue, and the final third pretentious allegory. The action film is thrilling, the Florence travelogue stuffy, and the allegory insufferable.
Rating: 
Summary: LAME!!! There will NOT be a movie!!!
Review: Here is another negative review...this is not a 3 star book! I can't understand how people can claim he wrote this solely with a future film in mind....there is no audience for this version of events. Maybe some day another writer can extrapolate beyond what happened in 'Silence of the Lambs' because as far as I'm concerned, HANNIBAL didn't happen! Morbidly entertaining at times, but when compared to the first two books, it really DOES appear that someone else wrote this book.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing ending
Review: What a waste: the author of two horror classics yearning to "transcend the genre." Is the ending a dream sequence or hypnotic/drug induced trance, or will the next installment find Clarisse and Hannibal digging up Jean-Paul Sartre's remains and gnawing on them? Who cares! As I finished this book, I was embarrassed for Thomas Harris, to think that this sloppy denouement was the best he could produce after so many years, particularly when the first half of the book is so well done. Harris wants to have it both ways: he wants the readers that Lecter's gory exploits bring, but he also wants to be taken seriously as an artiste. He has become the literary equivalent of Quentin Tarantino, by confusing self-indulgence with creativity.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time or money
Review: I actually threw the book away when I was finished
Rating: 
Summary: Unparalleled!
Review: I've read, reviewed and ranked 42 novels this year. Hannibal ranks #1 at this point, just ahead of Winslow's California Fire and Life; Lehane's Prayers for Rain, and Hodge's Wild Horses. Not having seen the movie version of The Silence of the Lambs, I only had expectations based on reading Harris' previous works. Though I found Lambs superior in its tone's chilling effect upon me, I also found the artistry of Harris' writing in Hannibal to be superior to that found in TSOL. His voice and shifting point of view are magnificently unique in this novel. When I finished Hannibal, I sat still in my easy chair, staring off into the distance, as stunned as I ever remember being at a novel's ending. My beloved asked me if there would be a sequel. I couldn't answer the question then and I can't answer it now. This was a good read!
Rating:
Summary: Who really wrote this book!?!
Review: Incredibly dissapointed. I loved the book Silence of the Lambs. Remember when they hired another writer to do a sequel for Gone With the Wind - this had the same feel - that someone else was tinkering with my favorite charachters. Clarice is a totally different person in this book, and the back story on Hannibal was not only LAME but it ruined him for me. Why give away the goods - Hannibal is much better as an enigma. Wouldn't reccomend it to anyone - especially Jodi Foster!
Rating:
Summary: Um - what the hell was THAT?
Review: It's actually kinda funny. If I'm anywhere NEAR the end of a book, I usually finish it - so it was odd to me that the book sat on my shelf, unfinished, for over two days with only around 30 pages to go, and I had no real desire to finish it. I SHOULD HAVE JUST LEFT IT ALONE! That a book with the potential that this one had - before even being written! - ended the way it did is beyond pathetic. I tend to feel guilty for not liking a book - I try to like everything. But not Hannibal. I'm just not sure what Mr. Harris was thinking. Some have said it was "bravery" and "guts" that he dsiplyed by ending this book the way he did. I'll call it laziness.
Rating:
Summary: I ate it up...
Review: I thought the book was wonderful. I finished it in two days. I couldn't put it down, although I suggest anyone wanting to read it have a strong stomach. The descriptions used by Mr. Harris were vivid yet restrained. I never knew where Mr. Harris would take me next. The probing into the mind of Dr. Lecter was unique and gave us a glimpse into the mind of one of the most frightening and unpredictable literary monsters of the decade. I wouldn't wait for the movie. In order to make a movie of this book, much would have to be edited.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific suspense, but disappointing finish.
Review: Thomas Harris continues to showcase the smarts and exhaustive research he used to such good effect in the previous 2 books on Hannibal Lector. Dr. Lector, for all his unusual "tastes", has always been frightening because he is so utterly believable. But the new villain Harris has created is so grotesque as to be unbelievable, a sinister, predictably gross cartoon character not worthy of Harris's talents or time. Clarice Starling's efficient intelligence shines through as it did in "Silence of the Lambs", but her character's transformation by the end of this novel was both disappointing and disturbing. The reader is left feeling vaguely cheated, and more than a little mystified. This is not the Clarice Starling we once rooted for- this woman is someone we don't know. Once the action moves to Italy, be prepared to stay up to the wee hours- till it's over.
Rating: 
Summary: What was Harris thinking?
Review: After reading all three of Harris' novels containing Lecter I must say this was the most disappointing. In Silence of the Lambs he created a strong female role for Starling and completely ruined her in Hannibal. I agree with many of the other reviewers that it was an interesting book and the ending was a complete surprise, but I don't think that it was consistant with the characters Harris originally created. Both Hannibal and Starling lost something, and Crawford was another disappointment. I would only recommend this book to those who haven't read the two prior novels (Red Dragon and Silence...). It stands alone on its own merits just fine. For those expecting to revisit favorite characters, re-read one of Harris' previous two novels.
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