Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: Hannibal by Thomas Harris
Review: Just finished reading "Hannibal"--Cannot believe the ending. There is only one person to play Hannibal in the movie version. I'm only hoping Mr. Hopkins decides to take the part again. Here's hoping Jodie Foster will join him. But who will play "Mason Verger?"! What a character.

Rating:
Summary: Reconsideration
Review: My initial disappointment with the ending has turned to puzzlement. Harris knows the bizarre and exposes his readers to unique and terrible atrocities, as he spins variations of the standard thriller.(The garbage disposal in "Black Sunday" is an early example.) Our reaction to the ending measures our ability to think outside the box. Even drugged, is this how Clarice would slip into submission? Is she as strong as we remember or has the Jodie Foster performance made more of Clarice than did Harris? This is not the book we expected but Harris has always surprised us. You will not be able to ignore this installment.

The monster is worth contemplating. If Clarice can succumb, would we?

Rating:
Summary: Give me more!
Review: This was a great read! I wish that Mr. Harris, in the method of Stephen King, would put out one or two novels a year. H ehas definately left the door open for another book, but maybe its time to develope something new for all the avid Harris fans.

Rating:
Summary: Starling, Lecter Betrayed by Author
Review: These characters would never behave the way they do at this book's end. Harris changes tense at a dizzying pace (even in mid-chapter) and clearly doesn't share the love of his characters that fans of his earlier works possess.

Rating:
Summary: Undecided...
Review: I could not wait for this book to come out. After Silence of the Lambs, I was expecting big things from this one. The book I feel goes into too much detail about Italy. The writing at points is very graffic, sometimes gruesome. I see saw back and forth from like to dislike for this book. There were times when reading it that is was hard to pick it back up. I would say that there are sections of the book that would be rated a "page turner", but not the whole book. The ending will shock. After going to all the time to read the book, I will wait and see what the movie has to offer. Although I hear that Jodie Foster has refused to play the role of Clarise Starling in the movie, so it is possible it will be a sort-of let down like the book. Still undecided on this one...

Rating:
Summary: Silence of the Pigs - FREAKIN' WEIRD, MAN!
Review: What's with Harris' obsession with farm animals? I enjoyed this insofar as sections of the book went. I think anyone expecting this to top "Lambs" is being unrealistic. A) This is a sequel (really the first, if you consider the worldwide success of the "Lambs" film vs. "Manhunter" aka "Red Dragon") and B) Sequels are usually disappointing. What I give this novel credit for is an interesting portrayal of Hannibal living it up after escaping the asylum. Very interesting and believably done. I also enjoyed the first part of Starling's dilemna at her job, though it devolved into an overblown and improbable scenario. And while I think the ending was written as though Harris had been doing ecstacy for three weeks straight, I give him credit for being ballsy enough to go there. Nobody can say they predicted THAT ending! I thought his writing was up to par, but the story-telling was too random and left Starling dangling in the breeze for way too long. I lost interest and went about reading it as more of a serial (no pun intended) ... treating each section as a new episode in the lives of Starling and Hannibal. I enjoyed it as I would a campy trashy movie. But mine is a peculiar and forgiving taste and I wouldn't reccommend this book strongly to anyone expecting what most of the disappointed reviewers seem to have expected.

Rating:
Summary: Severely Disappointing
Review: Add me to the list of people who are sorry they read this book. It was superbly written, as one expects from this author, but I wouldn't recommend it to any except those who enjoy the triumph of evil.

Rating:
Summary: Would Rather Give It Zero Stars
Review: Unfortunately you won't allow zero stars, because that's exactly what this book deserves.

Not only does the far-fetched ending ruin this book, but it cheapens Silence of the Lambs as well. Harris turned his back on his characters and his readers.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant study of the human psyche!
Review: this book was a suspenseful trip intothe the depths of the human psyche and a look at what dwells within all of us. Apart from non-stop action and chilling scenes this book asks the reader to examine him or herself, and not jump too quickly to convenient conclusions which most often then not fail. Hannibal Lecter is a monster but an intellectual one and thus adds an attractive dimension to his character. He is also a person of great understanding and empathy and thus is the reason that Clarice falls for him in the end. If a reader is willing to go beyond the mere suspense of this story and read between the lines he or she would see the true horror, and see in how in all of us lurks a side we rarely reveal to ourselves. I have to say I really enjoyed this book and was glad to see Mason get what he had coming to him as well as Krendler. For those who disagree, Clarice really didnt' have much of a choice. Lecter was the person who finally helped her break free from her father's ghost. The life she knew before did not. As for the production, having bought the audiobook version, it was great though Mr. Gerroll overdid it a bit concerning Mason's character. At times it was very difficult to understand him; all and all though he did an excellent job reading this great book; Bravo mr. Harris, hopefully you have not put your irresistible monster to rest forever; after all, he now has a bride of sorts; a fourth entry into his life would be greatly appreciated.

Rating:
Summary: Title For My Review
Review: Well, I notice many people were disappointed with this...I was too immediately after finishing the book. It was great up until the end right? I agree with that. I thought Mason Verger himself was a stupid and predictable character. I've always felt sympathy for every other antagonist in Harris's books. But perhaps, Harris didn't want you to feel sorry for Mason. Harris has always shown both sides of the villian, so he very well could've done so here. Harris wanted your attention to be turned towards Hannibal. And it was. Now, about Clarice. Who says that she wasn't acting like herself? Guys, Clarice has always been running and hiding from her past, avoiding it. At the beginning of the book, with the somewhat impromptu letter from Lecter, her immediate instinct was to catch him. To redeem herself, possibly, to distract attention from her little Evelda Drumgo incident. Or maybe, despite Lecter's reassurance that he would not go after Starling, she had a little fear for her life. Lecter feels Starling can replace Mischa, and maybe Starling feels that Lecter is almost like her father. Starling realizes that Lecter and herself need each other, they need each other's comfort, she realizes that with Lecter, she can stop running. In "Silence", the lambs were a metaphor for Catherine, but were they also a metaphor for Clarice? Was Clarice's past a lamb? Clarice's lamb was slaughtered, and, depending on your religious beliefs, the lamb's soul may have gone on to where it wanted to be. Like someone below said, this is the death of Clarice as we know her, she is moving on to where she wants to be. Clarice never needed the FBI. She needed Lecter. So, after you've let the ending sink in, you realize that Starling didn't stop acting like herself, because she was just starting to. I thought the ravenous pigs, the eel, the little feast at the end, were all very stupid things. I thought Mason was a very stupid character. The plot here was not about Mason wanting to kill Lecter as much as it was about the relationship between Clarice and Hannibal. How Clarice learned to stop running, and how Clarice learned to let go of her lamb. As for a sequel, the closing line says it all in my opinion. "We can only learn so much and live."

Movieboy