Book Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Book: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Author: Jeff Lindsay
Genre: Thriller/Serial Killer

Julia Rating: 10

Comments:

Darkly Dreaming Dexter is a fantastic book about your friendly, neighborhood serial killer, Dexter Morgan. Dexter is no ordinary serial killer. Instead of being a frightening ghoul who haunts and ultimately kills innocent victims, he will only "play" with other serial killers. In this way, he is really doing the Miami police department a favor.

A blood spatter analyst in the Miami police department, he is uniquely positioned to meet new friends to "play" with, and has even helped the detectives of the police department catch some killers. So, when a unique serial killer with a style reminiscent of Dexter's (but to Dexter's mind, more artistic) comes along and Dexter's foster sister (Deborah) asks him to help her solve the case, Dexter is torn. Should he help his little sister make detective, or should he find this other serial killer and play with him on his own terms?

One of the great things about this book is that the main character is a "bad guy" and yet, you like him anyway. Also, Jeff Lindsay has a great sense of humor and fun - using a lot of word play in his book. I think anyone who reads this book will enjoy it... unless they get queasy easily... then you shouldn't be reading books about serial killers, period.

As an aside, the TV show based on this book - called Dexter, is fantastic. Dexter is played by Michael C. Hall, who I am a huge fan of. Mr. Hall's acting is brilliant in everything I've seen him in, and in Dexter he is dead on (pun intended). He reminds me of Wednesday's (of the Addam's Family) deadpan description of a homicidal maniac ("They look just like everyone else").

Book Review: Heart Shaped Box - by Joe Hill

I bought the audio book for Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill on Itunes a little while ago. I really enjoyed listenting to it. The book is about a death metal rocker named Judas Coyne who purchases a ghost online. Unfortunately for Jude, the ghost comes with a vendetta. He and his girlfriend have to defeat the ghost and find out why it is bent upon killing them. The book was well written and the story was excellent. Also the narrator for the audiobook was perfect. Every time I think of Judas or the ghost, I think of that narrator's voices for them.

Joe's book was an excellent novel, his characterisation was fantastic and I honestly would love to hear/read more of his work.

Book Review: Black Order - by James Rollins

Here's my first post! I've started this blog to both keep track of what I've been thinking and what I've been doing. I'm mostly going to post reviews that I am going to write about books I've read, shows or movies I've watched or music I've listened to. I'm also going to post random quotes (hurray for Google personalized pages - I have a ton of quotes stored up. Need a handy quote? Ask me.) AND I'm going to post some of my writing (when I'm done editing - which means I have to finish my book. I'm almost done with the first draft! Hurray for me!). So, really, truly, who the hell knows what I'm going to post on here.

To start out with, I'm going to write a little review on a fabulous book I just finished called "Black Order" - by James Rollins.

I have never read any of the Sigma series, which apparently is an actual series (I'm terrible at reading series. The only one I've stuck with so far is George R. R. Martin's series. It's awesome too). Anyway, It's a series. The characters are vibrant and the book is well-written. It also teaches you a lot about physics, which I find fascinating. I actually have read somewhere about Schrödinger's cat in a box theory, but he mentions it in the book AND ironically, the next night I was watching House and lo and behold, Dr. Wilson made a joke about it ("Unlike a cat, Cameron can't be in two places at once" - elementary um... Wilson). Back to "Black Order" - the book was incredibly informative about Nazi history - specifically regarding Heinrich Himmler, who was apparently very into eugenics (as were most Nazi's - hell, eugenics is part of the whole Nazi principle) and used to vet the SS for "Aryan" types. "Black Order" also had a lot of little juicy fun facts in it - you're sitting in suspense and all of a sudden a fun fact pops right out to great you. I can't say I was on the edge of my seat while reading it, but I did enjoy it and it definitely pulled me along. All in all I'd say it was a great read.

I've just randomly decided I'm going to have a star system. "Black Order" gets 4 out of 5 stars.