Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark

[lightreads]

Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Adventures of a sociopathic serial killer who generally only cuts up people who hurt children.



Okay, awesome. Lindsay has clearly done his research – the way Dexter completely fails to get sex, his inflated perceptions of his own intelligence, his completely oblivious sexism, his utter lack of the empathic reflex, it's all perfect. People who know me were shocked I hadn't read these books before. Mostly it was that I knew what they were about, and I thought it would be stupid because I didn't believe a sociopath with that kind of organized offender behavior would ever follow a set of rules on who he could and couldn't kill. But actually that's part of Dexter's fetish – the stalking, the perfect planning, being neat and clean and sure. And who knew these books would be so flipping funny?



Unfortunately, the third book wanders straight off into lala land. I mean, seriously, the hell was that? Lindsay pretty much ruined all the interesting work he'd done on the damage and disfunctions that lead to sociopathy by going for . . . what, demons? It would have been fine as a slide into psychopathic delusion, or even as Dexter's personal metaphor to explain what he is and why. But no. Demons! *helpless hand gestures*




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Comments

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, the character voice in the Dexter books is wonderful, but the author's ability to sustain a coherent plot is... um. I thought the first book ended weakly, but the narrative voice was strong enough to carry it over that bump, while the second one kind of turned me off because it seemed to be largely glorifying in gore for its own sake instead of going anywhere. And the third one I haven't read because I came across somebody's WTF flailing on LJ, went to check some reviews to see what the fuss was about, and decided to stay well away.

The overall impression I got, unfortunately, is that Lindsay is absolutely brilliant at capturing how a sociopath's mind works, but not actually interested in exploring that at all, just using it as a plot device. Which was more than a little frustrating.

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're probably right. And I agree, by the way, about the ending of the first book. Way to skip over the most important scenes, there.

I hear some hopeful things from people who have read ARCs of the fourth book, so maybe I'll give it a shot someday.