lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
2009-09-14 02:44 pm
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Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay

Dexter By Design (Dexter, #4) Dexter By Design by Jeff Lindsay


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
All right, that's more like it. Our favorite vigilante serial killer goes on his honeymoon to Paris, then comes home to a killer with an artistic bent. And we can all basically pretend that book 3 never happened.

Hilarious, as usual, but also disturbing in places, which is all for the best. And we see Dexter responding to some extremely unexpected circumstances in his own Dexterian way, and reflecting a bit on the Harry code and its implications as he trains his stepkids to be good little sociopaths. And there's just a teensy bit of philosophizing by Lindsay on the nature of the stories he's telling as pieces of violent art. At least to the extent possible with Dexter's peculiarly limiting narration. And then a bombshell at the end, which, well. Heh.

All in all exactly what I wanted – forward-moving, absurdly funny, keeping hold of what makes it good while changing things up in interesting ways. And most of all, not stupid.

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lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
2009-07-12 12:28 pm
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Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark

Dexter in the Dark (Dexter, #3) 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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