Hannibal
A Novel
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4.4 • 429 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Is it as good as Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs? No . . . this one is better.”—Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review
You remember Hannibal Lecter: gentleman, genius, cannibal. Seven years have passed since Dr. Lecter escaped from custody. And for seven years he’s been at large, free to savor the scents, the essences, of an unguarded world.
But intruders have entered Dr. Lecter’s world, piercing his new identity, sensing the evil that surrounds him. For the multimillionaire Hannibal left maimed, for a corrupt Italian policeman, and for FBI agent Clarice Starling, who once stood before Lecter and who has never been the same, the final hunt for Hannibal Lecter has begun. All of them, in their separate ways, want to find Dr. Lecter. And all three will get their wish. But only one will live long enough to savor the reward. . . .
Praise for Hannibal
“Interested in getting the hell scared out of you? Buy this book on a Friday . . . lock all doors and windows. And by Monday , you might just be able to sleep without a night-light.”—Newsday
“Strap yourself in for one heck of a ride. . . . It’ll scare your socks off.”—Denver Post
“A stunner . . . writing in language as bright and precise as a surgeon’s scalpel, Harris has created a world as mysterious as Hannibal’s memory palace and as disturbing as a Goya painting. This is one book you don’t want to read alone at night.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Relentless . . . endlessly terrifying . . . 486 fast-paced pages, in which every respite is but a prelude to further furious action . . . Hannibal begins with a murderous paroxysm that leaves the reader breathless. . . . Hannibal speaks to the imagination, to the feelings, to the passions, to exalted senses and to debased ones. Harris’s voice will be heard for a while.”—Los Angeles Times
“A pleasurable sense of dread.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Enormously satisfying . . . a smashing good time, turning the pages for thrills, chills, horror and finally, a bracing, deliciously wicked slap in the face . . . perhaps the very best the thriller/horror genre is capable of producing.”—San Diego Union-Tribune
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The sequel to The Silence of the Lambs is as intense, grisly, and smart as its predecessor. When a high-profile FBI raid goes wrong, Special Agent Clarice Starling is drawn back into the search for cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter. She’s soon joined by an Italian detective, a corrupt FBI man, and Lecter’s only living victim, who’s planning to exact sadistic revenge. Stylish and shockingly brutal, Hannibal provides a startling conclusion to Thomas Harris’ iconic series. Savor it with the lights on.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This narrative roils along a herky-jerky vector but remains always mesmerizing, as Harris's prose and insights, particularly his reveries about Hannibal, boast power and an overripe beauty. If at times the suspense slackens and the story slips into silliness, it becomes clear that this is a post-suspense novel, as much sardonic philosophical jest as grand-guignol thriller. Hannibal, we learn--"we" because Harris seduces reader complicity with third-person-plural narration--is not as we presumed. The monster's aim is not chaos, but order. Through his devotion to manners and the connoisseur's life, in fact to form itself, he hopes--consciously--to reverse entropy and thus the flow of time, to allow a dead sister to live again. He is not Dionysius but Apollo, and it is the barbarians who oppose him who are to be despised. Hannibal may be mad, but in this brilliant, bizarre, absurd novel--as in the public eye--he is also hero; and so, at novel's end, in blackest humor, Harris bestows upon him a hero's rewards, outrageously, mockingly.
Customer Reviews
See AllGOOD BUT
An excellent book, however the foreign language, which at times requires a translation slows down the reading experience. Harris must either get rid of the foreign dialogue, or place the transation at the bottom of the page. The ending was great.
Never Saw It Coming!
I saw the movie nearly 20 years ago and was not, at all, impressed. I read the book and had my mind blown. My head is still spinning. I highly recommend this book, and in doing so, suggest you also prepare for the possibility that these characters are still capable of surprising us.
In Theory But Not In Practice
Although I enjoyed the book it does have many problems: it focuses too much on newer characters rather than the main two, the characters from the previous book are not themselves, the new villain surpasses the villainy of Hannibal Lecter, and the twisted love story, which sounds good in theory, falls flat in practice.
The stories of the newer characters were interesting at best, however I would have liked more time devoted to developing the main characters instead. The new villain could easily be removed considering that the story already has a villain, Hannibal Lecter. And in order for the love story to work out the two characters involved need to go through a big change, but the execution of said change just wasn’t strong enough to make it believable.
Overall the book was okay, although I do feel like it undermines the genius of ‘The Silence of the Lambs.’ It’s as if this sequel forgot about the sickening mind games that Hannibal Lecter is known for playing.