Hannibal Rising

Easily the worst book in the entire Hannibal Universe. Which was highly disappointing because I'd read all the others. I thought Highly of Silence of the Lambs, and Red Dragon, and even Hannibal - despite how the films changed each of the books around in ways I didn't agree with.

The entire book felt as though Thomas Harris was writing a fuck you letter to the fans. Apparently the publisher said "we can make a ton more money off this series, so write us a new one and we'll do all the work" And Thomas Harris replied "There is no more story, anything I write in that universe from this point on will be drivel". Sad part is the publisher's still didn't care and said "Write it anyways!"

Put aside all the inconsistencies between this book about Hannibal's youth and what we know about it through his other novels for a moment and just look at what exactly it was that sparked his murderous desire to begin with. A Woman. The Hannibal from canon would never have been influenced so easily and manipulated like this. Hannibal sees himself as a god, and only murders for 2 reasons. 1 - For his own survival and protection. 2 - Because he feels as though this person contributes nothing to the human race and has no manners or class worth saving.

This book doesn't even honor the most important physical feature of Hannibal - his sixth finger. Hannibal Lecter has six fingers on one hand. It is this that gets him caught twice, and the surgery to remove his sixth finger doesn't happen until he's well past his youth. But where was it throughout this book? Hell, where was it in the film - not that I'm using the film in this criticism, but let's state the obvious - the film was a failure. But when you create a film based of a failure of a book, what can you expect?

The godlike character that we grow to know and even in some bizarre way care about is non-existent in this book. His youth painted so horribly in this book leaves fans feeling truly abandoned.

This was a failure. Utter and complete. The book was horrid, and I'm ashamed that I sat through and read every last horrifying detail.