Happy Halloween everybody! We made it through this spooky month of reads and today we're ending with what I think was the scariest book I read this whole month. This is a re-read for me, slightly over a decade after my first read-through of it. Let's talk about....
Red Dragon
Author: Thomas Harris
Genre: Horror Thriller
Year: 1981
Year: 1981
Synopsis:
A second family has been massacred by the terrifying serial killer the press has christened "The Tooth Fairy." Special Agent Jack Crawford turns to the one man who can help restart a failed investigation: Will Graham. Graham is the greatest profiler the FBI ever had, but the physical and mental scars of capturing Hannibal Lecter have caused Graham to go into early retirement. Now, Graham must turn to Lecter for help.
Review:
So this is my final big read for Halloween! This is the book I chose to close off this month's festivities. Why? I have actually read this one before and I honestly hated it....because I read it far too young and it scared me, a LOT. Let's see how it is now, shall we?
Once upon a time, I was in grade school. Probably middle school. That's what I'm going to go with, because I know it wasn't in high school. I was an avid reader and I used to randomly pick up books wherever I could find them, particularly if I had finished the one I had taken with me for the day. On one such day, I had finished my book and I stumbled across this one. It was underneath my desk, on those little metal bars where textbooks usually rest. I didn't know what it was and I'm sure the teachers must not have known what it was either since it was allowed to just sit there somehow. I picked it up and started to read it, and since I'm the kind of person who likes to finish what I started, I read it from end to end. Bad idea for a middle schooler. It was way too intense for me and when I eventually got on Goodreads, I rated it a 1 star based on memory alone.
Naturally, while trying to find scary books for Halloween, I saw the library had this one and figured I'd give it a second go, to see if it would still horrify me. It was actually much easier to deal with this time around. This book is about a man's hunt for a serial killer. It is told in third person and shows multiple characters, including the serial killer. We not only hear about his crimes, but we also observe his planning and thought process of later ones. We shift between the investigator and criminal regularly, until the book comes to a close. This book was the first introduction of Hannibal Lecter, although he plays a side role in this one. I haven't read any further into the series, but Lecter is definitely creepy.
The pacing in this book is good and each step in the progression of investigation makes sense. Reading this now, after spending a lot more time with detective fiction as a genre, provided a much better experience. The occurrences in the book are still disturbing (because murder is disturbing and awful), but overall, the story was much more compelling. As far as content goes, this book is pretty graphic. It has both violent content and sexual content, which I did not recall and probably did not fully catch onto in my initial reading of it. I clearly did, but not enough to remember it being in the book, so I wasn't scarred or anything and barely remembered the details of it.
The investigator serves his purpose. He is an outsider that has already had scraps in the field before. He begins the book as a man who is trying to get out of the rat race and just live. Instead, he gets dragged into the crazy world of, "The Tooth Fairy." His relationships suffer, his mental health suffers, and we get to experience it all as he falls further and further into the chase. The Tooth Fairy is a well-written character. He is severely damaged mentally and we see how he came to be the way he is. We see his history and his present. We see his struggles and process and it really is creepy. There is no sugar coating it. This book was written at an older time of technologically and it really emphasizes a sense of voyeurism.
This book isn't a mystery, so there really isn't anything to solve for the reader. This is a purely observational journey. We watch a cat and mouse chase, waiting for the paths of both main characters to converge. At times, things can be a bit grotesque, but most times the passages are not overly graphic. Everything is rather cut and dry in that regard and the most disturbing portions are mentioned after things have happened, not during. That isn't to say that the book doesn't have disturbing components, because it does. It just packages them in a way that doesn't make your skin crawl from being too close to the more disturbing portions.
Obviously, this book is not at all meant for children. AT ALL. This is a purely adult book and for crime readers, this will probably be a good one. If you aren't into crime thrillers and detective stories, then this won't be your book. If you want to be part of solving a mystery, this also won't be your cup of tea. Be prepared to be disturbed just enough for this to be a solid Halloween read. It isn't supernatural and that's largely what makes it more creepy all around.
My second reading was definitely better and I think this was a good Halloween pick for me. I do think this one deserves to be my main scare read for the month. The story is interesting, the characters fit their roles well, and I can see why people would want more time with some of them. I give Red Dragon a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯✯. If you want a creepy book that isn't supernatural and that is for adults, this is a good one. It isn't straight up horror, but it hits enough tones to be fitting. At least it does for me, who doesn't really have a good time reading or watching things involving murder. Those who do...would probably enjoy this even more.
This concludes another review here at The Real World According To Sam, where I bring the books straight to your screen and even provide my own two cents about them. Happy Halloween everyone! We'll be back tomorrow with this month's Reading Round-Up!
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