posted Dec 28, 2009 2:30 PM by António Lopes
NOTE: this post may contain some spoilers for the TV show and the related books. If you haven't seen/read them yet, please be advised.
Dexter has been one of my favorite shows on TV. The idea of a serial-killer that only kills people that actually deserve to die and is still able to maintain a seemingly normal life with family, friends and co-workers, is quite appealing and since the beginning of the first season I've become a real addicted fan.
The story revolves around Dexter, the mentioned serial-killer, that is a forensics expert at the Miami PD. He specializes in blood spatter analysis, even though he's not that found of blood himself. But it's exactly his experience on this field (and the teachings of his foster father, Harry, a veteran policeman) that makes him such an efficient serial-killer. He never leaves a shred of evidence behind and he makes sure that he only kills people that really deserve it, in order to honor the Code of Harry - the set of rules left by his, now dead, foster father.
Whenever I see such interesting stories on TV shows or movies, I always try to find out if they're based on some book or other publications. Easy enough, the credits on the TV show episodes clearly stated that this was based on Jeff Lindsay's " Darkly Dreaming Dexter" book. Evidently, I became curious and decided to read the entire collection of the Dexter books (4 books and 1 not published yet).
After reading the 4 published books, I have to say I'm quite disappointed that the stories on the books are not as interesting as the ones on the TV show, even though there are some elements of the books that I would like to see explored on the show (such as the fact that Cody and Astor have also a "Dark Passenger" and that Deborah actually knows about Dexter's "hobby" and has some inner conflicts between protecting her brother or sending him to the electric chair).
The characters of the books are the same as the ones on the show and with almost exactly the same personality (Deborah, Rita, Cody, Astor, Doakes, Masouka, Batista, etc...) but the storyline for each book (except for the first) is completely different from the ones on the TV show, which is not necessarily bad. In fact I very much liked the idea of reading different stories with the same characters. It felt like "watching" non-aired seasons of the TV show. And it would be amazing... if only the stories weren't so dry.
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The first book of the series presents almost exactly the same story as the one of the first season of the TV show.
However, it is much more condensed and some things that are explored on the show (such as Deborah dating the Ice Truck Killer) don't feature on the book. Also, the story on the book leads us to believe up to a point, that Dexter may actually be the killer and he has been doing the killings during some sort of blackouts/sleepwalking experiences. Hence, the title "Darkly Dreaming Dexter".
But in the end the conclusion is the same as on season 1: Dexter's past and what actually led him to be the way he is, is revealed.
It's definitely the best book of the four because it's the beginning of this wonderful character, so rich and so unusual of anything we've seen on TV shows or even books.
Rating: 4/5 |
The second book revolves around a figure from Doakes' past that comes to haunt his former partners in the special forces. One by one, this figure will "transform" them and Dexter will help tracking down the killer.
Even though, the premise of the story is quite interesting (and specially the modus operandi of the killer that does not actually kill his victims, but leaves them alive without arms, legs, tongue and ... eyelids!) the actual narrative is too far-fetched and ridiculous (including Dexter's behavior towards the case, new characters that are just badly-conceived and Dexter's "accidental" engagement).
Another aspect that I didn't like on this book is Dexter's sarcastic mood. I know that the occasional sarcastic pun is always funny, but in this book that just seems too excessive and tiresome.
Rating: 2/5 |
The third book takes a different approach and instead dwells on the potential origin of the "Dark Passenger", the voice that murmurs inside Dexter's head and in which he so blindly believes to perform his killings.
I very much liked the idea of analyzing the mysticism around Dexter's dark personality and the possibility that this dark power is in fact something that's around since the dawn of ages. But again, the actual story was not as interesting as it could potentially be.
Nevertheless, this book introduces another interesting aspect: the possibility that Cody and Astor are actually like Dexter (because of their dark past of abuse at the hands of their biological father). Dexter now has to face the decision of training them to be as efficient as he is, or simply hide that darkness inside.
Rating: 3/5 |
The fourth book is slightly better than the previous two but not as good as the first one.
The story here starts with a bunch of bodies that turn up on Miami touristic areas. These bodies are not the usual murder victims. Instead they seem to be part of an art statement of some sort, since their insides are arranged, along with typical tourist objects, to shock the viewers.
In a turn of events (related to mistaken identities) Dexter ends up killing an innocent person (kinda!), which makes the original killer even more angry, thus deciding to haunt Dexter and his family.
Naturally, this brings undesired attention to Dexter's hobby and he has to find a way to get to the killer and still avoid to reveal his true monster inside.
Needless to say, he does and as usual, luck has a lot to do with it. Which is why I give it a rating of 3 instead of 4.
Rating: 3/5 |
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