Dexter: Dare to Love the Monster

Posted by Derek Armstrong Nov 12, 2006

It's the originality of concept – a serial killer who preys on serial killers – that spurs me to give this a thumbs up. Serial killer thrillers are a little tired, although you can create a new twist. There’s nothing tired about Darkly Dreaming Dexter. The only complaint I might have is the "rambling introspective of our hero, the serial killer", but frankly, it works for me. This novel thematically probes our darkest natures and ultimately thrill us, and the originality of concept is real, although it’s been touched upon before in other “monster” genres. Anne Rice achieved it in in Interview with a Vampire and many other horrors where monster hunts monster, or Thomas Harris with Dr. Lecter in Silence of The Lambs and Red Dragon, a serial killer who is coerced into helping the FBI. Bret Easton Ellis’s Patrick Bateman was similarly constructed. However, originality of voice and humor is where this blackly wonderful novel truly excels. There is a lyrical quality to the writing, a compelling urgency to the narrative: “Moon. Glorious moon. Full, fat, reddish moon, the night as light as the day, the moolight flooding down across the land and bringing joy, joy, joy… All calling to the Need. Oh, the symphonic shriek of the thousand hiding voice, the cry of the Need inside, the entity, the silent watcher, the cold quiet thing, the one that laughs, the Moondancer…”

Darkly Dreaming Dexter opens with the narrator Dexter waiting and watching the priest, his first victim, but also a sick perpetrator. From this stunning opening, Lindsay never lets go, demands to be read in one sitting. The flaws? Yes, there are flaws. Secondary characters are thin. Lyndsay manages to make a sociopath somewhat sympathetic and totally engaging, but the first person narrative, while fun, cannot drill deep into other characters because – well, Dexter’s a sociopath, with no feeling for other humans. Still, the entire mix works stunningly well.

Dexter grew up with his “dark companion” his alter ego, and he can recognize this “companion” in others. He channels his need to kill into the deserving. His foster father, a Miami cop, saw the monster in Dexter and taught him to hunt the hunters. The entire experience, narrative and original plot, is “must read” all the way, although the ending feels a little rushed. Don’t miss this wonderful novel if you enjoy your thrills mixed with laughs, and your frights mixed with fun. Darkly Dreaming Dexter is satisfying at a level most thrillers don’t achieve. How unfortunate Hollywood didn’t think to buy the rights to Dexter. Although the HBO show is the best on the small screen, and destined to be a hit, this is a novel that deserved adaption to the big screen.

Originally reviewed in Films and Books.

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