Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
View all my reviews
Darkly dreaming Dexter; damn I like me some good alliterating titles. Much like most of its fans, I got to reading the literary version of everyone’s favorite serial killer-killing killer, because of Showtime's enrapturing TV series. The first seven seasons at least, we don’t speak of the cursed final season.
So naturally it was my intention to approach the source material to compare and contrast its golden screen counterpart. Book 1 of the series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter was perfect, as a large part of the narrative was the basis for the dramatization to come. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order. I’m going to assume that most are already familiar with the premise and drive on.
One thing which works for the book, is the creative freedom for much more macabre poetry, Just like the opening paragraphs, which I feel encapsulates the primal need for Dexter’s dark passenger to take lives. A much more aloof, indifferent and may I say, sociopathic depiction, Dexter as a character is often times childlike, in the sense that he cannot really connect with the reality of the murders which he or other serial killers commit for their own baroque ends.
While Michael Hall’s portrayal of the character has him be a friendly, surface level antisocial lovable goof, who on occasion moonlights as a Serial killer, in the books, Dexter is very much what one comes to expect, when the word ‘sociopath’ comes to mind.
There are times, when his inner true self is jumping up giddy in joy, at the artisanship of some other killer, while in contrast moralizing himself as better. The means by which he, and his as of yet unknown brother Brian Moser communicate, through literal toys and morbid anthropomorphic human art installations, is hard to view. Brian (The Tamiami killer) creates a tableau made of the dismembered head and limbs of three hookers, and it is all inner Dexter can do, not to jump up and down like a kid who got his Christmas present.
Which is where the true importance of Harry’s code comes into play. Even when he doesn’t need to follow it (I mean Dexter is at times no better than his codeless brother), the code works into Dexter’s obsessive personality, which gives him a degree of control, while keeping him out of prison. He follows the code, because its adherence keeps him free, the fact that it keeps innocents safe from him is merely a consequence. Even his climatic decision, choosing between his foster sister Deborah & his biological brother Brian, ultimately comes down to a coin toss.
Book 1, was the basis for much of the Show’s skeleton, but the creators also took liberties to deviate from the source material. Much like season 1, the book is centered around introducing Dexter, his MO, his code, as well as the introduction of a serial killer who seems to connect with Dexter at a spiritual level (Tamiami Killer in the books, Ice truck killer in the Show). And two thirds of the storyline is quite similar to what you see on screen.
The difference becomes apparent in the third act. [Brian Moser doesn’t have any fabricated relationship with Deborah/ Debra in the books. In fact he shows up properly only in the final chapters. He isn’t killed off in the season finale, instead merely returns to the shadows, after killing Captain LaGuerta. And while she doesn’t find out about Dexter’s true nature until much later in the show, Deborah by the third act is already aware of what her foster brother’s true nature is.
Which brings me to one of the problems with the book; Deborah. The show’s version played by Jennifer Carpenter, was the driven, go-getter blue blood cop, whose only support structure was a secretly sociopathic serial killer brother. In the books, she is mostly delegated to the role of sidekick, her impact on the story is barely to be Dexter’s moral compass, and [she seems to get on the ‘Dexter is a serial killer’ bandwagon far too easily, evident in a final act which felt a bit rushed.
But mostly, I suppose it’s nitpicking as to why the books are the show. Other than that, Darkly Dreaming Dexter is a good read, if only for the murderous symphony of prose that stem from Dexter’s twisted mind. I’m looking forwards to how the remaining book diverge from the story I know.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
View all my reviews
So naturally it was my intention to approach the source material to compare and contrast its golden screen counterpart. Book 1 of the series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter was perfect, as a large part of the narrative was the basis for the dramatization to come. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order. I’m going to assume that most are already familiar with the premise and drive on.
One thing which works for the book, is the creative freedom for much more macabre poetry, Just like the opening paragraphs, which I feel encapsulates the primal need for Dexter’s dark passenger to take lives. A much more aloof, indifferent and may I say, sociopathic depiction, Dexter as a character is often times childlike, in the sense that he cannot really connect with the reality of the murders which he or other serial killers commit for their own baroque ends.
“MOON.GLORIOUS MOON.FULL, FAT, REDDISH moon, the night as light as day, the moonlight flooding down across the land and bringing joy, joy, joy. Bringing to the full-throated call of the tropical night, the soft and wild voice of the wind roaring through the hairs on your arm, the hollow wail of starlight, the teeth-grinding bellow of the moonlight off the water.”
“All calling to the Need. Oh, the symphonic shriek of the thousand hiding voices, the cry of the Need inside, the entity , the silent watcher, the cold quiet thing, the one that laughs, the Moondancer. The me that was not-me, the thing that mocked and laughed and came calling with its hunger. With the Need. And the Need was very strong now, very careful cold coiled creeping crackly cocked and ready, very strong, very much ready now—and still it waited and watched, and it made me wait and watch.”
While Michael Hall’s portrayal of the character has him be a friendly, surface level antisocial lovable goof, who on occasion moonlights as a Serial killer, in the books, Dexter is very much what one comes to expect, when the word ‘sociopath’ comes to mind.
There are times, when his inner true self is jumping up giddy in joy, at the artisanship of some other killer, while in contrast moralizing himself as better. The means by which he, and his as of yet unknown brother Brian Moser communicate, through literal toys and morbid anthropomorphic human art installations, is hard to view. Brian (The Tamiami killer) creates a tableau made of the dismembered head and limbs of three hookers, and it is all inner Dexter can do, not to jump up and down like a kid who got his Christmas present.
Which is where the true importance of Harry’s code comes into play. Even when he doesn’t need to follow it (I mean Dexter is at times no better than his codeless brother), the code works into Dexter’s obsessive personality, which gives him a degree of control, while keeping him out of prison. He follows the code, because its adherence keeps him free, the fact that it keeps innocents safe from him is merely a consequence. Even his climatic decision, choosing between his foster sister Deborah & his biological brother Brian, ultimately comes down to a coin toss.
Book 1, was the basis for much of the Show’s skeleton, but the creators also took liberties to deviate from the source material. Much like season 1, the book is centered around introducing Dexter, his MO, his code, as well as the introduction of a serial killer who seems to connect with Dexter at a spiritual level (Tamiami Killer in the books, Ice truck killer in the Show). And two thirds of the storyline is quite similar to what you see on screen.
The difference becomes apparent in the third act. [Brian Moser doesn’t have any fabricated relationship with Deborah/ Debra in the books. In fact he shows up properly only in the final chapters. He isn’t killed off in the season finale, instead merely returns to the shadows, after killing Captain LaGuerta. And while she doesn’t find out about Dexter’s true nature until much later in the show, Deborah by the third act is already aware of what her foster brother’s true nature is.
Which brings me to one of the problems with the book; Deborah. The show’s version played by Jennifer Carpenter, was the driven, go-getter blue blood cop, whose only support structure was a secretly sociopathic serial killer brother. In the books, she is mostly delegated to the role of sidekick, her impact on the story is barely to be Dexter’s moral compass, and [she seems to get on the ‘Dexter is a serial killer’ bandwagon far too easily, evident in a final act which felt a bit rushed.
But mostly, I suppose it’s nitpicking as to why the books are the show. Other than that, Darkly Dreaming Dexter is a good read, if only for the murderous symphony of prose that stem from Dexter’s twisted mind. I’m looking forwards to how the remaining book diverge from the story I know.
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