"Do you see"

This book I would rate a 5/5 it was amazing, it's part of a 4 book series; but I thought it would be interesting to try something new. So I am going to review all the books individually as I finish them and then do a final review of the entire series. This book was 348 glorious pages I finished it in about 3 days just because I was very busy with work, otherwise I could have probably finished it in one sitting. This book was absolutely hard to put down. It really kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time; you didn't know what was going to happen next and I loved that, Thomas Harris throws you for some loops that you weren't expecting for sure. I also will be comparing the movie to the book because I just recently watched the movie and was also very impressed, I would rate the movie also a 5/5. They matched the original story very, very well; I was thoroughly pleased as Hannibal would say.

Spoiler Alert

At first I thought I was reading the books in the wrong order because Hannibal was already in max security, but nope this was the correct order. I had to check online and of course on the back of the book it tells you the order as well. Anyways let's get started with this review, lets get some of the characters out of the way so you understand who I am talking about. Of course everyone knows Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham who was stabbed by Lecter and actually captured him, Jack Crawford the head of the Behavioral Science Unit in the FBI, Molly and Willy Graham (Billy in the movie who is actually his stepson in the book), Freddy Lounds annoying Tattler writer, Francis Dolarhyde the tooth fairy/Red dragon murderer, Reba McClane blind woman who is seeing Francis, and we don't know her name but Francis' grandmother.

Okay now that the characters are out of the way let's get this review train rolling. Francis Dolarhyde yes is a murderer, but I sympathized with him he had a terrible childhood. For one he was born with a cleft which honestly isn't that bad, but for the 1970's apparently it was frowned upon and wasn't as easy of a surgery as it is today. His own mother abandoned him because he was "ugly" she left him at the hospital and he became an orphan because his father was killed in a car accident. He was left to an orphanage and of curse the children constantly picked on him, his grandmother got wind that she had a grandson and immediately went to pick him up from the orphanage. She used Francis as a pawn to ruin her daughters husbands image since he was running for state legislature. He lived with his grandmother until the age of 9 because she ended up getting dementia. They lived together in a nursing home that she ran, she constantly mentally and verbally abused him calling him filthy, disgusting, and threatened to cut of his penis as a child if he ever peed the bed again (uhm he's a child thank you mame). After she was diagnosed with dementia Francis had to go and live with his biological mother and step siblings they of course bullied him as well, beating him up and verbally abusing him. He took out his frustrations by killing small animals and eventually ended up killing the family cat, so he was shipped off to the orphanage again. He continued killing small animals and at the age of 17 he was caught breaking into a woman's house and was given the choice of criminal charges or enlist in the army. He chose the army, received a cosmetic surgery for his cleft palate, received dentures so he could speak properly minus his 's' and later moves back into his grandmother's home gets a job at Gateway Corp in the home movies department.

Now that we have a history on Francis we can get into the story a little bit here. After the incident with Hannibal, Will decided to retire and move to Florida, he lived there with his wife and stepson. One day Crawford shows up and asks will if he wouldn't mind helping with a case. Will explains he left for a reason and they have plenty of other great employees at the behavioral unit who could help him with the case. Crawford explains that no one will ever be as good as Will, he is special, he can empathize with the killer and that's what helps the bureau catch them quicker than usual. Will agrees to take a look at the case file but doesn't agree to completely help him yet, well that was a trap he ends up coming out of retirement to help them catch the killer. His wife Molly of course is worried about him going back especially after everything that happened with Hannibal; he promises everything will be fine and he won't get as involved, she knows this isn't true because that's not who he is. Will arrives in Washington and does a walkthrough of the Leeds house since they are the most recent killing. On his discoveries he profiles that this killer has issues with his face, is very strong and knows his way around not only the houses but how many family members are in the house. he likes them to watch him while he kills the mother's which he takes his time with them because it arouses him (super disturbing mind you he lines up the dead family members and puts mirror shards in their eyes so they can be reborn and see him properly). Will seeks out Hannibal's help to catch the killer and of course Hannibal has to torment Will, but will knows most of his tricks now.

As the story continues the tooth fairy kills Freddy lounds for writing a horrible story about him in the Tattler (honestly was not sad to see this character die, he is a HORRIBLE person he, his death however is brutal), tries to kill Will's family because of Hannibal (oh yeah Hannibal and the tooth fairy are in contact with each other through a column in the Tattler). Francis meets Reba and ends up really caring for her and of course since she's blind she can't see how "ugly" he is. The red dragon or as I like to call it his other personality (who is the voice of his grandmother) tells him he can't have Reba to himself he needs to kill her so that they can both enjoy her, he is not aloud to have anything to himself. He fights with the Red Dragon (which is a famous painting btw), he goes to New York where the painting is and eats it thinking this will solve his problems so he can keep Reba and not worry about the Red Dragon trying to kill her. Later he finds out the Red Dragon is apart of him. He drives over to see Reba and catches her with another man, he kills this guy and takes her to his grandmother's house. Reba is frightened and confused and tells Francis to not let him(the Red Dragon) take her, he fights with her lights the house on fire and kills himself with a shotgun. She starts wandering around the room and puts her hand in his bloody face....well so she thinks. The authorities and Will arrive on scene as she is running out to them they ask her where Francis is and she explains that he is dead inside she felt his face. The house blows up and they have probable cause to believe that francis is dead since they found his dentures, turns out they were his grandmothers (sick interesting fact, he wore his grandmothers dentures when he killed people so he could bite piece off of them such as ears, fingers, lips and he has a normal set of dentures that he wears around everyone else).

The whole FBI unit is feeling great until the lab gets the dentures back and realize they aren't his dentures at all and that the Red Dragon is indeed after Will and his family. Crawford calls and as Will is headed back into the house runs into the Red Dragon Will was stabbed and shot twice and Crawford sends a whole unit to Will's place. Molly ends up having to shoot and kill the Red Dragon she is traumatized and Will is once again staying in the hospital due to a case. They have some relationship problems after all of this so I can't wait to see where these next few books take us.

The movie honestly matched everything in the book, they did take out a part from the book and changes the name of Will's stepson, as well as the ending scene with the Red Dragon is a little different. Other than that I think they did a wonderful job sticking to the script of the book which I appreciate.

If you get a chance to read this book I would highly recommend it, it was an amazing one I was very impressed and if you don't have time to read it at least check out the movie. If you have read the book or seen the movie let's start a conversation and talk about it!!

Thank you so much for reading my blog review and I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!! Until next week stay reading, Selena Torres.