Darkly Dreaming Dexter: Dexter, Book 1

I hope to get a chance to use that phrase some day.

I was following someone who gave this five stars. It is important to try and follow others with the same taste has yours, but I have to disagree with my leader here. Not at one point did I think this was a bad book, and I thought it might be great when I started it. It is certainly a unique character.

The longer I read, the more flaws started to appear. My first problem came at chapter nine. What seem to be a fairly straight (but weird) story, headed into the realms of paranormal. This cheapened the story and gave the author several easy outs. I like paranormal in my Jim Butcher or Simon R. Green books, but there they don't use it for easy solutions and it fits into the rest of the story. Jeff Lindsey makes Miami seem like a small town with just a couple of streets. More then once Dexter is driving around and he comes unto a crime seen involving the criminal he is trying to find. More then once he comes up with a solution to a problem, yet he even admits, that he does not know how he would come up with that clue. It seems he just happen to dream the right dream or have a feeling or etc. The book becomes very predictable. I knew what was going to happen to his sister many chapters before it happened. I knew the ending, before it happened. What makes it worse is JL slowly draws these things out. You hear in his voice, (I am going to surprise you, I am going to have a gotcha moment.) and then he does exactly what you expect. Expect several times to hear the main character say, I should have felt so and so, but I felt the opposite. That gets old after a while.

I did give it five stars, it is not a bad book, it just is not a real good book.

I would defiantly recommend this book to a friend and have done so since listening to it.

It's a no brainer, Dexter is by far my favorite Character in this book. I love the way he thinks and process people and events. I love how he is viewing the world as a outsider trying to fit in.

No this was my first audio book by Jeff Lindsay, and I love how the author is the one reading this.

In fact it was one I listen to in one sitting. It wasn't a very long book and I listen to it durring a 8 hour road trip this month.

I would warn fans of the Dexter TV show that this book is simular, yet very very different then this show. Which would cause some to dislike the book altogether. So if you are looking to expand upon the show, this isn't for you. It's it's own set of stories and I for one can't wait to continue.

I really loved this book from start to finish. The plot for this story closely follows the first season in events but what the show can not offer you is dexters constant stream of thoughts. This is a great series that I looking forward to getting into!

It shows you that you can actually like a serial killer personality! hehe
Nothing mind provoking; just entertaining.

Yes. If you enjoy the show, you would almost certainly enjoy this alternative season one timeline. There are a lot of small differences; some of what the book does seems better to me and some of what Showtime did seems better. This was not, however, a case where I thought he book was substantially better than the television interpretation.

Dexter is my favorite character, by far. In the book, you get much less exposure to the other characters and they don't make as much of an impression as they do in the show. Doakes, Angel, Masuoka, etc. are all there, but many of them seemed easily forgettable compared to the clearer characters you may be used to seeing in episodes on Showtime.

I felt like the narrator was too dull. A lot of this is no doubt because I'm so accustomed to the voice of Michael Hall as Dexter. I also didn't feel like the narrator developed very distinct voices for some of the other characters and made some odd pronunciation choices.

No, but I knew everything that was going to happen...I was even aware of the couple of major differences between the show and this first novel. If not, I probably would have had a much larger reaction to a few things.

If you don't do fairly descriptive crime scenes with dismemberment, discussion of blood spatter, etc., I would caution you about these books. There's a lot of..."gore", for lack of a better word.

I'm very curious to listen to the next book and see if I enjoy it more than this one or not.

I never saw the show. I didn't know what I was getting into. You need a dark sense of humor to appreciate it, because you'll laugh as dexter goes through his daily life.
Lindsay doing the narrating is perfect.

I got this book because I was about to embark on a long run and needed something mindless to listen to. Since I'd already seen Season 1, I thought this would be a good choice. It was! It was quite similar to the show as one would expect, since the show was based upon the book, however the end was not at all the same. I've seen all of the seasons on TV, but I am still left wanting to listen to the next book.

I was not expecting that to happen one bit, so I'm pleasantly surprised. If you liked the show, you'll like the book!

Honestly, I don't know. I think they complement one another. When I read the book, my "internal narrator" sounds identical to Michael C. Hall, who I think absolutely nails the character. But listening to Lindsay read the book was an entirely different experience, one that I liked just as much.

I like Dexter's dark humor. I found myself laughing aloud several times, even though I knew which observations and jokes were coming up soon.

The first scene, with Dexter stalking the priest, never fails to give me goosebumps.

Yes and no. Yes, because I love this book, and I would love to just sit in a dark room and listen for eight hours on end. No, because I wanted to savor each chapter, and I found myself rewinding repeatedly to listen to my favorite passages again and again.

Listening to the book made me hyperaware of how often Lindsay uses the words "said" and "asked." More variety would have been nice.

Beyond question, Jeff Lindsay can write really good sentences, even better than Poe could, who seems to be one of his inspirations. He's also come up with an engaging narrator/hero-villain here. He also reads his own prose really well (I usually get annoyed by authors who don't use professional readers, but Lindsay does it well).

But the plot development is clumsier than it is on the TV show, probably in large part because the author has restricted everything to Dexter's point of view. The final scene of the novel pales by comparison with the brilliant finale of the TV show.

That said, I came away from this wanting to listen to more of Lindsay's work - because of, not despite, its difference from the TV show.

This book pretty much sticks to the television season one of the series.

If you haven't seen the TV show, it might be more interesting. It was well done but no surprises for me since I watched every episode of the TV season one.