Rating: 
Summary: honest, accurate
Review: This novel was shocking, as evinced by the confused, angry reviews around this one. But it was rich, and subtle...it just doesn't lead you around like the previous books. People are complaining that Hannibal "wouldn't do that!" or Starling "isn't like that!" but dear readers, Mr. Harris knows who his characters are. He knows, and displays, what pushes them, and how they run. Please don't be so simple; these events require a bit more thought, is all.
Rating: 
Summary: Should've stayed in Florence
Review: Had Hannibal stayed in Florence, we might have had another Harris masterpiece. All of the elements - the hint of genious, the dark impulses, the refined taste - were there. Suspense - would Clarice solve the case? Would Hannibal outsmart his foes? - was there. And Harris was on top of his game describing the history of Florence, the characters' motivation, and inviting us into this world.But god help us - once Hannibal showed up on these shores, the book tood a dive. Hannibal is reduced to a star-crossed lover, taking risks that no half-wit (let alone a genious) would take. He spends half the book setting up a meal for Clarice... the results of which are not only revolting, they are inexplicable. How can you reconcile the Starling from this book with the Starling from Silence of the Lambs? It appears that Harris would have us believe that like the moths from Jame Gumb's dungeon, Starling has grown wings and evolved. Instead, it appears that Harris has chosen to go for a cheap stunt - and we're left wondering what might have happened had we been treated to a real evolution. What a shame.
Rating: 
Summary: Required reading for fans, probably baffling to others.
Review: First, a word of warning. If you haven't read (and loved) The Silence of the Lambs, don't go near this one. If you have, prepare yourself for a roller coaster ride, consisting of (upward slope) a police procedural a la Ed McBain, then (first downslide) a Poe-esque vignette of Gothic revenge in the spirit of "The Casque of Amontillado", followed by a James Bond thriller (both uphill and down) with Hannibal Lecter as Bond and Clarice Starling as The Bond Girl, and finally a Lewis Carrollian finish at a Mad Tea party that will leave you wondering if you should have been reading this with a hashish pipe at hand. (Answer: No. All hallucinogens have been supplied by the author.) The bottom line is this: It's never boring. Confusing, perhaps, but never boring. And I actually like the ending, though I suspect I'm in the minority here.
Rating:
Summary: The story keeps one enthralled and enticed.
Review: Almost immediately I was captivated...feeling at once familiar with the charachter of Clarice and the machinations of her job with the FBI. The story is captivating as the author takes you through a maze of enticing and revolting developments especially in the character of Mason. Lecter's time in Florence was particularly interesting and enjoyable...one almost delights completely in his intelligent treacherous trickery not to mentions the aesthetic description of art, music and especially food! Harris delights in whetting one's palate simultaneously for pleasure and horror.
Rating:
Summary: actually, ZERO stars
Review: As a huge fan of The Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, I felt guilty for hating this sequal as much as I do. I was sadly relieved that I was not alone in my disappointment. I'll try not to repeat the other reviewers' complaints except to stress how utterly stupid the ending was. The rest of the book was okay, tolerable, but definitely not up to the author's previous work. I hope that when the movie is made, Hollywood had the good sense to change the insulting and ridiculous ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Was this a monstrous practical joke?
Review: I'm hoping Thomas Harris' publisher accidently published the wrong draft because this HIGHLY anticipated sequel to one of the best books in recent times is one huge disappointment. The book had a nice quick flow to it, but the story line was amateurish. After getting off to a nice start, Harris lost momentum and sold out with a very disappointing ending. I particularly didn't care for the way Clarice ended up. Given the success of the film "Silence of the Lambs", Harris should have pictured Jody Foster in the film to made of this new adaptation. If he did, I find it very hard for him to have her doing what she was doing at the end. Hopefully the movie screenplay will be based EXTREMELY LOOSELY on this book. Given the type of bad guys Harris came up with, I think he has been reading too many comic books. Hey Harris I understand, why shoot a guy when you can boil him in a giant bowl of Campbell's soup? Not to give away the horrible revenge scenario, he didn't attempt to have Hannibal bowl in soup, but he could have improved the book if he had as opposed to what he schemed up.
Rating:
Summary: I felt utterly let down--
Review: I'm not sure Thomas Harris even wrote this book--the ending destroyed a so-so book.It was his characters I loved the best so I was appalled at what he did... Harris made Hannibal look misunderstood when he introduced Mason--not to mention his sibling.I can't believe he ended this book like this--it's a betrayal of the readers as well as Starling and Hannibal .I loved the interplay between them in "silence"--now it's reduced to a soap opera.Thank God for Barney--at least he remained true to his heart.It wasn't worth a ten year wait and if they make it into a movie, my advice is to change the ending cause this dog will not hunt!
Rating: 
Summary: Met MY standards...
Review: I thought the book was excellent, except for in some parts when some lines read like a play and the fact that Clarice Starling seemed a little to "brute-ish" and not as quiet and "nice" as she was in the original. I felt the ending was a nice shock, the scenes were good and vivid (yes, and quite sickening), and the characters were drawn nicely. Excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Sensing The Kill
Review: Oh the disappointment! The total-sell out! How could he! It's tripe! It's one-dimensional! Non-existant plot! Woof! Now, let's take this step by step. Hannibal is a good book. Flawed, but well-written and exciting. And being positive and constructive people, we will start by talking about everything that Harris did right. Pun unintended, the characters are all rich and tasty. Mason Verger makes for an delicious villain - his wrath is believable, as is his vigorous quest for revenge. It would have been very easy for Harris to turn him into some Khan-like Shakespear-quoting devil manifistation, yet he veers away from it, much like he veered away from it in the creation of Lecter himself. The Verger scenes are all gnash-your-teeth in apprehension, particularly the "Kitty Cat" sub-plot which, in my opinion, is an excellent example of using two pages of dialog to create a character who is truly sinister without going over the top. Clarice and Lecter are both handled deftly, and the story, right up until the end of the book is defintely a collar-grabber. Is the ending problematic? Yes it is. Is the book ridicolous or one-dimensional? Absoloutely not. I believe that many of us have confused the character that Jody Foster played in the film with the character that Harris created in his novels, and yet the two are different in many ways. While the argument about Clarice's last few scenes in the book will, I'm sure, continue for a while (they will, no doubt, be absent in the film adapatation), let's first give the devil his due. Harris is not an idiot, and "Hannibal" is not a WWF event, where characters can go from pure good to pure evil within one commercial break. Does it all make sense? Maybe it does and maybe it doesn't, but let's try to keep in mind the fact that underneath our bickering lies a well-thought-out piece of fiction. It might not be perfect, but it is certainly worth a read. I wish I could say the same about some of the so called "reviews", above. Speaking of which, has anyone noticed a vague resemblence between the majority of the opions above and a pack of hungry animals, sensing the kill? I'm sure that an outsider, looking at Mason's instruments of revenge would have had a hard time telling them apart; after reading this page, I felt much the same.
Rating:
Summary: enthralling
Review: i thought it was just wonderful. lecter is up to his old tricks and even a few new curves were thrown in. a definate read for those who enjoy this type of book
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