The Silence of the Lambs

Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: When you read "The Silence of the Lambs" or hear about the book, you probably start immediately to remember some scenes from the movie starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. The movie comes pretty damn close! And it's rare that a movie follows the plot of a novel so closely.

It is difficult to write something about a story that is so well known, basically by its adaptation for the screen, which has been buried under a heap of Academy Awards. Like many others, "The Silence of the Lambs" proves the fact that the book is always better than the movie.

Clarice Starling is an FBI trainee. The FBI's chief of Behavioral Science has called on her to help solve a serial murder case. She must interview Dr. Hannibal ("the Cannibal") Lector, a psychiatrist jailed for killing and eating various patients, to get inside the mind of Buffalo Bill, a serial killer on the loose. Starling becomes close to Lector who helps her discover how to find Buffalo Bill, and how to find closure in her personal life.

"The Silence of the Lambs" is simply a superb, electrifying book. What a writer Thomas Harris is and what a character the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lector is. With Dr. Lector, Harris makes you look at the face of evil, and stare!

This book sets the standard in psychological terror. If you haven't seen the movie yet, read the novel first, then see the characters brought to life brilliantly by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. I thoroughly enjoyed the two principal characters Dr. Hannibal Lector and Clarice Starling. And I look forward to Hannibal. I wish more novels were like this.

Rating:
Summary: You've Seen the Film, Now Read Mr. Harris' Book
Review: Thomas Harris' book The Silence of the Lambs has been reissued with a subtler, more artistic design, displaying a moth but no screaming death's head, and in a larger size that hints at the literary heft to be found between its covers. The publishers at St. Martin's Press know what they're doing, and if they want to argue for Harris a larger place in the modern canon, I will agree: we're being asked to pay attention to Harris with more than airport-reading consideration and we will be rewarded. The Silence of the Lambs stars Clarice Starling, a student at the FBI training academy, who becomes enmeshed in a disturbing serial murder case.

As the only woman in a male dominated behavioral science department, Clarice brings fresh insights to the search for mad killer Buffalo Bill. Strangely, the other person with insight into the case is locked away in a high security prison vault, sealed from the light of day-Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a madman in his own right. The two, bright-eyed, young, but worldly Clarice and human-organ-eating Lecter, make for an interesting team. But each has power in his or her way and each wants something precious from the other.

Lecter wants freedom and, to some extent, Clarice's company, while Clarice needs to close in on Buffalo Bill before he maims another woman. Along the way, she may also silence some of her self-doubt and lingering need for closure with aspects of her past. Buffalo Bill is on the lose trapping, holding captive, killing, and skinning overweight twenty-something women. The fact that he believes himself to be a transvestite and is making himself a dress out of woman skin has uncertain thematic implications, but there it is. The imprisoned Lecter, who originally seems to have uncanny and brilliant insight into the mind of this lunatic, draws Clarice closer to him by lending her clues in miserly fashion. With their dangerous tango in play, Clarice shifts back into the world of the FBI and on more than one occasion is forced to deal with a sexist environment to simply do her job.

Harris takes care to show us how the mind of this young trainee works systematically and deductively, qualities her male superiors can immediately appreciate, but also how she draws from her own unique experience as a woman and someone raised lower class. Driving her throughout the text is a deep sense of connection with the victims, a heightened empathy we fail to see demonstrated by the other investigators, and more importantly, with the living Catherine Martin. Buffalo Bill's latest detainee, Catherine is the daughter of a senator, and the question will be whether she and Clarice Starling can not only actively resist, but overcome the forces that move to stifle them.

Rating:
Summary: Silence of the Lambs Book Report Book Review
Review: In "Silence of the Lambs", Thomas Harris continues the series of HANNIBAL LECTER, a supersmart villain with a serial killer that kills and skins women that are about his size. This time, the head of the department of Behavioral Science of the FBI Jack Crawford, sends in Clarisse Starling to talk to Hannibal at the Chesapeake State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Everyone at the FBI thinks that Hannibal knows who has been kiiling the women and they send in the beautiful first rate forensicQuantico student to talk to Hannibal. In the midst of our reading ,the killer has ensnared the daughter of a Senator. From there Clarrisse investigates the previous victims of 'Buffalo Bill. Hannibal is transferred to a Tennesssee prison and bribed with more freedom if he tells them who has captured Catherine. Hannibal fools them and ends up escaping from the prison. Catherine is saved and all is well. For now. Read the second book in this trilogy, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. I really liked it and think that it is a very captivating read. Mr. Harris really keeps you on your toes with this one, as he always does. So, yeah, get this book! It's a great suspense novel and it will keep you thinking.

Rating:
Summary: Even More Frightening than the Movie. A Must-Read!!!
Review: After seeing the movie some time ago, I was really curious to read the book and see how it was. I am so glad that I read it, because I think it's a work of art. Thomas Harris has created a masterpiece of a frightening tale that will send shivers down your spine and keep you up at night. You will never forget the name, "Hannibal Lecter," no matter how hard you try.

Here is the story: Clarice Starling is a young and promising FBI trainee who is a lot more clever than she leads others to believe. She is sent to talk to Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter. This evil fiend is so frightening and brilliant that it will scare the hell out of you. He loves to play mind games and get into the heads of others. He has an agenda of his own, and claims that he can help Starling become famous by catching the notorious woman killer, Buffalo Bill. As the plot gets deeper and deeper, the more evil and darkness lurks about. Killing is only part of the plan, as it turns out. Clarice just might not make it so graduate to an FBI agent if she's not careful.

This is a very suspenseful novel that is very well written. A classic, at that. I actually enjoyed reading this just a little more better than seeing the movie. Though the two are almost the same, the descriptions Harris gives us are unforgettable and horrifying. I especially like how Harris describes Lecter's great escape. Very well-constructed, indeed! The dialogue that spews from Hannibal's mouth is terrifying and ingenius at the same time.

I really enjoyed this novel, and I plan to read it again. I also read "Hannibal," but I didn't find that one as enjoying. All in all, this is an outstanding novel that paints a nightmarish world with evil so terrifying it makes us shiver with ever word that is read. This book will make you thank your lucky stars that it's only fiction...... or is it?

Rating:
Summary: Gripping and Terrifying!!
Review: I read this book prior to watching the movie version and it prepared me for a gruesome ride.

While the writing is basic at best, the horror and mystery is spellbinding. Hannibal Lecter will send chills up your spine for days and many nights! But amazingly he grows on you as a sickeningly likable character. Clarice Starling, the tough yet fragile FBI agent, pursues a murderer and with the help of Hannibal Lecter faces her true fears. Somehow they develop a relationship that makes sense....But how does madness make sense? That must be Thomas Harris's secret!

Rating:
Summary: Best Thriller
Review: I read this before the film
Deliberatly

And I can tell you - this book is simply phenomenal
Twisting, turning and unpredictablity is what this is about
Yet there are only 4 main locations in the book everything links together, but just as you think you can work out what's going to happen - You realise you don't

The pivotal moments of the book start very slowly, and for the first 2 pages you don't realise you are reading a pivotal moment that will change the entire books perspective from now on. It slowly evolves into a huge event, accelerating away and then before you know it the chapter's finished and you are drawn away to a different location in the next chapter

You have to keep reading -Cos you want to know what will happen

It's simply addictive and extremely well written

Oh- And It's got Hannibal Lector in it
T. Harris is a genius to think up a character like him
Enough Said

Rating:
Summary: A complex book that doesn't get cluttered.
Review: Clarice Starling is the star of this story. She's an up and coming FBI agent who gives chase to a serial killer named "Buffalo Bill." Starling meets up with a psychiatrist named Dr. Hannibal Lecter. "Silence" is pretty much split up into two different sections. One section includes Hannibal the other does not. The relationship between Starling and Lecter is what kept me interested in the book. I suggest this book to anyone. The thing some people might not like is the subject matter, it is extremely graphic. Other then that, it's great.

Rating:
Summary: Shocking and Gruesome Crime Novel
Review: The Silence of the Lambs has to be the most gruesome book I've ever read. The good news is that the characters are really well developed and the plot is thrillingly twisted. In other words: there is more to this book than cannibalism and the ability to shock.

I have never seen the film (although I'm definitely going to now) but on it's own the book is still very disturbing. The smallest things that Hannibal Lector said could be construed as threatening - the fact that he was behind bars and locked away did not diminish his scariness. Lector is incredibly intelligent and perceptive, as well as possessing a twisted sense of humour, which makes him a fascinating villain. The matter of fact way that the author retells his horrible crimes only makes them seem more terrifying. The other killer in the story, Buffalo Bill, was equally demented, although in a less intelligent way than Lector.

I really enjoyed reading about Clarice Starling and I felt that she was a great lead character; brave, decent and driven. The insights into her childhood and her fears of inadequacy were very well done. Jack Crawford, Clarice's superior, was described really well too and the parts of the book set around his home life and dying wife Bella made him seem more real and sympathetic. The plot was impeccable and the tension that was built and maintained throughout was extraordinary.

Overall The Silence of The Lambs is a crime novel that will go down in history as something special.

JoAnne

Rating:
Summary: gripping
Review: Having seen the movie adaptation of "The Silence of the Lambs" several times, it seemed at times that I could see the action on the pages of the book rather than just reading them. I cannot help but see Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling and it is the voice of Anthony Hopkins I hear when Hannibal Lecter speaks. While this may limit how I view the characters, this does not detract at all from the book and I feel that in many ways, the novel is superior and is still gripping despite my familiarity with the story.

Clarice Starling is in training at the FBI Academy. She is a star student in the Behavioral Sciences Division when the Department Chief, Jack Crawford, calls her into his office and gives her a job. She is to interview one Dr Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter in order to help get into the mind of a serial killer. There is an open case with a serial killer who has been nicknamed "Buffalo Bill", and Dr. Lecter may be the only chance to solve the case without there being many more murders. Starling is only a trainee, and this may be why Lecter is actually willing to speak to Starling about Buffalo Bill, though he is always holding something back.

Lecter is a villain of extreme intellect and this comes through in his dialogue. Like "Red Dragon", Dr. Lecter is not the central villain and the story does not revolve specifically around him (though he has a larger role this time around). Lecter does play a pivotal role because without him, the story cannot move forward. We never truly get into the psyche of Jame Gumb (not as much as we did with Frances Dolorhyde in "Red Dragon"), and it seems as if most of his actions happen off camera.

While Lecter is a very interesting character, it is Clarice Starling that we get to see grow as a character and become more confident and insistent in her work with Lecter and to catch "Buffalo Bill" even though she is only a trainee. She was put on this case and she intends to see it through.

As creepy as the movie could be, I loved this book. It had a very fast pace and stayed interesting throughout the story and it didn't matter that I had seen the movie multiple times. I was interested in the story Thomas Harris was telling. While Harris goes into detail about crimes, it doesn't feel very gory or unnecessary. It seems that this novel was a best seller in the late 80's and it is easy to see why. "The Silence of the Lambs" is a well told thriller and any fans of James Patterson and that genre should definitely give this one a look.

Rating:
Summary: Verry good thriller
Review: I read first The Red Dragon and I like it very much, then I read Hannibal and I didn't like it so I didn't want to read this book, but it happens, someone give it to me and I read it, and what a book! you wont be able to put it down and maybe you will never go to a psychotherapist again, the story is not out of reality at all, the descriptions of the bodies are excellent, so don't read this book late at night.