Thomas Harris

Yvonne Tasker

Study of one of the defining films of recent American cinema, exploring the way it weaves together gothic, horror and thriller conventions.

The Silence of the Lambs

Jonnie

"Time, Pilch!" A man's voice, shrill with excitement. "Let's go here. Time!" 

Starling stopped in the doorway. Two men sat at a laboratory table playing chess. Both were about thirty, one black-haired and lean, the other pudgy with wiry red hair. They appeared to be engrossed in the chessboard. If they noticed Starling, they gave no sign. If they noticed the enormous rhinoceros beetle slowly making its way across the board, weaving among the chessmen, they gave no sign of that either. Then the beetle crossef the edge of the board.

"Time, Roden," the lean one said instantly. 

The pudgy one moved his bishop and immediately turned the beetle around and started it trudging back the other way. 

"If the beetle just cuts across the corner, is time up then?" Starling asked. 

"Of course time's up then," the pudgy one said loudly, without looking up. "Of course it's up then. How do you play? Do you make him cross the whole board? Who do you play against, a sloth?"

Silence of the Lambs

I enjoyed this much more than the first one. I still find the writing difficult to understand at times, but it was a page turner.

Saffia

The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the #1 New York Times bestselling classic, now with a note by author Thomas Harris revealing his inspiration for Hannibal Lecter. A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname—Buffalo Bill—is stalking particular women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the F.B.I. Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, Chief of the Bureau's Behavioral Science section. Her assignment: to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and grisly killer now kept under close watch in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Lecter's insight into the minds of murderers could help track and capture Buffalo Bill. Smart and attractive, Starling is shaken to find herself in a strange, intense relationship with the acutely perceptive Lecter. His cryptic clues—about Buffalo Bill and about her—launch Clarice on a search that every reader will find startling, harrowing, and totally compelling. An ingenious, masterfully written novel, The Silence of the Lambs is a classic of suspense and storytelling.

from whispers of others when I started reading this I was expecting something that did not age well. However, I thought it too close to now in some ways. Brilliant, it’s ending perfect 

Florence

Really quick, snappy chapters. Incredibly fast-paced with no wasted pages. As a trans person, I didn't find it transphobic. It has outdated terminology and the outdated notion that being trans is a medical condition, but I nothing I read here offended me. The most offensive thing the book has to say about trans people is that it's possible for them to develop an obsession with cosmetic surgery, which I found amusing. If other trans people find it icky, I get it, but I didn't find anything offensive in it.

As for how it stacks up to the movie, I think they're honestly on par with each other. They're both masterpieces and both worth experiencing, but overall a very faithful adaptation!

Really quick, snappy chapters. Incredibly fast-paced with no wasted pages. As a trans person, I didn't find it transphobic. It has outdated terminology and the outdated notion that being trans is a medical condition, but I nothing I read here offended me. The most offensive thing the book has to say about trans people is that it's possible for them to develop an obsession with cosmetic surgery, which I found amusing. If other trans people find it icky, I get it, but I didn't find anything offensive in it.

As for how it stacks up to the movie, I think they're honestly on par with each other. They're both masterpieces and both worth experiencing, but overall a very faithful adaptation!

well, have the lambs stopped screaming clarice? 

holy shit, the hype was well deserved all right. well-paced, engaging, smart and gets under your skin in the most entertaining ways.

first of all, Clarice. whoa. the way this book creates an image of a perfect main character is beyond perfection. strong-willed, intelligent and really knows how to get shit done. it makes for a character you WILL root for. her background and her ambition really make you love this agent who can speak country to a witness one moment and put male officers' tail between their legs in another. she's just perfect, one might say too perfect to be believable, but i say fuck believability in this context. give me a shiny-haired girly who knows her way around guns and sociopaths. 

hannibal sure is cheeky. smart as fuck too. and the way he drip feeds information to clarice is always an engaging conversation to read. he kinda just exists to be smart, charming, crude at times, but mostly courteous. the interactions with clarice is def entertaining, but my main focus at the best part of this book is clarice and always clarice. 

another part i like about this book is the fun side characters. how they interact with clarice, mostly the respectful ones. the sweet gestures are on my mind.

as for the writing. feels like an old weathered retired marine wrote this, it has an accent. 

there are books that tries so hard to relate to you and ended up reading as childish and pretentious, theres books that are written in an atmosphere so different from your own that you feels alien in the scenarios and theres this shit. situations so far removed from what normal people of the normal world experience and yet from time to time it looks you in the eye and say exactly whats on your mind, reaching into your conscious and lay it bare. love it, couldn't put it down. can't recommend enough.

holy shit, the hype was well deserved all right. well-paced, engaging, smart and gets under your skin in the most entertaining ways.

first of all, Clarice. whoa. the way this book creates an image of a perfect main character is beyond perfection. strong-willed, intelligent and really knows how to get shit done. it makes for a character you WILL root for. her background and her ambition really make you love this agent who can speak country to a witness one moment and put male officers' tail between their legs in another. she's just perfect, one might say too perfect to be believable, but i say fuck believability in this context. give me a shiny-haired girly who knows her way around guns and sociopaths. 

hannibal sure is cheeky. smart as fuck too. and the way he drip feeds information to clarice is always an engaging conversation to read. he kinda just exists to be smart, charming, crude at times, but mostly courteous. the interactions with clarice is def entertaining, but my main focus at the best part of this book is clarice and always clarice. 

another part i like about this book is the fun side characters. how they interact with clarice, mostly the respectful ones. the sweet gestures are on my mind.

as for the writing. feels like an old weathered retired marine wrote this, it has an accent. 

there are books that tries so hard to relate to you and ended up reading as childish and pretentious, theres books that are written in an atmosphere so different from your own that you feels alien in the scenarios and theres this shit. situations so far removed from what normal people of the normal world experience and yet from time to time it looks you in the eye and say exactly whats on your mind, reaching into your conscious and lay it bare. love it, couldn't put it down. can't recommend enough.

arwen

A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname--Buffalo Bill--is stalking women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the FBI Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, chief of the Bureau's Behavioral Science section. Her assignment: to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter--Hannibal the Cannibal--who is kept under close watch in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Dr. Lecter is a former psychiatrist with a grisly history, unusual tastes, and an intense curiosity about the darker corners of the mind. His intimate understanding of the killer and of Clarice herself form the core of Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs--and ingenious, masterfully written book and an unforgettable classic of suspense fiction.

Sarah Sammis

maitha mana

'Dr.Lector touched his pen to his lips. He looked out at the night sky and smiled.'

tbh i started reading this because of the hannibal series, love it tho

mic★

Really entertaining. I don't usually read crime fiction but I had a great time with this. I found it more unsettling than the movie, and the sections of inner monologue for Gumb were especially creepy. I always thought that Foster and Hopkins carried the movie and I was impressed that the characters in the book were just as compelling if not more so in Harris' writing. Some of the dialogue from side characters and cops was cheesy but it felt at home in the genre. 

I've talked about my feelings about this book as a trans person to most of my irl friends but to summarize I don't see this as a story which involves trans women, except by association. That said, a weakness that both the book and its adaptation share its that Gumb's actual motivations are shallow. 

 he performs violence towards women in this very specific way is not adequately addressed, imo. As a result the violent transsexual archetype is more effectively projected onto Gumb because the distinction that Harris wants to create between it and his villain (both in the text and in public comments) is hazy. 

This is both a narrative problem (Starling spends most of the story building a psych profile on the guy and comes to what I feel is an unsatisfying conclusion) and one that I think makes the cultural footprint of this story on trans-related discourse worse than it otherwise would be. One or two throw-away lines from Lector is not really enough to stop the reader/movie-goer from forming an association between gender non-conformity and violence towards women. Not to mention that Harris presents the authority of phycologists uncritically when it comes to Gumb's status as not-really-transsexual, which is laughable. 

Despite these things, I enjoy this story. I'm aware that Julia Serrano discusses this in 

, which I'm excited to read. Maybe my thoughts will change after that. 

Alex 

Really entertaining. I don't usually read crime fiction but I had a great time with this. I found it more unsettling than the movie, and the sections of inner monologue for Gumb were especially creepy. I always thought that Foster and Hopkins carried the movie and I was impressed that the characters in the book were just as compelling if not more so in Harris' writing. Some of the dialogue from side characters and cops was cheesy but it felt at home in the genre. 

...

I've talked about my feelings about this book as a trans person to most of my irl friends but to summarize I don't see this as a story which involves trans women, except by association. That said, a weakness that both the book and its adaptation share its that Gumb's actual motivations are shallow. Why he performs violence towards women in this very specific way is not adequately addressed, imo. As a result the violent transsexual archetype is more effectively projected onto Gumb because the distinction that Harris wants to create between it and his villain (both in the text and in public comments) is hazy. 

This is both a narrative problem (Starling spends most of the story building a psych profile on the guy and comes to what I feel is an unsatisfying conclusion) and one that I think makes the cultural footprint of this story on trans-related discourse worse than it otherwise would be. One or two throw-away lines from Lector is not really enough to stop the reader/movie-goer from forming an association between gender non-conformity and violence towards women. Not to mention that Harris presents the authority of phycologists uncritically when it comes to Gumb's status as not-really-transsexual, which is laughable. 

Despite these things, I enjoy this story. I'm aware that Julia Serrano discusses this in Whipping Girl, which I'm excited to read. Maybe my thoughts will change after that. 

Ayesha ahmed

The first time I've read a thriller that I've thoroughly enjoyed. Perfectly written. The movie was not as half as good as the book.

Victoria

Obviously some of the terminology is not the best but having seen the movie first, the book is just as amazing. A little more detailed in certain aspects but that's to be expected.

Colleen

4.5 Stars
 
The Silence of the Lambs is the thrilling sequel and probably the best-known of this series due to the iconic movie.
 
Having recently read Mind Hunter, I can see how heavily Harris’s research into the FBI influenced this series. It also makes it much creepier to think about how much of it was inspired by true events. Harris did a ton of research for this book and not only into criminal psychology and FBI procedures. A lot of little details, such as about the moths, were well researched.
 
Writing-wise, The Silence of the Lambs is a big improvement over its predecessor. The dialogue in Red Dragon was truly awful, but there was a marked improvement in this book. The characterization was also better. Harris seemed more comfortable with his world and therefore was able to delve into the story better. And even though I’d seen the movie first, I was still kept in suspense while reading this. There is a reason this series had a big effect on the genre.
 
Unlike the very male-skewed first book, The Silence of the Lambs spends a lot of time with a young female rookie FBI agent, Clarice Starling. Yes, there was sexism, but in this case, it was accurate to what many female agents went through. At the time this was written, women being allowed in the FBI was still a relatively new development. And those women often had to fight tooth and nail to get respect. I really enjoyed Clarice’s character.
 
There are two main threads to the plot. The first is an open case about a serial killer who kills and partially skins women. The second is about Hannibal Lector. In my review of Red Dragon, I mentioned that I was surprised how small Hannibal’s part was. Well, that certainly changed in the sequel. This book shows just how this sinister character became so well known.
 
One big difference between these two books is that in Red Dragon, the reader sees into the killer’s mind and is invited to empathize with him despite the terrible things he did. That was one of the strongest and best written aspects of the book. But The Silence of the Lambs takes a different track. The killer is an all-round, Bad Guy. The reader is not given much background information or any reason to empathize. Granted, they were two very different types of killers, so I guess that shift made sense. And it did make the plot more suspenseful.
 
But I have to say, I got annoyed by the amount of fat-shaming in this book. The killer, called Buffalo Bill, targets heavier-set young woman. This is discussed by numerous characters and mostly in a degrading way. Yes, the obesity rate was lower in the U.S. back when this was written, but a size fourteen woman wasn’t such a rarity that someone would have to look high and low to find one. But in the book, the agents discuss possibilities for how the killer is locating his size twelve-to-sixteen victims as if women that size were such a rarity that how the killer found them must be the major key to the case. If the negative comments had come from one or two characters, it would have made sense as personal biases of those characters (which was how the sexism was handled). But the bashing came from nearly every character, including Sterling, as well as the narration itself. There were a few attempted times that the women were described as curvy in a sensual, bodacious way, but even then, it still felt like there was a thread of disgust underneath those words. And it was brought up enough times for me to not round up to five stars. But aside from that, The Silence of the Lambs is a great (and greatly disturbing) book. If you enjoy dark thrillers, you should definitely check out the book.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 5 Stars
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 4 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 5 Stars
Level of Captivation: 5 Stars
Originality: 4 Stars

Mit der Hilfe von Hannibal Lecter, der wegen einer Reihe von Verbrechen in der geschlossenen Abteilung einer psychiatrischen Klinik verwahrt wird soll FBI Agentin Clarice Starling den geistesgestörten Frauenmörder "Buffalo Bill" finden.

Roman

Das Schweigen der Lämmer

Ich eigne mir eigentlich alles an, was mit der Verhaltensanalyseeinheit des FBIs zu tun hat. Natürlich sind die zeitgenössischen Adaptionen eher auf Unterhaltung als auf die Richtigkeit der dargestellten Psychologie bedacht, aber dieses Buch war durchweg logisch und auch bildend, was diesen Aspekt angeht. Zusätzlich sind die Charaktere tiefgründig und wirken nahbar, was mich nur noch mehr an die Geschichte gefesselt hat. Als jemand der die Serie Hannibal geschaut hat, hat es mir auch sehr viel Freude bereitet, die Parallelen zum Buch zu erkennen. Das Einzige, was mich wirklich davon abhält 5 Sterne zu geben, ist der Fakt, dass ich wie bei Der Marsianer 4 Monate gebraucht habe, um das Buch zu beenden – so genial kann es im Endeffekt also nicht gewesen sein. 

Tabea

Ich eigne mir eigentlich alles an, was mit der Verhaltensanalyseeinheit des FBIs zu tun hat. Natürlich sind die zeitgenössischen Adaptionen eher auf Unterhaltung als auf die Richtigkeit der dargestellten Psychologie bedacht, aber dieses Buch war durchweg logisch und auch bildend, was diesen Aspekt angeht. Zusätzlich sind die Charaktere tiefgründig und wirken nahbar, was mich nur noch mehr an die Geschichte gefesselt hat. Als jemand der die Serie Hannibal geschaut hat, hat es mir auch sehr viel Freude bereitet, die Parallelen zum Buch zu erkennen. Das Einzige, was mich wirklich davon abhält 5 Sterne zu geben, ist der Fakt, dass ich wie bei Der Marsianer 4 Monate gebraucht habe, um das Buch zu beenden – so genial kann es im Endeffekt also nicht gewesen sein. 



Dipo Apelehin

This is an absolute classic! Finally a book worthy of the hype.

Saw the movie first, read the book after and it lived up to my expectations! A classic in the crime genre that I think everyone should read. Will definitely be reading Harris’ other novels. 

Victoria Morris

Isabela H 

Coming off of The Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs feels a little flat. A lot of the stakes in the story is contingent on Clarice Starling, and even though I don’t dislike her, I only enjoyed reading about her because of how she’s reminiscent of Will Graham.

Blake Sweezy

I really enjoyed this book. It adds so much detail that the movie could never accomplish.

Sian Wadey

Everyone is at least familiar with Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of the infamous Hannibal Lecter. I must be one of few people that hasn't seen The Silence of the Lambs however I am watching Hannibal on Sky at the moment. 
So I went into this picturing the wonderful Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal, and Laurence Fishburne as Jack Crawford. However Jodie Foster was and always will be Clarice Starling.
What I didn't realise was that this wasn't the first in the Hannibal series. It is definitely the most famous, but I wasn't aware Red Dragon came before. Not that it matters because Thomas Harris writes his characters with such conviction and confidence.
The world of Quantico is so familiar now in different TV shows and films that it's easy to slip into this world of behavioural analysts, murderers, senators and policemen. It's well written, and every time Clarice meets Lecter you can feel the tension between them. Your skin crawls every time Hannibal speaks. 
I don't want to give anything away, so I'm just going to encourage you to read this! Do it! Lose yourself in the infamous characters, the gritty dialogue and thrill of the chase.

Stefanie Sugia

"Semua korban Buffalo Bill wanita, obsesinya adalah wanita, ia hidup untuk memburu wanita. Tapi tak satu wanita pun memburu Buffalo Bill sebagai pekerjaan utama. Tak satu penyelidik wanita pun mempelajari semua kejahatannya."
Clarice Starling adalah seorang trainee FBI yang mendapat tugas dari atasannya, Jack Crawford, untuk memberikan kuesioner kepada Hannibal Lecter untuk melengkapi database profil psikologis pembunuh berantai. Dr. Lecter adalah seorang psikiatri klinis yang berpengalaman, namun ia juga telah merenggut nyawa 9 orang korban yang adalah pasiennya sendiri dengan amat kejam. Oleh karena itulah ia kini menghabiskan hidupnya di dalam sel Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Seiring pembacaran keduanya, Hannibal Lecter membahas tentang kasus pembunuhan berantai yang sedang banyak dibicarakan; pembunuh yang disebut Buffalo Bill karena ia menguliti hasil buruannya. Pada akhir pertemuan mereka, Dr. Lecter memberikan sebuah petunjuk yang samar kepada Starling.

Seiring berjalannya waktu, Starling kembali menemui Dr. Lecter untuk menggali informasi lebih lanjut tentang Buffalo Bill. Namun Dr. Lecter hanya bersedia membagi sebagian dari apa yang ia ketahui dengan ganti informasi tentang masa lalu Starling sebagai seorang yatim piatu. Korban keenam Buffalo Bill ditemukan di West Virginia, dan Starling mendapat kesempatan untuk melakukan autopsi terhadap mayat seorang wanita yang telah dikuliti dan dibuang di sungai. Sesuai prediksi Dr. Lecter, korban kali ini adalah yang pertama kali kepalanya dikuliti - dan berkat ketelitian Starling, ia menemukan kepompong ngengat yang tersangkut di tenggorokan korban....

Baca review selengkapnya di:
http://www.thebookielooker.com/2014/0...

Sarah Escorsa

Hannibal Lecter. The ultimate villain of modern fiction who scared the world silent. A young FBI trainee. An evil genius locked away for unspeakable crimes. A plunge into the darkest chambers of a psychopath's mind -- in the deadly search for a serial killer . . . An instant classic of chilling psychological suspense . . . a critically acclaimed audio production of unforgettable intensity . . . From the tormenting words of the homicidal maniac Dr. Hannibal Lecter and the flesh-rending depravity of an elusive killer to the sheer courage of a young FBI novice, who risks her life to track him down and stop the bloodshed.

Jemima Scott

Such a brilliant thriller! So glad I finally read this one☺️📚

Annemiek Nieuwhof

Read it after I had seen the movie years before with my dad. I loved the book and I have to say, the movie is so well made to the book, it’s crazy. Every detail of every scene that is in the movie can be found in the book, which I didn’t expect. I just thought of it as something the filmmakers did. Felt like I was watching the movie again and enjoyed the writing style a lot. 
Recommend!! 