Yuck, ugh, what the hell! I had such high hopes for this book, I love me some Dexter. NOPE! This was hands down the worst book in the series. It seemed like Mr. Lindsay wrote this book with a terrible coauthor, who wrote the majority of it. It seemed like we got a completely different Dexter than we've seen in the previous books. Matter of fact, it seems like someone else wrote this book completely, after reading the other books, while trying to mimic Mr. Lindsay's style as closely as possible, but failing horribly. Deb was done right, Rita too, but god, Dexter got mangled! What the hell was Mr. Lindsay trying to do? Seems like he really was trying to make this Dexters final cut, and completely ruin the series. If there is another book, where the hell does it go from here? Ugh, terrible! This has really gone from a book review to an angry rant, but that's how I feel about it. The whole first three quarters of the book was just fluff and filler, and then Dexters morals, or lack there of go to complete shit, and then the book goes to complete shit, and then, while waiting for something to tie it all together, it just ends. What the hell! Crap, I'm pissed, pure crap! ( )

Although it was an entertaining story it didn't really seem like it belonged in the Dexter series. Dexter thought and reacted very differently than Dexter in the other other books. Even the passages about his dark passenger were a departure from his normal code and ritual. This read more as a stand alone suspense novel rather than belonging to a series ( )

Don't get me wrong. Jeff Lindsay is a solid, imaginative writer who can keep me glued to the page like few others. But I am getting real tired of Darling Dear Dexter and his increasingly polarizing, patronizing personality that turns him from interesting sociopath to infuriating douchebag who happens to occasionally kill folks. Also, it seemed like Dexter was holding the idiot ball a lot of the time; I was spotting plot twists so many chapters before our Daring Dexter even got a clue something was up. Can we make the next book all about Deb, please? I like Deb a lot more than Dexter nowadays. ( )

I've been keeping up with Dexter ever since the tv show began, but since I've always been a book nut, I always need to pull up the authors who started it. It's never a chicken or the egg question, but in this instance, I did start with the tv show first, and after a few seasons, needed my fix and so started the books.

I personally love how I can get a completely different story out of Dexter in an alternate universe kind of way between the two. If I didn't like how things happened in one, then I could always rely on the other. I have always enjoyed the bona fide supernatural aspect of the dark passenger in the books, and really loved how he was grooming his stepchildren along his path. I can only assume that we will come back to that in the next novel, because as a character, Dexter has slid from those ways in this novel. As a set-up for a cliffhanger, this novel did wonderfully, timed wonderfully with the end of the tv series, and it has the appearance of stopping Dexter in his tracks.

As a reader, I wanted a little more of a conclusion, but I'm just going to have to wait and see if the next book comes out soon, because if it doesn't, I might be very very angry. Kinda like I was with the ending of the tv series. I want to love the book very much, because not only the writing is good, but I've grown to love the characters so much. There's the caveat, tho. I want to love it, but something drastic is going to have to happen or I might stop. It's kinda a big cliffhanger, after all. If we wait six months and a new one comes out, then everything is fine with the world. My faith is restored and I can go on enjoying Dexter for years to come. :)
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Is this really the last one? If so, then the conclusion of this book series may be about as disappointing as the Showtime tv series. That said, it's still 5 stars. ( )