Nina ✿ Looseleaf Reviews ✿'s Reviews > The Silence of the Lambs

This is one of those books that has been sitting to be read on my shelf forever. I love serial killer books and psychological thrillers, and this is basically the book of this genre.

I think this stands out because it's really three stories in one: the investigation of Buffalo Bill, the career of Clarice Starling, and of course the psychopathy of Hannibal Lecter.

It's really that third plot that the book is riding on. Buffalo Bill is a cool psychology and an interesting FBI chase, but he's pretty par for the course of the genre. Lecter is the only character of his class. He's spawned so many movies and TV shows and truly lives beyond the pages in the minds of everyone who thinks of him as the pinnacle of horror. This book is just him toying with everyone. What does he know? What has he figured out? What is he withholding and who is he screwing with? He is the biggest variable, the biggest unreliable character in the mystery genre.

Why the three stars? I respect the heck out of Thomas Harris, but he's honestly the pinnacle of the male author failing to write feminism. The struggle of a successful FBI agent struggling with the sexism of her industry? Yeah, I'm down for that. "I'm a woman and women are being killed and my femininity gives me a lens that no one else has because I'm a w o m a n" (not to mention the big reveal to that plotline (view spoiler)[regards sewing (hide spoiler)]. I'm just not here for that, sorry.

A great novel, truly, but I think it's a little dated 30 years after publication.