Review: Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

Title: Hannibal Rising
Author: Thomas Harris
Date Published: December 2006
Series: Hannibal Lecter (4^th
Genre: Historical Horror
Rating: A
ISBN: 978-0-440-24286-4

Continuing my Hannibal Lecter craze I moved onto the prequel to the contemporary story involving Hannibal Lecter, published fourth in the series. Hannibal Rising spans the 1940s and 1950s, starting with Hannibal Lecter's childhood (age 8 in the beginning) and taking us through young adulthood.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book to be honest. I'd heard some good things from fellow fans of the books and movies. I'd also read some truly awful reviews, equating it to little more than fan fiction and his (Harris') desire to get another movie made off the popularity of the Red Dragon remake.

I'd seen the film version of Hannibal Rising before reading the book and was pleasantly surprised by it. So, the story in the book wasn't foreign to me. Perhaps not as strong as Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs were, but still one I will keep on my shelves and read again.

Hannibal Rising details the history of Hannibal Lecter, giving us the events that helped to shape a monster. Growing up in war-torn Lithuania, his whole family lost to him, his childhood home used by the enemy, everything taken from him, having to endure living in his childhood home now being used as an orphanage as an orphan.

It's his beloved younger sister, Mischa, that serves as the platform for his evilness taking shape. For the enemy had done the unthinkable with her …

Eventually, Lecter is taken in by his father's brother and his wife, Lady Murasaki at the age of 13. When we come across him after the war, he no longer speaks and it's unclear as to what happened to Mischa. The reader surely suspects based on the undertones, but just as Lecter doesn't seem quite certain neither does the reader.

Lecter gains a clue as to the identity of the men responsible for all of his losses and begins to singularly hunt them down. The police are onto him due to an earlier incident, but just as then have nothing to pin on him. He is a model and bright student, a gifted artist, and was the victim of war crimes. So he has to outsmart both the police and the men he hunts.

An interesting relationship forms between Murasaki and Lecter. Infatuation? Love? It's hard to know for sure. He was young and she seemed to want to keep him from setting both feet onto the wrong side of the line, going completely into the darkness.

Overall, Hannibal Rising provides us a reasonable background for Hannibal Lecter. Both the man we came to know in Hannibal and the monster we initially saw him as in Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. I admit, I'm a sucker for this time period so it was easy to immerse myself in it. The conclusion of the story left me satisfied.

I'd stated after reading Hannibal that I didn't think the doctor's life needed to be revisited after it. While I consider Hannibal Rising a nice bookend to the Hannibal series, I admit wouldn't mind seeing a book detailing Lecter's life from the end of Rising to Red Dragon. How did the man go from killing out of revenge? A promise made to his beloved sister? To the serial killer we initially met in Red Dragon?

Continuing my re-read madness, we're onto Mario Puzo's The Godfather next…