Oh Dexter.

I had no idea there was as little Dexter as there is. I was in the bookstore a week ago and noticed a new Dexter book and was surprised that it is only the 8th Dexter book in the series. Seems like I read the first Dexter (Darkly Dreaming Dexter) years ago and there should be more. I do know that it’s been too long since I read Dexter in the Dark (#3), which was about 2 years ago. I’ve decided that the easiest thing to keep me reading is to stick to these brain candy type series. I’m only really loyal to one big series because I have a lit crush on the main character (Lucas Davenport) but I do have a few in my tbr pile so might as well conquer them now.

Enter Dexter by Design, the 4th book in the series. I like Dexter. I can’t say that the books are really all that great but I like the character and premise of these books. Yes, for the record, I was introduced to Dexter via Showtime and I’m not sure which I like better. Obviously, they are very different because they went 8 seasons before there were 8 books in the series. And, the books tend to treat the Dark Passenger as a separate character from Dexter, which I find interesting.

All right then: if there were any real, physical clues, the tireless and dogged heroes of forensics would find them. So what I needed was some kind of hint from a source that my coworkers could not tap— the Dark Passenger. The Passenger, however, was being uncharacteristically silent, except for its mildly savage chuckling and I wasn’t sure what that meant. Normally, and display of predatory skill would evoke some kind of appreciation that quite often provided a small stab of insight into the killing. But this time, any such comment was absent. Why?

Wouldn’t it be interesting if someone’s Dark Passenger jumped from them to someone else? Hmmmm Has someone done that already? Someone should.

Dexter is also funny. I had a passage all picked out to share that I thought was funny while I was reading but I failed miserably to mark the passage and now I can’t find it so you’ll just have to trust me. Or not. Try him on for yourself and you decide. But I recommend you start from the beginning as this particular story was only meh.

It wasn’t funny.

The part about the cat trying to kill me is actually only one small chapter.

There is a chapter on how to tell if your cat is a raging homosexual, which refers to gay demons. Really?

I read this using my kobo app on my iPhone. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the image the right size to be read easily without being blurry. If I hadn’t been struggling with that maybe I would have found The Funny. Maybe.

I’m just gonna start off with No, this is not Gone Girl. Not. Even. Close.

The Girl on the Train seems to have been one of the first books I bought this year. I don’t recall having heard much about it before I bought it. Since my mom’s trips to the hospital, I had fallen out of the Book Loop. I bought this cold after reading the inside dust jacket. I didn’t see the comparisons to Gone Girl until later. Stop it. Just. Stop.

The story is told from the perspective of three different women. Rachel is an alcoholic that has lost just about everything and might have witnessed the key moment in murder. She was blackout drunk at the time so she doesn’t remember. Anna is the new wife (and former lover) of Rachel’s ex-husband. She, Tom (the ex-hubby), and a new baby live in the house that Rachel shared with Tom when they were married. Rachel is not over this arrangement and it doesn’t help that she takes a train into London everyday that stops at a signal directly next to the house. Lovely. Lastly, there is Megan. Megan is dead for a good chunk of the book. Her story starts a year before the murder in the book. Also, Megan and her hubby live next door to Anna and Tom.

Confused.

Don’t worry. Paula Hawkins does do a wonderful job of explaining everything. Mostly. It wasn’t until The Big Reveals started that things went off the rails for me. Usually, by the time something was being revealed, it was no longer a surprise. I saw the ending coming with a little over 100 pages left and that just sucked the life out of the book for me.

Also, it bothered me that Rachel was described as ugly through out the story for, seemingly, no other reason than being fat. I found Anna to be the ugliest person in the book and she’s supposed to be The Pretty One because she’s skinny and blonde. Fuck you, Paula Hawkins, fuck you.