Red Dragon

By Thomas Harris

Reviewed by Ms. Andersen, BCCHS English teacher

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris is the scariest book I have ever read.  I read this book in high school when everyone was saying that Silence of the Lambs was the scariest book ever.  It is not.  This one is.  They share one character, Hannibal Lector, but he is not prominent in this book, as he is in Silence of the Lambs.  Red Dragon has another antagonist, the Tooth Fairy.  Sure, a character named the Tooth Fairy doesn’t sound scary, but this one is.

The Tooth Fairy is named that because when the killer in Red Dragon kills his victims, he leaves teeth marks on them.  But not normal teeth marks, teeth that have been filed to a point.  The killer wants to be called Red Dragon, but the FBI get on to the Tooth moniker and can’t leave it alone.

This book becomes scary when the FBI get close to catching the Tooth Fairy, but he outsmarts them by faking his own death.  Once I realized it was a fake, I was terrified.  I used to read this book late at night in front of a window.  Not a smart choice.  So I started reading it at the beach in full sunlight.  Still scary.  Once the killer faked his death I started reading it at night again.  This was a mistake.  So scary.

If you like Stephen King books, you will like this one.  Red Dragon is scarier than most Stephen King books that I have read, even his scariest (in my opinion), Salem’s Lot.  Thomas Harris does a brilliant job at terrifying his readers.  So if you want to be scared, read this book.  At night.  While your family is sleeping.