Deeply Disappointing Dexter

There. I said it. Hard as it was. It’s true. Dexter in the Dark was deeply, deeply disappointing. (spoilers ahead…)

I settled into the book with excitement even though TW expressed some concerns regarding the book. She felt some confusion over the story line and characters because it had been so long since we read the second Dexter and because we have watched the Showtime series (which does not follow storyline or character building the way the books do.) I wasn’t worried, I’m better at holding story lines and character development than she is.

Bah. The problem wasn’t with the passage of time or the differences between book and TV, the problem was with this book itself. Why, why, why did we need “It”? Why couldn’t Dexter and his Dark Passenger simply be what they were? Why did we need some “God” from tens of thousands of years ago to step into the picture and “explain” Dexter’s Dark Passenger?

And, the Cody & Astor storyline? Wrong. It just felt wrong. Cody was written fairly well – even with the whole “Meloch” bit. Astor, not so much. It’s like she’s an afterthought. Either she is like Cody & Dexter or she isn’t – she can’t be “half way”.

Also, Doakes. Maybe I’m getting the characters muddled between the TV show and the book but it felt like Dexter was doing a bit too much mocking of the guy. It felt wrong.

The whole book just felt wrong. The curse of the “third book”, as sassymonkey suggested to me in google talk? Or the author feeling confused by the TV show? Or is this the way the author saw Dexter (and the kids and Doakes) all along and I didn’t see it coming? Could we just have a dream sequence start the next book? Dexter dreamed that entire book and none of it really happened? I’d appreciate that.