Having never read Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris, when it was published in 2007, I thought I would go back and finish up the series, mostly to familiarize myself with the entire Hannibal cannon and potentially to help me have more information at hand as the television series continues in 2015.
The reviews for the book when it came out, were not kind, and many thought Harris had crossed a line in the sand by establishing his imagined reasons for Hannibal Lecter’s childhood trauma and resulting descent into psychopathy and cannibalism. I will admit, it is not Harris’ most well-crafted plot, but Hannibal Rising does, for the most part, complete the circle.