I loved almost everything about this book. I was very familiar with the story as I’ve seen the movie several times. I’ve always loved the movie and was glad to see how true it is to the source material. I thought this might be one of the rare cases where the movie might even be better, but once again, I believe the book was better. 
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The pacing was excellent, the characters fully developed and capable of bringing out strong emotion (oh how I want to throat punch Chilton), and the ending was *chef’s kiss*. Frank Muller did a phenomenal job narrating the audiobook. I think the advantage the book had over the movie was giving the thoughts of Clarice Starling, Jack Crawford, and Hannibal Lector. I also enjoyed Starling’s roommate even more in the book, though her part was minor, her personality came through more. 
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The one problem I have centers around the portrayal of the victims as “fat”. There were many, many references to how large these women were, how you don’t see women this large just anywhere, they shop at fat stores, they have fat pants, etc. I was dealing with that and understood the purpose, but what was really bothersome is when they finally revealed exactly how “big” these women were. One was a size 14. Okay, I recognize that’s not slender but it’s hardly a freak of nature. The real kicker though was when we got actual measurements for one girl. She was…are you ready…5’6” tall and a whopping 145 pounds. Guess it’s a good thing I’m not a character in one of Harris’s books; I can only imagine how he’d have to describe me. Don’t misunderstand me, I would say I am fat and I don’t have a problem with someone saying that. But 5’6”/145 is not.