>>214282522 (OP)
>>214282574
>>214282688
>>214282695
>>214282743
>>214282974
people who only know Dexter from the TV show have no clue how far off the rails the novels went
season 1 sticks pretty close to Darkly Dreaming Dexter, but then the show decided “okay, grounded crime drama with inner monologue” while the books went “actually dexter’s ‘dark passenger’ is a literal ancient murder demon and also there are other people with them living inside their heads”
by the third book you’ve got mayan death cults, ritual child sacrifice, and eldritch beings straight out of a pulp horror serial
showtime: “hmm, maybe doakes just glares so hard it feels like he’s reading minds, yeah let’s drop that later”
novels: “dexter’s babysitting while negotiating with the cosmic entity inside him about who gets to eat which serial killer tonight”
TL;DR: TV Dexter is a serial killer procedural with witty narration. Book Dexter is suburban lovecraftian slapstick where a demon helps him pick up groceries.