First published in 2004
Page count: 420 pages
Other novels I read by Dean Koontz: The Taking & Your Heart Belongs To Me
I didn’t think it was possible, but I just read a novel by Dean Koontz that I actually liked.
Yes,
miracles do happen.
Odd Thomas has a gift, of seeing dead
people. They don’t talk, they just are around and sometimes they need his help
to move on. He’s had this gift since childhood and sometimes it gives him a
forewarning for disaster coming.
Like
now. 15th of August, Pico Mundo. A day when all hell will break
loose unless Odd (yes, that’s his name) will find a way to prevent it.
The
novel is written from an unreliable first person perspective, Odd his perspective.
It’s written in a caffeinated, sleep deprived manner which leans itself well
for the story in which timing is everything and time stops for no one.
There’s
no time for the slow building of suspense, Odd Thomas is a novel that jumps into
the fray pretty quickly and managed to stay ahead of any imminent danger just by
fast decision making. Other novels of Dean Koontz rely heavily upon character
building, back story foundation and a sense of something dreadful coming the
protagonists way, but Odd simply lives the story.
It
starts with him telling the reader why he has written this story and I liked him
from the start. Which helps, because you’ll be with him all through the novel.
He doesn’t try to explain why things are the way they are, he just tells a
story from his perspective, leaving you to try to follow his trail.
It
even ends rather emotionally, which I hadn’t expected. And I have to say I had
seen the screen adaptation before I read the novel. It’s been a couple of years
and clearly I had forgotten some key facts about it since then. Luckily,
because it enhanced the reading more.
