Fear Nothing - Review

FEAR NOTHING

Author, Dean Koontz

Hmmmm. This book was an odd book. I went through a lot of different feelings about this book while reading it. At one point, I was amazed and scared out of my mind, another time, I started thinking...okay this plot seems to be heading to the corny side. I will say Mr. Koontz saved it in time and turned things around a little bit...but I also felt there was alot left unexplained. I may have missed it...I did not go back through to ensure that it was actually left out...the explanations...and then one of the characters seemed to know things just because he suddenly knew them...rather than someone telling him...so for a character to be completely in the dark about something on page one and then to have medical, scientific knowledge towards the end without someone actually spelling it out seemed to be a little far fetched.

There was also some things never solved...the attic at the rectory, for instance.

Dean Koontz did give his writing his usual flair...this was a page turner regardless of the plot and there was one scene so scary in the upstairs of the Ferryman residence, I had to put the book down and go talk to people to escape the scene...but only for a few because I wanted to plow on to get through the scene so it wouldn't haunt me. ...so there is definitely a great CREEP factor in this one.

So if you want to be scared...but walk away with a tiny bit of confusion...this is a great book. The confusion isn't so much that this book is lacking as a satisfactory read though. I appreciated Mr. Koontz's style of writing as usual and even more so as he came up with some things in this one that I never really thought about. I was looking at my cats in a whole new light last night...wondering.

One item that deserves special mention and kudos is some of the thoughts that go through the characters' minds in Mr. Koontz's books. I would like to share one in particular though there are many that I found profound enough to flag.

"How strange this world is. Those things that we can so readily touch, those things so real to the senses--the sweet architecture of a woman's body, one's own flesh and bone, the cold sea and the gleam of stars--are far less real than things we cannot touch or taste or smell or see. Bicycles and the boys who ride them are far less real than what we feel in our minds and hearts, less substantial than friendship and love and loneliness, all of which long outlast the world." Page 60

That statement says so much. How fleeting are the moments in the physical in our lives...but the feelings we live and survive and cherish...go on endlessly. Amazing.

For chill factor, I would give this book a 4.5 star rating. For character development, 3.5 stars, for conclusion, 3 stars (because I know what he was trying to do, it's my personal dislike of this sort of ending that causes me to rate this way). This is still a rough draft of my rating system but for the time being, it will do.

So that leaves this book with an overall rating of 3.5 stars.

Odd Thomas - The Review

(image from Amazon.com)

This is a book about a fry cook who loves his job as simple as it is because he has a very complicated gift. He sees the dead....sees...not hears because the dead are silent in Odd's world.

Odd's life seems on the outside to be very simple...he has a simple romance, a simple job, a simple apartment, a variety of characters for friends who seem genuine, and he lives in a simple town, Pico Mundo, CA.

The complicated part isn't so much that he sees the dead...the complications arise from the dead wanting him to assist in stopping major mind blowing crimes...or to solve the issues (murder mysteries) of the dead in between. This book has a major mind blowing crime waiting in the wings that Odd tries to stop just in the nick of time...does he save the day? You'll have to read it to find out.

What I like about this book is the combination of the paranormal and the suspense/thriller genres intertwined so that it becomes hard to tell the dead from the living. Odd has animated interactions with the dead even though they don't speak...and the appearance of Elvis every now and again gives the spookiness a bit of comical relief. I will admit though that not only did I turn pages quickly as you would reading any suspenseful book, I also had to put the book down towards the end to dab at my eyes with a tissue. Dean Koontz surprised me quite a bit at the end of this one.

In summary, this is a great read. Not too deep, not too scary, not hard at all to follow. The characters are genuine and believable, the plot fun and surprising. Could a fry cook do the things Odd Thomas did in this story? Who knows...but I do know this...

Odd Thomas is captivating enough to lead me to read the next in the series. I'll see you at the end of that one!

**** The Critical Librarian gives Odd Thomas four out of five stars