Book Review: Odd Thomas: A Novel

Source: Amazon.com

Odd Thomas: A Novel, by Dean Koontz

From the book’s cover:

“The dead don’t talk. I don’t know why.” But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Meet Odd Thomas, the unassuming young hero of Dean Koontz’s dazzling New York Times bestseller, a gallant sentinel at the crossroads of life and death who offers up his heart in these pages and will forever capture yours.

Sometimes the silent souls who seek out Odd want justice. Occasionally their otherworldly tips help him prevent a crime. But this time it’s different. A stranger comes to Pico Mundo, accompanied by a horde of hyena-like shades who herald an imminent catastrophe. Aided by his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Odd will race against time to thwart the gathering evil. His account of these shattering hours, in which past and present, fate and destiny, converge, is a testament by which to live—an unforgettable fable for our time destined to rank among Dean Koontz’s most enduring works.

The Review:

As I observed with the first Odd Thomas book I read in the series (it being the third in the series - an unfortunate accident of alphabetization by my computer's circuit brains), Koontz has a thing for pretty turns of phrase. For my part, that turn-of-phrase bit gets a bit annoying after a time. Yes Mr. Koontz, you're clever. Congratulations. An award will be coming in the mail anyway now, I'm sure.

Thankfully, Odd Thomas is more interesting than the other novel mentioned. Which is good. One distinctive thing about Koontz's writing is that he has lots of good ideas, but seems a bit disjointed. It's like he's so busy throwing all his great ideas at the page that he sometimes forgets to craft his stories as well as some other semi-contemporaries I can think of.  Such as Crichton or King. This isn't to say Koontz isn't talented. Far from it. He just doesn't seem to have the same panache. Lot's of great work, but never transcending. Not that I'd know from direct personal experience, but he seems like what I'd imagine a dime store writer would be. (In my best dime-store gangster accent): "Keep pumping out the goods, Mac. Let's make some more dough and have a wild weekend and then go back to work on the next penny-dreadful on Monday morning."

The author, Dean Koontz / Source: Amazon.com

On the positive side though, Koontz does have a talent for mysteries. No Agatha Christie, but he does keep you interested with strange circumstances. And the initial chase scene that really gets Odd Thomas going is fairly gripping.

I won't ruin this novel too much by giving away the plot. I can only hope that the second book in the series (which will be the last I read of these, barring some strange happening I can't fathom at present) is as good as this one. It'll save me heartburn while writing the review.

If you are a Koontz fan, then Odd Thomas is probably an example of why you are one. If you are not, Odd Thomas seems like an opportunity to give Koontz a chance. If you've not read any of his work, Odd Thomas seems a good way to see the talent in the author, without dealing with some of the more esoteric stuff. I've read little from Koontz, but what I have has put me in the middle camp so far. But Odd Thomas is a revival of hope in this writer's work, I must say. So stay tuned. I'll keep my running commentary going, and we'll see what station this train eventually pulls into...

A bit of fan-art that shows Odd Thomas, as envisaged by the work's author, being silently accompanied by some of those nasty bodach creatures from the novel. / Source: Artist: ItachiChan, DeviantArt.net

Further into the book now... Odd Thomas gets better as time goes by. The mystery parts are intriguing enough. The morbid content is a bit much for me, though. Our hero goes into the bad guy's house and starts searching around. Eventually (it takes two visits) he looks in the freezer part of the refrigerator and discovers Tupperware containers with human body parts in them. That was disgusting, to say the least. We also have a dead body that plays a major role in the plot. Somebody tries to frame our hero, but he manages to get the body out of the house and takes it out to a deserted church/restaurant/bordello (that background story was interesting enough for its own novel, I think) and leaves it there. There is a tense scene at this deserted location where our protagonist is almost attacked by coyotes, but is saved by the ghost of a murdered prostitute. What I was getting to was that eventually, our hero goes back to check something about the murder wound of the dead man who was placed so as to frame him, and has an experience that made my toes curl from sheer gross-out. The latter half of the book has lots of tidbits like this. Keep that fact in mind if you are debating on reading this novel, and are at all squeamish.

And then there is the heart-racing final scenes where our hero thwarts the bad guys plans and saves the day. And you think everything turned out fairly ok, and then... Well, if you think this book sounds interesting and you can stomach the more unpleasant details, including a mentally unstable mother and a highly narcissistic father, then read Odd Thomas and find out for yourself how the book ends. Since I read the third one first, I knew about the plot twist, and was both sad, and also not surprised.

Still image from the recently released live action (and straight to DVD, as far as I know) film adaptation of Odd Thomas.  Pictured are Anton Yelchin, as the lead character, and Addison Timlin, as Stormy.  Personally, I think she is too mainstream pretty for the part, but what do I know? / Source: BeyondHollywood.com

Anyway, the book has a bit of language, and a fair amount of disturbing content, along with some allusions to the clincher at the heart of Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein (think the relationship between Victor and Elizabeth, though not so egotistical on the part of Odd toward his girl Stormy), and some mild sexual-related content. And violence. Definitely violence.

I'd say, as a fan of much of Stephen King's work (I think he is a talented author, though some of his work disappoints at the end - Dreamweaver comes to mind), and therefore by way of comparison, I'd say Koontz is certainly no King. But Odd Thomas is a decent competitor. I wouldn't read it again myself, but I don't specifically regret reading it this once. Just the same, there were a couple things I could do without.

Learn more about Odd Thomas: A Novel, by Dean Koontz, on Amazon.com


The parting comment:


Odd Thomas didn't do the whole "seeing dead people"-thing first, of course.  The Sixth Sense did it long before.  And it wasn't the first at that thing either, of course.  But it did pretty well.  And that classic line.  But I prefer: "I see dumb people.  Walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're dumb."  Yup, that works pretty well.