By: Dean Koontz Publisher: Bantam dell Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Format: Bargain Price Label: Bantam dell Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 416 Publication Date: December 09, 2003
Product Description: “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. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn. Maybe he has a gift, maybe it’s a curse, Odd has never been sure, but he tries to do his best by the silent souls who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Odd’s otherworldly tips to Pico Mundo's sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time it's different.
A mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a filing cabinet stuffed with information on the world's worst killers, and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the man is and what he wants, not even Odd’s deceased informants can tell him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calendar for August 15.
Today is August 14.
In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock 'n' Roll. His account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmares—and a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere.
What an interesting protagonist Odd is! Book 1 is my favorite Odd Thomas book, to-date. Awesome story with a memorable character. I thought about Odd long after I put the book down, and it definitely made me want to read more. I started on Forever Odd (book 2) the same evening.
Dean Koontz has created a very interesting character and some witty dialogue and humor. While it might not be as dark as most of his other works, Odd Thomas has an eerie foreshadowing that really works. You have to keep reading to find out what happens.
I must start book 4 soon...
Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author of Divine Intervention and The River
Excellent as always This is yet another high caliber book that Mr. Koontz has read. It makes me wish when I had moved that I had kept my previous DK collection. :( *sniff* now im sad. oh well, i'll work to rebuild it.
I don't get the high ratings... This is my 2nd Koontz book and although the first one that I read (The Husband) wasn't my favorite book of all time it definitely had some gripping moments and good twists. This book was boring, horribly paced and the detail was so overwrought it was painful at times where I'm to the point of me mentally screaming "JUST GET ON WITH THE STORY!!" I don't mind details and painting a picture, but this was just unnecessarily descriptive to say the least. Did he really have to plot a way to get away from the coyotes for 2 or 3 chapters?
I can easily say that this was one of the worst books that I've read and I continued to read it in some hope that the 4 and 5 star reviewers knew of some revelation toward the end of the book that would represent a payoff. My payoff is to write this review and possibly warn someone to not read this book unless you have time to kill and nothing better to read.
This felt like a 75 page short story stretched out to an excruciatingly boring novel. I definitely will read more Koontz, but certainly not another Odd book. Odd Thomas a dull mix of Forrest Gump and Rain Man with the Sixth Sense thrown in for kicks. What a bore...
The best Koontz has EVER done I don't believe I've ever given Koontz a five star rating before. I loved 'Lightning' and 'Phantoms', even newer books like 'The Husband'. This is above and beyond all of his previous works. I've been wanting to read John Saul's 'Nathaniel' for a while and have it right here but I also have 'Forever Odd' and I tell you as soon as I finished 'Odd Thomas' I put 'Nathaniel' back on the shelf and started 'Forever Odd'. I don't want to spoil this for anyone who hasn't read it yet but one thing separates this from other Koontz books, the heroes don't come out in a barrage of bullets into glory. Just amazing, can't wait to read the other 3 books
Worst book I've ever read; last Koontz I'll ever read I've read around ten Dean Koontz books and, despite some of my problems with his writing style, I've obviously been entertained enough to come back for more, time and time again. Well, no more. This book compounded all of his lazy, unprofessional, and imbecilic writing "techniques" and slopped them into one short, but far too long, book -- probably the worst I've ever read in my entire life.
What shocks me, of course, is that so many people not only like this book -- they love it! I cannot for the life of me figure out what there is to love. Here's a "spoiler" for you: Nothing happens in this book! It is basically 302 pages of long lists of the contents of people's drawers, refrigerators, glove compartments, etc. It is written in the first person by Odd Thomas -- an immensely annoying and unrealistic character who only seems less so by the annoyance and unrealism of all of the other characters in the book.
Here's a shocker: Odd -- that's his name, by the way -- comes from a dysfunctional family. So does his girlfriend, "Stormy." Oh, and here's what makes Odd so odd: He can see dead people. Yes, only a few years after the Sixth Sense (a phrase that is used time and time again in this book), Koontz wrote a book where the character literally says "I see dead people." But don't worry, the dead people never do anything interesting.
My theory on why people like this book: They're stupid and the book is short. It's one of the few books they ever read, so they grow an emotional attachment to it. If your IQ is above that of Forest Gump's please pass on this book and move on with your life. There's nothing here for you to see.
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