Odd Thomas, by Dean Koontz
Book Review by Jeff Edwards
Have you read this book?
Peculiar things happen to Odd Thomas. But then, peculiar things often happen to people who can see the dead. Sometimes, the ghost of Elvis Presley visits Odd and listens to music; other days, spirits like young Penny Kallisto convince Odd to catch their killers. When a stranger arrives in town, surrounded by dozens of evil shadows, Odd senses a massive tragedy brewing in Pico Mundo - unless he can find a way to prevent it in time.
In Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz delivers a tale of modern evil tinged with Satanism - part thriller, part dark fantasy. Other than the pairing of machine guns and mediums, plastic explosives and premonitions, there's little in the book that is original. Koontz admits as much when he opens a chapter with that famous line from "The Sixth Sense": "I see dead people." The other problem is that Koontz seems unwilling to fade into the background as he tells his story. Any sense of pacing - especially in the action scenes - is ruined by sentences like, "[T]hough his bared teeth included no hooked or dramatically elongated canines, the rage of a rabid jackal gleamed in his silent snarl." Granted, Odd Thomas purports to be a memoir written by its title character, but this is not the first Koontz novel to suffer from awkward prose.
The story ultimately succeeds because Koontz populates Pico Mundo with a cast of colorful - and likeable - characters. Compared to some of the town's other inhabitants (like "Little Ozzie," a four-hundred-pound man with six fingers on his left hand, or Rosalia Sanchez, a landlady who needs confirmation each morning that she hasn't turned invisible), "Odd" Thomas is one of the more normal residents. His eccentricities ("no car, no life insurance, no more clothes than I absolutely need...no grand ambitions") are actually survival tactics - practical ways of dealing with his strange gift. Odd fills his apartment with second-hand furniture because poltergeists have been known to destroy his belongings; he holds down the uncomplicated job of short-order cook because in other areas of his life, he never knows what each new day will bring.
Despite its faults, Odd Thomas is a compelling novel of good versus evil. After racing through the book to its conclusion, readers will likely find themselves hoping for a return visit to Pico Mundo.
In Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz delivers a tale of modern evil tinged with Satanism - part thriller, part dark fantasy. Other than the pairing of machine guns and mediums, plastic explosives and premonitions, there's little in the book that is original. Koontz admits as much when he opens a chapter with that famous line from "The Sixth Sense": "I see dead people." The other problem is that Koontz seems unwilling to fade into the background as he tells his story. Any sense of pacing - especially in the action scenes - is ruined by sentences like, "[T]hough his bared teeth included no hooked or dramatically elongated canines, the rage of a rabid jackal gleamed in his silent snarl." Granted, Odd Thomas purports to be a memoir written by its title character, but this is not the first Koontz novel to suffer from awkward prose.
The story ultimately succeeds because Koontz populates Pico Mundo with a cast of colorful - and likeable - characters. Compared to some of the town's other inhabitants (like "Little Ozzie," a four-hundred-pound man with six fingers on his left hand, or Rosalia Sanchez, a landlady who needs confirmation each morning that she hasn't turned invisible), "Odd" Thomas is one of the more normal residents. His eccentricities ("no car, no life insurance, no more clothes than I absolutely need...no grand ambitions") are actually survival tactics - practical ways of dealing with his strange gift. Odd fills his apartment with second-hand furniture because poltergeists have been known to destroy his belongings; he holds down the uncomplicated job of short-order cook because in other areas of his life, he never knows what each new day will bring.
Despite its faults, Odd Thomas is a compelling novel of good versus evil. After racing through the book to its conclusion, readers will likely find themselves hoping for a return visit to Pico Mundo.
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