Dark Rivers of the Heart (Dean Koontz)

The story begins at a bar, a man with a secret falling instantly in love with a woman he has never met before. You would think that this would be a turn off for me, as you know that I lack the romantic soul that believes in love at first site (you know what, that is the first time that I have admitted that. I guess a part of me wanted to believe because of Mr. Misty, but I never really did love him). Despite this affliction I kept reading- it is Dean Koontz after all. This infatuation leads him into a world of political subterfuge, a race for his life, and the revelation of his secrets. Amazingly it takes about half of the book for him to meet up with the woman again, after an amazingly dull car chase.
For me the most interesting parts came when following the mindset of Roy, the books crazy man. It becomes deeply disturbing because even though you know that he is made up, that this man is totally nuts, there probably is someone out there like that. Not to mention the fact that though his ideas were completely out of this world crazy, some of his ideas struck a cord- I quite like the idea of a future where everyone wears the same clothes.
Once again Koontz masterfully describes his scenes, the catacombs are easy, and disturbing, to picture- I’m just not a fan of car chases. And I can’t imagine masturbating more over three hours; five minutes will do me.
I enjoyed the book; I enjoyed the Ira Levin type ending. I could have done without the love story- but that is just me.

21 Read, 31 To Go

Forever Odd (Dean Koontz)

I don't want to compare this to Odd Thomas, but it must- not just because it is a sequel, but because there are times that you need to refer to the original to understand what Odd is talking about. Actually I am having difficulty writing a review for this novel because it really had no effect on me other than a slight sense of disappointment. I like Odd Thomas, he is an affable character who can see ghosts, is haunted by Elvis and is trying to cope with the loss of the love of his life in the book's predecessor. Forever Odd's bad guy (or in this case woman) is fascinatingly insane, but she is introduced and disposed of too quickly without having earned her full potential as a character.
I think what really disappointed me was that this was nothing more than a three hundred and thirty three page chase scene that ends abruptly and all the titbits tied up in the last two pages as though Koontz had run out of time and realized that he had to explaining to do.