Odd Thomas Sees Dead People in Dean Koontz's New Book

I started to read Dean Koontz books several years ago after a friend suggested I try them. Now I get his new books as soon as they come out. I have also been getting his books that were already out when I started to read his books. I now have almost all of his books that are still in print. His newest book, Odd Thomas, was released in early December. Things were busy for me then, and have been for a while, so I didn’t start reading it until recently.

Odd Thomas was twenty and worked as a fry cook in a diner in the small town of Pico Mundo in southern California. Odd was writing about certain things in his life, and events that happened over a few days in August. His friend Little Ozzie was making him write. The reason for that became known later in the book. Before getting into the main part of his story, Odd shared some things about himself. He was madly in love with his girlfriend Stormy and he saw dead people. He saw people who weren’t moving on for some reason. The dead people didn’t talk for some reason. Some of them were in denial about being dead, and others needed Odd to help them resolve something. Odd did what he could to help when he could. That meant that he ended up involved in the capture of murders at times. Odd was a good friend of the Chief of Police, Wyatt Porter. The Chief did know that Odd saw dead people. Stormy and Little Ozzie also knew that Odd saw dead people. Everyone else in town just thought that he was strange. Elvis spent time with Odd at times. Odd had no idea why Elvis hadn’t moved on or even why he was hanging around Pico Mundo.

Odd’s story started on a Tuesday morning in August. He woke up to see that no ghosts were waiting for him in his small apartment and everything had stayed where he left it the night before. He was on his way to make his morning visit to Rosalia Sanchez when he saw a ghost. Odd figured out why the ghost came to him and he was able to do something so the ghost could move on. That involved the capture of a killer and Chief Porter turned up. They came up with another way to explain how Odd knew that the person they arrested had been a killer. Odd had to change clothes before going on to see Rosalia and work. Rosalia was an older woman who had lost all of her family in a fairly short time. After that she started to worry that she would turn invisible, so Odd stopped by every morning to tell her she was still visible. On the way to work, Odd saw several bodachs.

A bodach is what Odd called these black smokey looking things he saw at times. They didn’t know that he saw them. No one else could see them. Bodachs were drawn to violent deaths. They seemed to feed off of it. In the past, Odd had seen some bodachs following around someone who ended up murdering in entire family with power tools and had at a place that ended up being the site of a horrible accident that killed many. Bodachs seemed to be able to tell in advance when acts of violence that would result in several deaths would occur. Seeing the bodachs in Pico Mundo made Odd very worried about what was coming. After he was at work, Odd noticed a strange man come in the diner. Odd started to refer to the man as Fungus Man. A bodach turned up in the diner and was hanging around Fungus Man. As he ate, a few more bodachs enter the diner, and more waiting outside. They all followed Fungus Man when he left. Odd was convinced that Fungus Man would be involved in whatever happened in town since the bodachs were following him.

Odd decided to watch out for Fungus Man so he could try to stop whatever was going to happen. Odd stopped at the mall to visit Stormy at the ice cream parlor where she worked. While they were talking, Fungus Man showed up, followed by the bodachs. Odd and Stormy made plans to have dinner that evening, and Odd left to follow Fungus Man. Odd encountered a few very strange things, even for him, and became more convinced that something horrible was going to happen in town the next day. He saw more and more bodachs around town that night. Odd believed that they were checking out the future victims before the violence began.

Odd Thomas was released in early December of 2003. The book is available as a hardback. Dean Koontz books are in the fiction section of my local bookstore. I have also seen his books in the mystery section of other bookstores.

I did enjoy Odd Thomas. It was very descriptive and well written like every other Dean Koontz book I have read. There was a lot going on, and the plot was a bit complicated, though some of his other books have been more complicated. It was fast paced, but it didn’t seem rushed. The book was a little shorter than other Koontz books. The main part of the plot took place over a short period of time, just over twenty-four hours. This is not the first time Koontz has had a book that covered a short time frame. Several of his books have done this. That does make the books more intense at times, but that doesn’t bother me. I did think that this book was more emotional than most other Koontz books I have read. There have been some horrible things happen in some of his other books, but the endings did seem somewhat happy. That wasn’t the case this time. The ending was sad and a bit depressing. I was not pleased by something that happened. I had read some things about this book before reading that did indicate that it was sadder. I think that may be part of the reason why I didn’t start to read the book sooner. I really don’t like sad books. Even though I found this book to be a bit depressing at times and it made me cry, it was still a good book overall. If only one thing had been changed, I would have been much happier about how things worked out.

I thought that Odd Thomas was a suspenseful book. There were several suspenseful scenes throughout the book. I never knew what would happen next. The book did grab my attention from the beginning, which is normal when I read a Koontz book. I wasn’t bored by anything that happened and I didn’t think the book was predictable. It kept me guessing. There was a little bit of mystery in the book related to what was going to happen and what Odd was going to do to try to stop it. Most of the book was focused on Odd trying to figure out what Fungus Man was planning and how he could stop it. There was some violence in the book. Some of the violent acts were described, and others were just mentioned and more was discussed about the outcome of the violent act. There was a dead body or two that turned up, and they were described. The description could be too graphic for some readers. It wasn’t pleasant to read about all of that stuff. Odd did mention some other disturbing things. Some of the things happened to him, some to other characters.

Odd and Stormy were in love. They actually didn’t spend too much time together over the course of the book. They were affectionate with each other when they were together, but there were no sex scenes in the book. Stormy really wasn’t in much of the book, so there wasn’t a lot of development to the relationship. Odd did talk about the relationship at different times. They believed that they were soul mates and would be together forever. They had matching birthmarks. They were planning to get married, and even set a date during the course of the book. Their relationship was important to Odd and why he did some things, but it wasn’t a main focus of the book.

Odd Thomas was written in the first person point of view from Odd’s perspective. He said at the beginning that he was writing about what happened only because Little Ozzie was making him do it. Every so often, Odd would say something about how Ozzie told him to keep the story light hearted. Odd tossed out a few other things when things were getting more serious. It was like Odd had to do that to be able to continue his story. Odd’s thought process was shared throughout the book, as well as his feelings about what was going on. Odd did mention a few strange things that happened to him in his past, such as being chained to a corpse and dumped in the lake. He never did say how he got in that situation or how he got out of it. Those little tidbits did make me want to know more about his past. Odd did share a few things from his childhood during his story. Neither of his parents were the greatest, though his mother had some kind of problem. She really wasn’t a pleasant person. Some things that happened during his childhood did explain things about why Odd did certain things or felt certain ways. The fact that the book was told from Odd’s point of view did help to make him much more developed than any other character in the book.

The plot of Odd Thomas was a bit strange, which is normal for Dean Koontz books. It wasn’t as strange as some of his other books though. Koontz books usually have some really weird things going on in them. Some are more bizarre than others. In comparison to his other books, Odd Thomas isn’t that strange, but it could seem stranger to someone who hasn’t read a Koontz book before. People need to keep an open mind when reading one of his books since unbelievable stuff does tend to happen. People who don’t like books that have strange things going on in them shouldn’t read this book, or any other by Koontz. His books aren’t for everyone. Having a character see dead people isn’t really unique, but there were elements of the book that were different. Even though the plot wasn’t as original as some others Koontz has used, I did still enjoy the book. I have enjoyed all the Koontz books I have read. The strange things make the books more interesting to me.

CHARACTERS

Odd Thomas - He was a young fry cook that could see dead people. Sometimes he was able to do something to help the dead person he saw. He also had some strange dreams at times that seemed to warn of something to come. Odd tried to prevent things from happening if he could. He did enjoy his job and was good at it, but he thought about someday going into the tire business, or even shoe sales. He was deeply in love with his girlfriend Stormy and looked forward to marrying her. Odd did some things he shouldn’t have when attempting to figure out what was going to happen and prevent it. Only a few people knew he saw dead people, and there were other things only Stormy knew. He did keep a few things from his childhood even from her.

Stormy - Odd’s girlfriend. She worked as the manager of an ice cream parlor in the local mall. She had plans to own her own shop in four more years. She had some interesting theories about life and death. She knew about Odd seeing dead people, and wasn’t bothered by it. She did worry about his safety though. She was a kind woman. She had a rough childhood and some things from it still effected her.

Little Ozzie - A large man with six fingers on one hand. He was the author of two different successful mystery series. He was always encouraging Odd to write. Little Ozzie knew that Odd saw dead people.

Sheriff Porter - Wyatt Porter was the Sheriff in Pico Mundo. He was friends with Odd and knew that Odd saw dead people. Sheriff Porter listened if Odd came and told him that someone should be watched or had done something. Odd had helped Porter catch different criminals because of his ability. Porter did cover up Odd’s involvement in some cases.

Fungus Man - A strange man that Odd saw in the diner being followed by bodachs. Fungus Man ordered a huge amount of food at ate it all. He had some dopey looking smile on his face while he was in the diner. He made Odd nervous. Odd thought that Fungus Man was plotting something horrible.

Overall, Odd Thomas was a very good book. I did enjoy it, but I was very unhappy with something that happened in the book. I would have liked the book more if that certain thing hadn’t happened. The book shared similarities with other books by Dean Koontz, but it also had differences. Fans of Koontz books should enjoy it.

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