Everything's Odd In The World Of Dean Koontz

I pretty much filtered my Dean Koontz reading because I had a hard time reading The Face Of Fear as well as the Fear Nothing and Seize The Night series and I was disappointed in the author. Shattered was the most recent one that I read by Koontz in half a year! I liked it, but at that same time I was in my “James Patterson Phase” where I was only reading James Patterson’s books. Well, just the other day I was in my used bookstore searching for books to read and I found some of Dean Koontz’s more recent ones like From The Corner of His Eye, One Door Away From Heaven, By The Light Of The Moon, The Face, and the one you’re reading about now. I knew nothing about these novels because I hadn’t read Dean Koontz in a while so I went home and logged onto my trusty Epinions. The first book I looked up was Odd Thomas. Surely enough Dragonfire88 had it reviewed as well as a majority of the list I had. I read all of his Koontz reviews and went back to the store and bought all five books.

Odd Thomas was the first book I read out of the fat stack.

This suspenseful novel revolves around a guy named Odd Thomas. Although his mother says they were going to name him “Todd” his father tells him differently and says he was always named Odd. He’s just an average guy making ends meet in the small Southern California town of Pico Mundo in the heat of the desert working as a small time chef at a restaurant. Yep, you could say he’s just a normal guy, but that would be an understatement. You see, Odd can see ghosts. He can see them walking around. He can see them still gripping onto our world and not going on to the next. Pondering whether it’s a curse or a gift, the book starts with him meeting a female ghost that points him towards her killer where Odd eventually captures the murderer. After all of the events he goes to work and while working he spots a man who looks disgusting as if he’s fungus (and who’s referred to in the book as The Fungus Man until you get his real name) with Bodachs (ghostly evil creatures that show up when something bad is going to happen) swarming all over him. Odd just shrugs him off.

The book is written in first person (one of Koontz’s rarities) so you see it through the eyes of Odd Thomas. While eating ice cream with his girlfriend Stormy (which is a nickname opposed to her real name, Bronwen Llewellyn) he spies an odd (no pun intended) fellow who he saw in the restaurant, The Fungus Man. He goes inside Stormy’s work place, Burke & Bailey’s ice cream shop, and he orders ice cream by the gallons. Strange, eh? Well, that’s just the tip of the ice berg. The bodachs are surrounding him with huge intensity and when Odd decides to snoop around the new guy’s house; things turn from weird to bad. He finds murderer’s pictures scattered all over the place next to a calendar with a day missing: August 15th. But…that’s all I’ll tell you. Odd goes through the story wondering what Fungus Man’s up to on that date and to figure out why bodachs are tailing him. He also needs to figure out the big plot behind the suspicious activities and deaths happening in his small town as well as what big thing is going down on that date. But finding that out will likely get him deep into a mysterious plot orchestrated by an unknown specter….but is the specter a ghost or human? Find out!

What instantly drew me to the story was that it reminded me of The Sixth Sense. Sure, you could think that just by my shoddy description of the story. But it’s much more than that. Unlike some other Koontz novels I’ve read the story moves extremely fast. I say that a book is fast paced often, but this book really takes the cake. Your eyes won’t leave the pages of this story until you’re about to die from the lack of sleep. I bought this book a few days back and finished it immediately because it was so awesome. The story is fresh; a definite step in the right direction for this aging author. Dean Koontz did a great job taking his time with this story developing and tuning the characters just right so that the reader can squeeze out their juices to the full potential.

Odd Thomas is a solemn character that’s passive and very realistic at least to me. Odd Thomas, the book, is a glum and melancholy experience. Dean Koontz crosses the threshold of philosophy with the book and although sometimes this will bog a book down, it fits the tone and rhythm of this here story. The philosophical dialogue from Odd Thomas about whether seeing ghosts is a curse or a gift can dwell on your mind. The line that is repeated throughout the story, “The dead don’t speak / I don’t know why” give you a feel for the character and although that line may do nothing for you, it makes me picture a morose almost dismal point of view that really makes Odd sound as if he’s depressed. I think that’s the kind of view that Dean Koontz wanted you to have about the character. Thomas is plagued by emotions that he cannot fully explain.

Some people may say Odd Thomas was “scary”, but I would say “unnerving” is a more appropriate word. When Koontz is explaining Bodachs and ghosts that remain, it never fails to freak me out because it makes me feel as if I’m being watched. And a ghost watching me type this review at almost ten o’clock at night with me wearing only my boxers is an uncomforting thought. One of the many highlights about this tome is the totally memorable characters. The ghosts are more entertaining than suspenseful. There’s one that haunts a tire shop wearing khakis and a Hawaiian shirt scratching his back and picking his nose with his severed arm for Odd’s amusement, which has to be my favorite. There’s also the King of Rock’n’Roll himself, Elvis Presley, haunting Odd Thomas, but instead of a macho, charming, awesome guy Elvis is a cry baby and a total weirdo. Still droll, though.

There’s a character named Little Ozzie who was the one who made Odd Thomas write down his thoughts that make up the overall book (first person, remember?). As for Ozzie, he’s a father figure in Thomas’ life (aside from the police chief, who I’ll get to later) and one of the more witty characters. What I like about this dude is how he can make dialogue so entertaining with his sharp intelligence about literature and how he undermines Odd Thomas every chance he gets, but in a good way. His cat, Little Chester, is also a pleasant little creature that Odd hates since he pees on his shoes every chance he gets (evil cat!). Wyatt Porter is the police chief of Pico Mundo and also a nice guy. He’s one of the few people who know about Odd’s special sixth sense and a great father figure in his life. When Odd tracks down a bad guy whom the ghost tells him has done some harm, Chief Porter believes him always and the bad guy is always caught. But their relationship is deeper than that, which intensifies as the story goes on.

I’ve been hearing some weird things about Dean Koontz’s crop of new books since 2001. I’ve been hearing that they are actually humorous. Sure, he’s wandered into comedy with some of his dialogue in the past, but it was never gut-busting. Sure, in Odd Thomas the humor isn’t gut-busting, but you will definitely get a smile or two out of these pages. The dialogue that Koontz wrote for this story is definitely some of the best he’s ever done. Every single character just comes alive off of the page and you get to know every single one very well through their dialogue. The discourse moves so swiftly (especially for fast readers) that it’s going as if you’re watching it in front of you. Although there’s some humor, a lot of the book is extremely depressing. The philosophical and melancholy expressions about life and death as well as the gaudy storyline really give you a sober look at reality. Sure, the book isn’t realistic in the “seeing ghosts” aspect, but the characters and their emotions are awfully down-to-earth and things I can relate to. Odd’s first person view on the world is very unprecedented and things that people can easily relate to since he comes from a broken home (his mom’s crazy and his dad is a jerk whole likes young women). All of these factors make the book extraordinary.

Despite all of my praise there is one thing that was faulty in Odd Thomas and that is that there were some sub-plots that plainly had holes in them. Odd mentions his aunt and his mother says she exists, but his father tells him she doesn’t. I wish Dean Ray Koontz had gone into that little plot a little bit more because the way that the unknown aunt was explained was really interesting. Another thing was the whole Elvis facet. I wish that Dean would’ve put more time and energy in the parts of the story that featured The King. He had a small-big part in the overall plot of the story, but he is never truly described to his greatest potential.

I’ve been writing for a little more than three pages now on Odd Thomas and my biggest hope is that you give this book a try since I loved the hell out of it. I finished it in a day and I paid ten bucks for it at a used book store. Sure, I might read it again in the distant future, but right now I’ve been recommending it to family members and friends. In fact, someone’s borrowing it right now as we speak and she said that she’s hooked. That’s a good thing, right? Do yourself a favor and buy this book or check it out from your library or something. Anything! Just read this novel! It’s my favorite Koontz book since Watchers. Catch you on the flip side, Literature Reviewers! Thanks for reading.

© Jason Haskins, 2004

“JiggyJay”










The Edge



The Velocity Meter: The Book Moves At 200 mph

Year: 2003

Version: Hardcover (also available in Audio Book at this time)

Genre: Mystery/Horror

Pages: 399

Related Reviews:

Dean Koontz

The Face Of Fear