Goodreads Monday

Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren's Page Turners. To take part, you simply choose a random book from your TBR and show it off. Don’t forget to check out her blog and link back to Lauren’s Page Turners.

 In case you haven't been paying attention, I'm an eclectic reader.  I'll read close to almost anything.  Today's selection is a Dean Koontz that's been on my shelf for a minute.  I've read a lot of his books but I for every book I read I discover two more I haven't.  Here is one more of my library sale finds that I still need to read.

In the midst of a raging blizzard, lightning struck on the night Laura Shane was born. And a mysterious blond-haired stranger showed up just in time to save her from dying.

Years later, in the wake of another storm, Laura will be saved again. For someone is watching over her. But just as lightning illuminates, darkness always follows close behind.

Is there something on your shelf from a favorite author that still needs to be read?  Library book sale finds are my favorites by the way!

BOOK REVIEW: Phantom's by Dean Koontz

They thought it was the work of a maniac or terrorists or toxic contamination -- but then they found the truth, which was worse than anything they had imagined...

'Phantoms' was one of the first of the first Dean Koontz novels I ever read and will forever be one of my favorites by him.  One of the things I enjoy about Koontz's writing is he takes the slightly improbable and shows how it could actually be probable.  It's the prefect blend of science fiction and horror.

A mountain town suddenly missing most of it's residents and those that aren't missing are dead.  However, there is no indication of what caused these deaths or disappearances.  The bodies left behind defy any known method of death. As the investigation gears up the questions become greater than the answers. 

I really enjoyed the storyline of 'Phantoms' and the idea of real historical, even recent history, events and an improbable explanation.  Mass disappearances such as the Roanoke Colony, Aztec cities, the Mary Celeste which I had heard of as well as a few incidents I was unfamiliar with.  The problem with improbable is that no one else has any better theory on what happened.  So is this explanation really as improbable as we try to tell ourselves?  Written in what I call the 'Koontz Style', giving just enough information in each chapter to keep you engaged while at the same time drawing bull's eye circles around the answer.  Hinting just enough to make you think you know what's going on while keeping you in the dark all the same.

The hard part of this novel is the sheer number of characters and the switching voice. Truth, I only have issues with all the characters because I am horrible with names.  I was forever flipping back through what I had read so I could remember who was who.  And then just as you got to know a character and decided if you liked them or not they were gone.  Just gone.  Dead, vanished, gone.  Tough I do appreciate that most of the characters, outside maybe the random fox, I got to know before they were gone.  It was hard to read about the loss of characters that were likeable and sympathetic.  And it was hard to read about the characters that were created to loathed.  I mean, were they really gone? 

There were parts that were not only improbable but also unbelievable.  And those unbelievable parts made the ending of the novel bring down my entire rating of the story.  I do like this book.  And I would recommend it to anyone that likes science-fiction meets horror meets good gravy what if that could be true!?!

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About Dean Koontz

Dean Ray Koontz is an American author. His novels are broadly described as suspense thrillers, but also frequently incorporate elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and satire.

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BOOK REVIEW: Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it. As a violent storm rages outside the hospital, Rudy Tock spends long hours walking the corridors between the expectant fathers' waiting room and his dying father's bedside. It's a strange vigil made all the stranger when, at the very height of the storm's fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the first and last time since his stroke.

What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson—five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face. The first is to occur in his twentieth year; the second in his twenty-third year; the third in his twenty-eighth; the fourth in his twenty-ninth; the fifth in his thirtieth.

Rudy is all too ready to discount his father's last words as a dying man's delusional rambling. But then he discovers that Josef also predicted the time of his grandson's birth to the minute, as well as his exact height and weight, and the fact that Jimmy would be born with syndactyly—the unexplained anomaly of fused digits—on his left foot. Suddenly the old man's predictions take on a chilling significance.

What terrifying events await Jimmy on these five dark days? What nightmares will he face? What challenges must he survive? As the novel unfolds, picking up Jimmy's story at each of these crisis points, the path he must follow will defy every expectation. And with each crisis he faces, he will move closer to a fate he could never have imagined. For who Jimmy Tock is and what he must accomplish on the five days when his world turns is a mystery as dangerous as it is wondrous—a struggle against an evil so dark and pervasive, only the most extraordinary of human spirits can shine through.

'Life Expectancy' by Dean Koontz was not a typical Koontz book that I've read.  There was very little supernatural (none outside the predictions) and very little impossible/maybe possible/holy whistles what if that really happened moments.  It was, however, a well written account of one man's life through the 5 days his dying grandfather had predicted shortly before his birth. 

Jimmy Tock was an interesting storyteller.  His meandering through the story kept me interested.  Some of the almost-typical Koontz twists and turns were there in a different format, some more believable that others.  A couple of the twists almost feeling contrived to keep the motivation of the story going.  Other's came out of no where and I never saw them coming.  This is a hard one to review without giving away more plot than the dust cover. 

'Life Expectancy' was a merge of Kootz-esque drama, meets offbeat love story, meets coming of age story, meets family drama.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  I've been a Koontz fan for years, and while not a typical genre and storyline for him, it was an excellently written story.

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About Dean Koontz

Dean Ray Koontz is an American author. His novels are broadly described as suspense thrillers, but also frequently incorporate elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and satire.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram |  Google+ | Goodreads