Odd Thomas – Dean Koontz

Paperback from Amazon.com - $11.20
Fiction

Buy it if: Harry Potter meets The Sixth Sense with Jack Bauer’s bad luck piques your interest

Don’t buy it if: You’re really put off by authors that use clichés. Or you’re just emotionally dead inside...

I really don’t care for Dean Koontz. It’s tempting to call him bargain basement Stephen King, but that’s not really fair either. There are some (OK, maybe more than some) similarities between the two authors, sure. And a fair amount of Koontz does read like streamlined and gutted King. Literary nuance? Out. Graphic descriptions? In. But I like Odd Thomas. I like Odd Thomas a lot. And as result, I like the book Odd Thomas a lot, too. That’s right, Odd Thomas is the main character’s name. And while it smacks of hackery, for a teenage orphan with the supernatural ability to see dead people (not quite in a Sixth Sense kind of way, but damn close) it does work - even if you desperately want it not to.

It’s true, on the surface the book has nothing going for it – clichéd characters with more clichéd names, wildly successful societal outcasts who play the boy’s benefactors, people with hearts of gold that are a little too pure. But I’ll be damned…it just works. Why? Because there’s a story. It may be far-fetched, it may be a little convoluted, it may even be a bit predictable…but it’s refreshing to hold a good story in your hands from time to time, and that’s exactly what Odd Thomas is. Take it as the world’s longest campfire tale. Put snacks in a bowl, curl up under a blanket and just take in the simple enjoyment that comes from an enchanting narrative. Our friend Dean takes most the successful page from the J.K. Rowling playbook and runs with it: Fantastic characters in strange situations with nothing but pure yarn weaving from introduction to conclusion. Is it done as well as the Harry Potter stuff? Of course not. But it’s still a very ‘story-centric’ piece of writing, which is probably rarer than you realize…

In fairness, Odd Thomas is only the first book in a series that currently includes three other volumes. And with each passing chronicle the characters wear a little bit thinner and miss out on a touch of growth. It’s disappointing given how endearing they are in this first piece. I can’t help but wish Koontz used just a little more innovation when he fleshed them out as they’ve been getting a little bit flimsy of late...

As for the next three, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, and Odd Hours (can you spot the titular theme?) I wouldn’t recommend them on their own. But a big part of me fell in love with the main character from go and I want to see how he turns out, so I’m sticking to the franchise, warts and all. Bruce promised me that ‘faith will be rewarded’ and I’m hoping that’s true.

I know I haven’t painted the rosiest picture here, but I have to say - objective problems aside - Odd Thomas DOES have the very rarest quality of all: It makes you care about the characters. Most of the time I put down a novel and the people contained within simply cease to be. Once there for my entertainment they vanish after the final page is turned. But every once in a while you can be made to care to about these fantasms that exist only where ink meets paper. This is uncommon and exciting...and somehow Dean Koontz manages to imbue this story with just that type of emotional involvement. It’s a sucker-punch of literary achievement that I didn’t see coming. And in the end…yeah, I cared about poor little Odd. And I bet you will, too…