deeply odd

deeply odd
odd thomas #6
dean koontz
bantam
published 2013

How do you make sure a crime that hasn’t happened yet, never does? That’s the critical question facing Odd Thomas, the young man with a unique ability to commune with restless spirits and help them find justice and peace. But this time, it’s the living who desperately need Odd on their side. Three helpless innocents will be brutally executed unless Odd can intervene in time. Who the potential victims are and where they can be found remain a mystery. The only thing Odd knows for sure is who the killer will be: the homicidal stranger who tried to shoot him dead in a small-town parking lot. 

With the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock riding shotgun and a network of unlikely allies providing help along the way, Odd embarks on an interstate game of cat and mouse with his sinister quarry. He will soon learn that his adversary possesses abilities that may surpass his own and operates in service to infinitely more formidable foes, with murder a mere prelude to much deeper designs. Traveling across a landscape haunted by portents of impending catastrophe, Odd will do what he must and go where his path leads him, drawing ever closer to the dark heart of his long journey—and, perhaps, to the bright light beyond.

This was one book in this series that I truly feel you could not read on its own, but only after having at least read the first Odd Thomas book.  He refers back to the events in Odd Thomas frequently and there is a hint that the events here have something to do with the horrific events in Pico Mundo 18 months ago.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  I love how it seems to feel much more like the first (and my favorite) Odd Thomas book.  I love the characters he meets along the way, hinting we will see them in the next (and hopefully last) installment.  Alfred Hitchcock's surprising revelation was an interesting twist as well.

What I didn't like is this never ending commentary on how the world is going to hell in a handbasket.  At least a quarter of the book is spent with Odd going on some inner monologue tangent so long that sometimes I forget where we are in the story.  I appreciate Koontz's attention to detail, but even taking that into consideration his descriptive nature tends to get on my nerves.  I found myself oftentimes bored and skimming through entire pages.

I miss the spirits.  What initially drew me to Odd Thomas was here was this person who helped the dead.  Now, it's just him getting strange advice from long dead celebrities.  The Bodachs have not made an appearance in so long that I almost forgot about them until their quick mention in this book.

I'm not sure how long Koontz plans on writing Odd Thomas, but it felt like he's finally getting to somewhere he is meant to end up.  Hopefully, because the mysteries surrounding Odd's companions are no longer charming, but tiresome.

ghostopolis

ghostopolis
doug tennapel
graphic novels/ya/supernatural
graphix
published 2010

A page-turning adventure of a boy's journey to the land of ghosts and back.

Imagine Garth Hale's surprise when he's accidentally zapped to the spirit world by Frank Gallows, a washed-out ghost wrangler. Suddenly Garth finds he has powers the ghosts don't have, and he's stuck in a world run by the evil ruler of Ghostopolis, who would use Garth's newfound abilities to rule the ghostly kingdom. When Garth meets Cecil, his grandfather's ghost, the two search for a way to get Garth back home, and nearly lose hope until Frank Gallows shows up to fix his mistake.

Definitely a page turner.  Fun, creepy in a kid friendly way.  I thought it would be sad and it was a bit, but it was much more interesting and sweet than I thought it would be!

locke & key: crown of shadows

locke & key: crown of shadows
locke & key series #3
joe hill & gabriel rodriguez
graphic novels/horror/supernatural
idea & design works, llc
published 2010

The dead plot against the living, the darkness closes in on Keyhouse, and a woman is shattered beyond repair, in the third storyline of the Eisner-nominated series, Locke & Key! Dodge continues his relentless quest to find the key to the black door, and raises an army of shadows to wipe out anyone who might get in his way. Surrounded and outnumbered, the Locke children find themselves fighting a desperate battle, all alone, in a world where the night itself has become their enemy. 

Every volume I get more and more engrossed.  This story is just sucking me right in at every turn.

Focused more on the mother this time we get a glimpse at how completely fucked up she is.  She's barely trying to keep up appearances depending more and more on Tyler and Kinsey to take care of Bode and keep their shit together despite them having lived through insanity as well.

There are more keys....and endless amount of keys and it's amazingly fun to discover what they do and how they'll be used.

The art is just amazing.  The beginning scenes with the ghosts, I just love them.  It gets me more stoked to read the book.  Usually, if I love the art the story takes second place and vice versa, but with Locke & Key I love the art as much as I love the story.  It's just some really good stuff.

odd apocalypse

odd apocalypse
odd thomas series #5
dean koontz
fiction/thriller/scifi/horror
bantam books
published 2012

Once presided over by a flamboyant Hollywood mogul during the Roaring ’20s, the magnificent West Coast property known as Roseland is now home to a reclusive billionaire financier and his faithful servants. And, at least for the moment, it’s also a port in the storm for Odd Thomas and his traveling companion, the inscrutably charming Annamaria, the Lady of the Bell. In the wake of Odd’s most recent clash with lethal adversaries, the opulent manor’s comforts should be welcome. But there’s far more to Roseland than meets even the extraordinary eye of Odd, who soon suspects it may be more hell than haven.

A harrowing taste of Roseland’s terrors convinces Odd that it’s time to hit the road again. Still, the prescient Annamaria insists that they’ve been led there for a reason, and he’s promised to do his best for the ghost on horseback. Just how deep and dreadful are the mysteries Roseland and her masters have kept for nearly a century? And what consequences await whoever is brave, or mad, enough to confront the most profound breed of evil? Odd only knows. 

There was much about this book that went well over my head.  Similar to Brother Odd in the sense that there is quite a bit of science fiction & fact intertwined in the story.  While I did love Brother Odd, Odd Apocalypse was slightly less amazing.

Odd is still the same person, although the events in Odd Hours have changed not only himself, but the way he travels.  He is now directly on a path that has some meaning, though none of us, save for maybe Annamaria know what this path leads to.

The book was both quick and slow.  Slow in parts I didn't think necessary, quick in parts where I would have rather seen more character development.  I didn't feel like the bad guys were really evil because there was hardly any interaction with them.  We heard about their exploits and got small glimpses into their true natures, but they never seemed any worse than ordinary bad guys.  There were too many forces to contend with, too many things to explain and just not enough pages.

I hate to say it, but Odd Thomas has let me down.  Save for Darkness Under the Sun, Dean Koontz has been striking out with me quite a bit lately.

locke & key: welcome to lovecraft

locke & key: welcome to lovecraft
locke & key series #1
joe hill & gabriel rodriguez
graphic novel/horror/supernatural
idea & design works, llc.
published 2008

Locke & Key tells of Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them, and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all!

I loved this book.

One terrible day Tyler Locke's family's world is torn apart and they move from the West Coast to the small island where his father's family house resides.  When his little brother Bode starts talking about doors that can turn you into ghosts and how he made his echo come alive Tyler isn't sure if his little brother is cracking under all the stress or if there's maybe some truth to what he's saying.  But when they finally discover what Bode's talking about it might just be too late.

There's just something about color graphic novels that I adore, but this one had so much more.  It was like a good Dean Koontz novel.  A little gory, a little scary, a little sad and a whole lot crazy.  I thought it was insanely fun.  I surprisingly loved all the characters.  Usually there's a couple I don't care for too much, but I wanted to know ALL OF THEM.

Seriously, it was amazeballs.

liesl & po

liesl & po
lauren oliver
fiction/children/fantasy
harper collins
published 2011

Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother.  Her only friends are the shadows and the mice - until one night a ghost appears from the darkness.  It is Po, who comes from the Other Side.  Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone.

That same night, an alchemist's apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery.  He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable.

Will's mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey.

A sweet, sad story.  The first book I read by Lauren Oliver was Before I Fall.  It was excellent and surprising so I picked up Delirium when that one came out and found it to be good, but so very different than Before I Fall.  And now this book.  Quite different from them all!

Liesl is sweet and brave.  Po is grumpy, but sweet nonetheless.  Will is a bumbling goof, but somehow manages to be a hero.  The story reminded me of Roald Dahl's Mathilda (which I love) and a touch of Cinderella.  Kei Acedera's illustrations were few and far between, but when you turned the page to find one it was magical.

Though I got this one from the library, I'm tempted to buy it and read a chapter a night to Emma.  With ghosts and evil stepmothers, alchemists and an adventure it's the perfect bedtime story!

77 shadow street

 At 77 Shadow Street you'll find The Pendleton.  A beautiful Guilded Age building that has been remodeled into apartments for the wealthy.  As gorgeous and opulent as it is it also hides a deep, dark secret that reveals itself every few decades with horrendous consequences.

This is the first time I can ever remember being let down by Dean Koontz.

The plot sounded good.  The first third of the book was promising.  The idea reminded me of The Taking.  Unfortunately, it wasn't The Taking.  There were so many characters to keep track of, or care about that I ended up really not caring for anyone.  Just off the top of my head I can think of 13+ characters.  That's entirely too many.

His descriptions of the things that were stalking the residents of the Pendleton wen on and on for pages.  Near the end I was skipping over entire paragraphs just to get through the story and make it to the end.

Basically, for a Dean Koontz book this sucked.  Sucked hard.

swoon

swoon
nina malkin
swoon series #1
ya/fantasy/romance
simon pulse
published 2009

Candice has been moved to the town of Swoon to get away from 'troubles' she had in NYC.  Though it's not the most exciting place in the world, Candice doesn't mind.  She's got her cousin Penelope and Pen's friends to keep her occupied and relatively normal.  Until Pen falls from a tree and is inhabited by a vengeful ghost bent on making the families of Swoon pay for the misdeeds of their ancestors.  No one is aware of Sinclair except for Candice and though she knows that he's trouble for their town she can't help but falling for him.

This book was so ... weird.

There were times when a chapter ended and then a new one began that I thought maybe I had missed pages somewhere.  Half the time I felt lost, something just went right over my head.  I got the gist of the story, but details were a little foggy.  I also didn't quite get why Candice fell for Sinclair.  It was immediate and the only reason I could think of was pity.

There was quite a bit of sex in this YA book.  Nothing graphic, but nothing vague either.  It actually is the one thing in the book that isn't vague!