Odd Thomas [Kindle Edition]

Its not often I read a book by DK, but when I do I am often very impressed and wonder why I haven't read more of his books more often. This book excelled all my expectations. The very core concept is similar to a film by M. Night Shymalan, but then it veers off into a totally new direction and has a lot more depth and he makes it his own. The characters are very rich, and so very human and terribly flawed, you empathise with the main character but dont pity him as in a strange way he is sort of everyman who just wants to fit in and live a quiet life, but circumstances and powers beyond his control have conspired to make his life interesting. The author also manages to keep you guessing as just when you think you know, there is another twist, and then something you think you knew already is turned on its head. I think the book is outstanding and cant recommend it enough as a good read that I flew through in a few days, but then slowed down as I wanted to savour it more. I could have spent hours just reading about all the weird ghosts in the town, but leaving me wanting more is definately a good thing. I'm going to break the habit and find another of his books to read sooner rather than later.

Having discovered that Dean Koontz wasn't the generic horror scribe I'd always assumed he was I have ended up reading pretty much everything he's put out, and it never ceases to amaze me how diverse a writer he is. With "Odd Thomas" Koontz is back in an oddly (sorry) humorous frame of mind, despite the sometimes heavy nature of the story; a greasy spoon cook with two talents and a strange name, the first of his special gifts relates to the grill and the second to communicating with the dead. Odd spends his time between helping the dead settle old scores (a little bit "Sixth Sense"-y) and hanging about with Elvis (yes, the dead one) and his soul-mate - Stormy Llewellyn - until one day the dung really hits the fan. If you liked "Life Expectancy" you will love this, its funny, very sad and a pretty snazzy page turner to boot. By the way five stars are for absolute masterpieces and this is a tad shy of that accolade.

I've been a BIG DK fan for years now and have ALL his (post-sci-fi period) novels. I love most things he's done, but usually there is a small thing that I would criticize - in recent times his novels seem to have got longer and with slightly disappointing endings. Perhaps it has something to do with the contrast between this book and his last, The Face - which I thought was disappointing, that makes this book all the better, but nevertheless - THIS book is the BEST Dean Koontz novel EVER. It is so easy to read, so compelling, so exciting and compulsive. The characters are all great. It keeps you gasping in shock and surprise with every turn of the page, and all my attempted guesses at what was happening were wrong. I liked that it was written in the first person, and found it very easy to read with a light-hearted comedic style. The ending was so surprising and had me in tears. My ONLY criticism, and it's not really a criticism, is that some things weren't explained properly - I appreciate that some things are unexplainable, that's the whole point - but I would have liked to understand what was going with the 'time-jump' experience in Robertson's house, since it was one of the best parts of the story. Also, Dean - what is it with you and these ridiculously stupid names these days!? It makes me laugh though. Odd Thomas is both a loveable character and a loveable book. Odd himself is reminiscent of Christopher Snow (from the Moonlight Bay trilogy). To sum up, I must say that my friends have sometimes asked me to recommend them one of Dean's books to get them into his work, since I often sing his praises to the world. I can never think of one that is exactly right, but now the world has ODD THOMAS, which is a masterpiece and should be read by everyone.

This has to be one of my favourite books! I don't know about you, but don't you hate it when you read a book and you don't really care about the characters! Well "Odd Thomas" is so well written and you just have to keep turning the pages to see what's going to happen to Odd next. This book is exciting and one of the few books to make me cry - AND laugh(out loud)!

Once you've read it, if you're anything like me, you'll be overjoyed to discover that Dean Koontz has finally written a follow- up to this story! Add "Forever Odd" to your 'Amazon Wishlist' NOW!

I'd never read anything by Dean Koontz before I picked up Odd Thomas. Since then I've been hooked!

It took me a few pages to get into it, but after that...! Send the kids to their room, put the cat out, get the beer in... you aren't going to want to be disturbed.

I don't want to spoil that plot for you, by it revolves around our hero trying to stop the biggest disater ever to hit his small town. The story involves ghostly spirts that feed on misery, a filing cabinet stuffed full of information of the worlds worst serial killers and an exploding cow! Also, there is a big twist at the end.

The characters are human and well thought out. The main character is sort of an Everyman, who just wants a quiet life, but circumstances always seem to be conspiring to prevent Odd just settling down with the love of his life and getting a job at Tyre World.

All in all, everybody should read this book. It will stay with you for a long time.