Your Heart Belongs to Me: Amazon.co.uk: Dean Koontz: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

Surely an author such as Dean Koontz can afford to relax? After all, every new offering from him always enjoys massive sales, so could it be time to rest on one’s laurels? It’s to Koontz’s credit that he chooses not to do that, and tries to ensure that each new book is subtly different from its predecessor (but not so different that it would alienate his considerable fan base). Your Heart Belongs To Me is close to being vintage Koontz (the title is not romantic, but a piece of macabre wordplay).

Ryan Perry, at 34, is a young man – hardly of an age to be on a waiting list, nervously hoping for a heart transplant. Luck appears to be with him: he is the recipient of a new heart, and (fortunately) the transplant takes, triumphantly. But a year passes, and Ryan begins to receive gifts in the shape of hearts, sent anonymously. A feeling of paranoia sets in – and this feeling is exacerbated when a large amount of money vanishes from his bank account – it has been donated to a local hospital’s cardiology department. Needless to say, all of this is a prelude to something truly horrific: everything he owns – including his new heart – is to be torn from him, and he is informed he will die a grisly death. Who is Ryan’s tormentor?

Readers of Koontz may not know the plot of Your Heart Belongs To Me (the author routinely comes up with fresh ones), but they’ll recognise that cold, unsettling vision that makes his books so grimly compelling. Not subtle writing – we don’t go to Dean Koontz for that – but totally unputdownable. --Barry Forshaw

Review

Praise for Dean Koontz:

‘Odd Thomas is certainly a page-turner – this is a read-at-a-sitting novel – with a terrific final twist’ Observer

‘A terrific pursuit story … clever, up-to-the-minute, and riveting’ Guardian

‘There’s surprise after surprise, including a killer finale … a read-in-one-go novel’ Independent on Sunday

‘Velocity hits its pace from the first page and races through to a suitably climactic ending’ Sydney Sunday Telegraph

‘Dean Koontz is not just a master of our darkest dreams, but also a literary juggler’ The Times

‘Psychologically complex, masterly and satisfying’ The New York Times

‘One of the great masters of suspense, Koontz has an undeniable gift for playing on the reader’s innermost fears … What we have come to expect from Koontz are exciting, fast-paced thrillers that make your flesh creep. Once again, he doesn’t disappoint’ Northern Echo

'A modern Swift … a master satirist' Entertainment Weekly

'If Stephen King is the Rolling Stones of novels, Koontz is the Beatles' Playboy

'Dean Koontz writes page-turners, middle-of-the-night sneak-up-behind-you suspense thrillers. He touches our hearts and tingles our spines.' Washington Post Book World

'Tumbling, hallucinogenic prose. Serious writers might do well to study his technique.' New York Times Book Review

'Fast-paced and dark … Koontz knows we live in a world where evil delights in justifying itself … Classic literature that deserves a place on the bookshelf beside Orwell's 1984 and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.' California Literary Review

'Koontz is writing right where popular culture swells into something larger, just as it did for Homer, Shakespeare, and Dickens. He's got the gift.' Australian

'Koontz is a superb plotter and wordsmith. He chronicles the hopes and fears of our time in broad strokes and fine detail, using popular fiction to explore the human condition.' USA Today

'Inspires both chills and serious thought … has the power to scare the daylights out of us.' People

'The poet laureate of paranoid pop fiction.' Denver Post

'Koontz achieves a literary miracle … stunning physical description, unique turns of phrase.' Boston Globe

'Near Dickensian powers of description.' Los Angeles Times

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

2.2 out of 5 stars

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Terrible 21 Sep 2009

By Fernando

Format:Paperback

I've read many Koontz books, and some were good (not very good, but good).
This one is terrible... el plot is ludricous, the characters are shallow and unlikeable, the writing is awful (it is REALLY bad), the explanations to some of the mysteries are just plain dumb -- all in all, it seems like Koontz gave the general idea and someone else wrote it (maybe a very young nephew?).

One to skip.

2 Comments |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

Immensely Unsatisfying 19 April 2011

By Lauren Thomas

Like many of the reviewers here I am something of a Dean Koontz fan, and bought this book simply because I saw it and am rarely let down by his work. Sadly, "Your Heart Belongs to Me" proved to be a huge disappointment.

To give an incredibly brief summary, multi-millionaire Ryan Perry needs a heart transplant, gets one, and strange things start occurring. Seems like a model of Koontz genius, no? Sadly not. First of all, I simply didn't care about the main character. I didn't love him or hate him but simply felt absolutely nothing for him, which is a massive problem when trying to get through a book. Quite frankly, I didn't care whether he lived or died. The same can be said for the supporting cast of characters - they were all blurry creations that wafted in and out of the pages without making even the vaguest of imprints on my mind. Complete non-entities.

As to the actual story itself, it started with a lot of promise, but the more I read the more it felt like Koontz had taken two fairly decent ideas and had decided to mash them together to create one incoherent mess of a novel. About two thirds of the way through the story seem to change direction completely, and earlier strands of the story that had shown so much promise were unceremoniously dropped or randomly tied up. As for the ending, what a clichéd cop-out - I've rarely felt so cheated by a novel.

Reading this review back, it's a wonder I finished this novel. However, I would like to state that Dean Koontz is a smart and engaging writer, and this is a real blip in an otherwise great library of books. Don't let this put you off - just avoid like the plague and try "Intensity" instead!

Comment |

Mr Koontz - "Please Take This To Heart!!!" 14 Jun 2010

By Mr. John Frank Herbert

Format:Hardcover

This book sure has a bucketload of bad reviews.
I found it a rather strange experience myself: the first half of the book
was pedestrian I agree, but for the first time I felt that Mr Koontz had
struck a vein of gold, producing a rather classy story with a classy rich
character. It looked very promising indeed.

Then it all went wrong.
Instead of the explosive ending or subtle twist to round off a job well done,
it petered out into a very damp squib indeed.

Of course, on looking back, it's simply a book I could not recommend to
anyone, and doesn't deserve a place on my permanent bookcase.