One Door Away from Heaven

Jan 22, 2012 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

The one about the little boy alien and the dangerous young mutant.

I like this book it is one of my favorite Koontz books. I'll say this, you won't find this exact plot elsewhere. It draws you in and gets you involved with the "participants". It's between a 4 and a 5...but I figure it tipped the scales and went on to a 5. As I said a favorite among Koontz's work for me...I've read it several times.

What else can I say? Not much without spoilers. There's a bit of laughter here, a dose of tears and...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Michael Jones rated it 3 of 5 stars

In terms of some good action sequences and character development, I enjoyed many parts of this.

As a polemic for utilitarian bioethics, while he does cause you to think about the issues, I think the characters and some of the horrible things they did were overdrawn. It just isn't all that winsome if you are trying to convince a utilitarian. Most utilitarians are not nearly this extreme, but the story does show where these things could go under the worst of circumstances.

Some parts are gross and d...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Carol Brannigan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've come to the conclusion that Dean Koontz is a good writer with everything except for endings. This book is no exception.

The ending wasn't "bad" but it wasn't great and was a little lackluster considering the rest of the story.

The main story had me completely enthralled and kept me up a few nights. I really liked the characters and felt that the ever so tidy ending wasn't completely suited to the rest of the atmosphere.

All in all- the story I give 4 stars and the ending I give 2 stars and si...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Peter added it

A MUMBO JUMBO GUMBO...: I enjoyed this book and wavered on the rating. I had a difficult time deciding whether to rate it a three or a four. I finally decided on three because, while it is an enjoyable read, it is not one of his best. Those who read and enjoyed the author's last book, "From the Corner Of His Eye", as I did, will, undoubtedly, enjoy this one, though it is not as good.

Here, this genre bending book, written with wry humor, has a series of subplots and colorful characters with impro

...more A MUMBO JUMBO GUMBO...: I enjoyed this book and wavered on the rating. I had a difficult time deciding whether to rate it a three or a four. I finally decided on three because, while it is an enjoyable read, it is not one of his best. Those who read and enjoyed the author's last book, "From the Corner Of His Eye", as I did, will, undoubtedly, enjoy this one, though it is not as good.

Here, this genre bending book, written with wry humor, has a series of subplots and colorful characters with improbale names that propel the story forward. Twenty eight year old Michelina Birdsong is a young and beautiful woman with a troubled past. Living in a trailer park with her eccentric aunt, Geneva, she lacks focus and is overly fond of lemon flavored vodka. It is as if she has lost the will to live.

When she gets new neighbors in the mobile home next door, one of whom is the precocious and physically deformed nine year, Leilani Klonk, her heart is touched most unexpectedly by the pathos of her young life. As Leilani is living with a drug crazed mother and step-father, a sociopathic "doctor" who may be a serial killer, Mickey finds herself wanting to make Leilani's life better and in doing so, redeeming her own. When Leilani and her family precipitously abandon their mobile home one night, Michelina, fearing the worst for Leilani, springs into action and finds herself in hot pursuit of this family, hoping to avert a tragedy.

Meanwhile, a young motherless boy, who calls himself Curtis, and his dog, a labrador with whom he has a most unique relationsip, are racing away from their own potential Armageddon. This boy, too, is precocious and quite gifted, but seems to lack a true understanding of the ways and customs of those whom he meets. He is just a beat off. Still, while there is something odd about him, it is clear that, though he seems to have unusual gifts, he has a pure spirit and is a good boy running from a great evil. His pursuers, seemingly invincible and other worldly, will stop at nothing to get a hold of Curtis and keep him from his mission. The journey that Curtis makes is quite astonishing.

At some point the paths of these main characters improbably cross and all is made somewhat, though not totally, clear. The book, which is an imaginative blend of suspense, science fiction, and bioethical philosophy, has somewhat religious or quasi-spritual overtones, as it boils down to the quintessential battle between good and evil. In this book, Koontz continues on the path he forged with his previous book, "From the Corner Of His Eye". To where that path will ultimately lead, however, remains to be seen.

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Feb 07, 2013 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hailed as “America’s most popular suspense novelist” (Rolling Stone) Dean Koontz has entered a rich new phase of his writing career that is yielding his most imaginative, meaningful, and popular work yet.

At the height of his powers as a literary craftsman, he has won the acclaim of critics as well as the allegiance of millions of fans the world over, transforming the greatest fears and hopes of our time into masterworks of dazzling originality and emotional resonance.

Now, with the stunning depth

...more

Hailed as “America’s most popular suspense novelist” (Rolling Stone) Dean Koontz has entered a rich new phase of his writing career that is yielding his most imaginative, meaningful, and popular work yet.

At the height of his powers as a literary craftsman, he has won the acclaim of critics as well as the allegiance of millions of fans the world over, transforming the greatest fears and hopes of our time into masterworks of dazzling originality and emotional resonance.

Now, with the stunning depth and virtuosity of his storytelling, he brings to readers one of his most gripping and richly imagined novels to date—an intoxicating story of adventure and suspense, mystery and revelation, told with humor, heart, and high art.

One Door Away From Heaven

In a dusty trailer park on the far edge of the California dream, Michelina Bellsong contemplates the choices she has made. At twenty-eight, she wants to change the direction of her troubled life but can’t find her way—until a new family settles into the rental trailer next door and she meets the young girl who will lead her on a remarkable quest that will change Micky herself and everything she knows—or thinks she knows—forever.

Despite the brace she must wear on her deformed left leg, and her withered left hand, nine-year-old Leilani Klonk radiates a buoyant and indomitable spirit that inspires Micky. Beneath Leilani’s effervescence, however, Micky comes to sense a quiet desperation that the girl dares not express.

Leilani’s mother is little more than a child herself. And the girl’s stepfather, Preston Maddoc, is educated but threatening. He has moved the family from place to place as he fanatically investigates UFO sightings, striving to make contact, claiming to have had a vision that by Leilani’s tenth birthday aliens will either heal her or take her away to a better life on their world.

Slowly, ever more troubling details emerge in Leilani’s conversations with Micky. Most chilling is Micky’s discovery that Leilani had an older brother, also disabled, who vanished after Maddoc took him into the woods one night and is now “gone to the stars.”

Leilani’s tenth birthday is approaching. Micky is convinced the girl will be dead by that day. While the child-protection bureaucracy gives Micky the runaround, the Maddoc family slips away into the night. Micky sets out across America to track and find them, alone and afraid but for the first time living for something bigger than herself.

She finds herself pitted against an adversary, Preston Maddoc, as fearsome as he is cunning. The passion and disregard for danger with which Micky pursues her quest bring to her side a burned-out detective who joins her on a journey of incredible peril and startling discoveries, a journey through terrible darkness to unexpected light.

One Door Away From Heaven is an incandescent mix of suspense and humor, fear and wonder, a story of redemption and timeless wisdom that will have readers cheering. Filled with tragedy and joy, with terror and hope, it solidifies Dean Koontz’s reputation as one of the foremost storytellers of our time. This is Dean Koontz at his very best—and it doesn’t get any better than that.

From the Hardcover edition.

Amazon.com Review

Dean Koontz virtually invented the cross-genre novel, and in One Door Away from Heaven he mixes an action thriller with post-X-Files alien paranoia to remarkable effect. Micky Bellsong is a young woman at a crisis point in her life, using a stay at her Aunt Geneva's to sort things out. Then the precocious and deformed Leilani Klonk walks into her life, telling stories of her stepfather and drugged-up mother, who believe aliens will beam the girl into their mothership and heal her deformities before her 10th birthday. But tales of the stepfather's vicious past, including his hand in several murders, leave Micky believing that a far more terrible fate awaits her friend. So when the parents take off with Leilani, Micky pursues.

As is typical with a Koontz novel, nothing turns out to be what it seems, and the meticulously crafted plot tightens like a noose with every turn of the page. His characters are exceptionally drawn, driving the novel forward with realism and warmth. Micky is one of his more attractive young heroines, but the real star is Leilani, a mature young girl whose plucky nature and sparkling dialogue instantly make her Koontz's most memorable creation. She embodies his belief that despite violence, pain, and suffering, there is always goodness to be found in every person and situation. Koontz has once again proven why he is one of the premier novelists of his generation. --Jonathan Weir, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

Koontz's latest is powered by an impassioned stand against utilitarian bioethics, and it's chock-a-block with trademark characters vulnerable kids, nurturing parental substitutes, a dog of above-average intelligence and a villain of insuperable nastiness sure to provoke a pleasurable conditioned response from his readers. The discursive story coalesces from two converging subplots steeped in the weirdness of fringe ufology: in one, loser Michelina Bellsong struggles to save crippled nine-year-old Leilani Klonk from an evil stepdad planning to pass off her imminent disposal as a benevolent alien abduction; in the other, a strange boy who goes by the alias Curtis Hammond is the quarry of two cross-country manhunts, one led by the FBI and the other by mass murderers who, like the messianic Curtis, may not be what they seem. En route to a pyrotechnic finale in rural Idaho, Koontz shoots bull's-eyes at target issues that shape his theme, including assisted suicide, substance abuse, the irresponsibility of the counterculture and the goofiness of true-believer ET enthusiasts. Koontz's once form-fitting style has gotten baggy of late, however, and readers may find themselves wishing he had better filtered the flights of fancy his characters sometimes indulge at chapter length. For all that, the novel is surprisingly focused on its inspirational message "we are the instruments of one another's salvation and only by the hope that we give to others do we lift ourselves out of the darkness into light" and conveys it with such conviction that only the most critical will demur. (Dec. 26)Forecast: A terrific cover, depicting two female figures on a country path beneath a star-filled night sky, will alert browsers to the awe and mystery within the novel; Koontz's name and Bantam's promo machine will do the rest. Koontz could hit #1 with this one.

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Aug 26, 2012 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy, mystery

This book started off well and ended pretty well (though it was a bit too happy to be realistic, if you put aside all the other reasons it is unrealistic), but the middle was not the greatest. It really seemed to drag, which is one of the reasons why it took me months to finish this book.

What I loved is that it was chock full of metaphors, great descriptions, and memorable quotes, more so than any other Koontz book I've read. The characters were all pretty well developed, and for the most part...more

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Jul 25, 2012 L.V. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dean Koontz has stayed true to form in creating a suspenseful story that entices you into the lives of the characters with the need to find out where their lives will collide.

One Door Away From Heaven by Dean Koontz draws you along three parallel stories.

First, there is Michelina Bellsong, a somewhat damaged soul who lives with her Aunt Geneva, another somewhat damaged soul.

Micky immediately becomes acquainted with the young girl next door, Leilani Klonk. Nine year old Leilani seems older than h...more

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May 30, 2012 Salman Shariff rated it 5 of 5 stars

I remember exactly where I was when I read this one. I was in the federal transfer center at Oklahoma City. This is where they temporarily keep prisoners when they are moving from one prison to another. They only have two carts of books for about 150 inmates. THat's about how many are in each pod. On top of that, most prisoners—myself included—keep books from these two carts in their rooms so they're available when we finish the book we're currently reading. So new books show up on the cart when...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Dawn rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, fiction

I really don't like Koontz. He tells way too much, while at the same time withholding information from the reader to make himself look clever.

The worst thing about this book, however, was that he felt he needed to browbeat the reader with his hatred of utilitarianism throughout. It was pretty clear to me he didn't even have a basic understanding of utilitarian philosophy, and he was classifying some nutcases under the banner as typical examples.

Among philosophical methods, utilitarianism is ge...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Alex Telander rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2002

It is kind of strange that two of the bestselling authors of our time, Dean Koontz and Stephen King, have both come out with a horror/thriller novel about aliens within the same year. Maybe there was a rash of abductions and sighting a few years before as these two eminent authors were laying their expensive words on the page or screen; or maybe it was all scheduled for some spectacular 2001 extraterrestrial event. If that was the case, what was it? Nevertheless, while King with Dreamcatcher use...more It is kind of strange that two of the bestselling authors of our time, Dean Koontz and Stephen King, have both come out with a horror/thriller novel about aliens within the same year. Maybe there was a rash of abductions and sighting a few years before as these two eminent authors were laying their expensive words on the page or screen; or maybe it was all scheduled for some spectacular 2001 extraterrestrial event. If that was the case, what was it? Nevertheless, while King with Dreamcatcher used a more frightening and doomed aspect to his novel, Koontz’s One Door Away From Heaven has some bad aliens in it, but we only really see them in one or two scenes, while the really bad guy is naturally a human male.

As with a lot of Koontz’s novels, there is a good handful of characters. One of our main characters is a boy who is not all he appears at first, constantly on the run from these people who are apparently worse than the U.S. government, worse than the NSA, FBI, and CSI all rolled into one. His significance does not get explained until half way through the book. Then we have Michelina Bellsong, a single thirty-something woman who has a dark past, living with her estranged aunt in a trailer, and is trying to keep a job. She is soon pulled into the quixotic web of her trailer neighbors.

In this other trailer reside two main characters with very different values, and yet one is the stepfather and the other the stepdaughter. He is Preston Maddoc, a bioethicist who believes that all old people should just be killed off for the betterment of society; he has also apparently killed eight people, and has a penchant for chasing UFOs across the country. Dragged with him is nine-year-old Leilani Klonk (named by her mother who takes as many different drugs as there are colors of crayons in the world). She has a brace on one leg and a deformed hand; it is Maddoc’s belief that she will be scooped away by the aliens, healed and returned in perfect condition. Of course, this was what was supposed to have happened to her brother, who was taken years before, but Leilani knows otherwise.

And so the skillful hand of Koontz takes the reader on a most unique journey, with the addition of a few more characters along the way (like a pair of buxom blond twins), bringing them all together in a most incomprehensible way with the conclusion of the novel. Sadly, it is written in the identical format of his last novel, which came out around this time in 2001, From the Corner of His Eye. And in my review of that book, I demanded a sequel, except I got the same story told differently instead, with some different characters, a tweaked plot, but with the same template. Everything is wrapped up to some degree in the last twenty odd pages, and the reader is left wanting more, just as with From the Corner of His Eye.

Unlike his last novel, One Door Away From Heaven (taken from the Book of Counted Sorrows which was interestingly also used by Stephen King in one of his novels) does take a couple of hundred pages to get to full steam, which explains why it hasn’t been getting the reviews of his other novels. Nevertheless, if you stick with it, once the train gets rolling, the pages begin turning, and it soon roars along to a climax. Let us just hope that Koontz has something fresh up his sleeve, otherwise his career may well be finite.

Originally published on April 1st 2002.

For over 500 book reviews, and over 40 exclusive author interviews (both audio and written), visit BookBanter.(less)

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Nov 17, 2010 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Dean Koontz has a gift for lyrical description that sometimes tumbles into purple prose. It should also be noted that the most original character in this novel, 9-year-old Leilani Klonk, sounds more like a precocious 15-year-old. In the end, though, neither criticism matters, because what Koontz has written this time around succeeds on its own terms as a moral story of unexpected psychological depth.

A misnamed dog looms large in this story (anyone who reads Koontz could have seen that coming),...more

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Oct 17, 2009 Annette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, christian-worldview, own, worth-re-reading

I've been thoroughly enjoying Koontz of late, and "One Door Away from Heaven" is no exception. I liked it best of any of the books outside of the Odd Thomas series.
In "One Door," a variety of unlikely characters are brought together to rescue a disabled 9 year old girl with highly disfunctional parents and an even odder 10 year old boy with some interesting...powers. Central to the plot is the subject of "bioethics," or rather "bio-non-ethics" as it ought to be called. This increasingly influen...more

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May 03, 2010 Maciek rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned-books, crap, own-in-paperback, big-tomes, read-in-2010, reviewed

One Door Away From Heaven (2001) - spoilers...but do you really want to read it ?

This is basically a 700 page long borefest - formulaic characters, formulaic stories, formulaic preaching (The goodness of dogs and the evil of bioethics)

To kick off this brillian review, I'll start with the characters - they are of course scripted, which makes them unrealistic and idiotic and renders the reader unable to feel anything for them - do you care for a bunch of dolls running around ?

There's a girl, Leila...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Charlotte Phillips rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was handed to me by my mum who suggested that it was a book that I would enjoy. I am very very open to suggestions, however I was not expecting anything of this kind. I am usually the kind of girl who reads vampires and fallen angels, or who reads novels about people with life dramas. So when I started reading this book and became confused about what it was actually about I was a little curious to actually carry on reading and in some ways I am glad that I am. I have never been the sor...more This book was handed to me by my mum who suggested that it was a book that I would enjoy. I am very very open to suggestions, however I was not expecting anything of this kind. I am usually the kind of girl who reads vampires and fallen angels, or who reads novels about people with life dramas. So when I started reading this book and became confused about what it was actually about I was a little curious to actually carry on reading and in some ways I am glad that I am. I have never been the sort of person who is into all that alien sort of thing and so I never really pick up books based on aliens and Extratestrial stuff. So this was a very unique and new read to me. I did like the way that the book had many different characters within its tale, that it told their individual tales and why they were important to the novel. I have to admit that at the beginning I did become confused and wanted to put the book down because it appeared to be too much effort to actually follow and understand. But as I read on, I found that the stories were starting to intertwine with each other, that they were coming together to deal with the same situation and the same problem.

There was a lot of mystery within the lines and it did not appear to me to be anything predictable as I was not aware of who was an alien and who wasn't. I did become attached to the little girl with the deformed hand and I actually feared for her safety and wanted to rescue her from her step father and her drug addict mother. But I also fell in love with the aunt who made me chuckle as her memories were not quite right. I must admit, to live in a world of movies must be quite fun and interesting though it must also be frustrating to not always know what actually happened and what was something that you merely saw on the telly. The book did get more racey towards the end, and I did find myself actually becoming hooked to it then. I suppose in someways the reason I didn't read this one so quickly was because I just couldn't find anything all that interesting in it. Perhaps I was close minded about accepting alien stories. However the ending really had me hooked and just proved to me that it was worthwhile to carry on reading and to see what happened.

The author did seem to stick to a sense of reality as well especially when it came down to that of a social worker. he really made the whole book come alive for me, in that he made the chracters seems like people that you would possibly meet on the street. the social worker was stuck up and seemed to not be so bothered by the case. However I would still love to know as to what they would have done in the end, if anything at all. surely a guy who has been convicted of criminal offences would be suspicious looking, especially when someone brings up the case of a child possibly being in danger.

The book was adventurous, and it was fun and exciting. it got my adrenaline racing, especially at the end, but I found that the book did need a lot of patience, that I had to keep reading in order to get to the better bits or that is how it seemed to me. I do admit though that I am now interested in reading more books by this author for I like his style of writing(less)

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Jan 16, 2013 Angela~twistedmind~ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Will there ever be a Koontz novel that I don't love? Somehow I doubt it. There have been those that I have had a bit less love for than others, but the man just cannot write anything mediocre.
One Door Away From Heaven is no exception. In classic Koontz style, there is plenty of humor and moments that tug at your heart strings sprinkled into the main story of psychological terror.
As the book progresses the dread builds and builds to an almost frantic need to know what is going to happen next. Th...more Will there ever be a Koontz novel that I don't love? Somehow I doubt it. There have been those that I have had a bit less love for than others, but the man just cannot write anything mediocre.
One Door Away From Heaven is no exception. In classic Koontz style, there is plenty of humor and moments that tug at your heart strings sprinkled into the main story of psychological terror.
As the book progresses the dread builds and builds to an almost frantic need to know what is going to happen next. This urgency kept me up late and I was extremely resntful when sleep would not be denied a moment longer and I found myself being rudely awakened by the thud of a book upon my nose. The one thing I didn't find was the usual quotable passage(s) I usually find scattered here and there. I just love a Koontz quote.
I fell in love with Leilani and Curtis and couldn't wait for them to win their battles. Mickey was easy to root for and I even grew fond of Aunt Gen, even though she was a secondary character, rarely mentioned. Dare I say I found pleasure in my hatred for the bad guys? Why, yes. Yes, I do. Something I realized while reading this book was the fact that dogs factor into so many of Koontz's books. I feel like a dunce for never noticing this. Especially considering how it is common knowledge that he is a dog lover, especially when it comes to his late dog Trixie.
I seem to be at a loss for words when it comes to an actual review of this book. It seems I cannot find much to say that won't contain spoilers. I can only say this is a must for the Koontz fan and I highly recommend it to anyone else who enjoys a bit of fantasy/sci-fi with their action.

In a dusty trailer park on the far edge of the California dream, Michelina Bellsong contemplates the choices she has made. At twenty-eight, she wants to change the direction of her troubled life but can't find her way-until a new family settles into the rental trailer next door and she meets the young girl who will lead her on a remakable quest.
Despite the brace she must wear on her deformed left leg, and her withered left hand, nine-year-old Leilani Klonk radiates a bouyant and indomitable spirit that inspires Mickey. Beneath Leilani's effervescence, however, Micky comes to sense a quiet desperation that the girl dares not express. Leilani's mother is lost in drugs. The girl's stepfather, Preston Maddoc, is educated but threatening. He has moved the family from place to place as he fanatically investigates UFO sightings, striving to make contact, claiming to have had a vision that by Leilani's tenth birthday aliens will either heal her or take her away to a better life on their world. Slowly, even more troubling details emerge in Leilani's, conversations wth Micky. Most chilling is Micky's discovery that Leilani had an older brother, also disabled, who vanished after Maddoc took him into the woods one night and is now "gone to the stars".
Leilani's, tenth birthday is approaching. Micky is convinced the girl will be dead by that day. While the child-protection bureaucracy gives Micky the runaround, the Maddoc famly slips away into the night. Micky sets out across America to track and find them, alone and afraid but for the first time living for something bigger than herself. She finds herself pitted against an adversary, Preston Maddoc, as fearsome as he is cunning. Yet Micky pursues her quest, and her passion, her courage, draw a burned-out detective to her side. Hundreds of miles away, a motherless boy and a homeless dog begin an even more astonishing journey. Ahead for them all lie incredible peril, startling discoveries, and paths that will draw them through terrible darkness to unexpected light.
One Door Away from Heaven is an incandescent mix of suspense and humor, fear and wonder, a story of redemption and timeless wisdom that will have readers cheering. Filled with tragedy and joy, with terror and hope, it solidifies Dean Koontz's reputation as one of the foremost storytellers of our time. (less)

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Dec 22, 2010 Stephanie Johanesen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Koontz has a really great talent for writing. I think his work is readable, he is a really great descriptive writer, and he can draw you into a story pretty well. But the story itself... well it's Koontz, so you can be pretty confident you've read this story before; simply with the characters shifted around and the settings changed. But yeah, it's the same story he's been writing for a while. You'll notice this if you keep up with his books. I like that he's a dog-person though, and I enjoyed re...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Johnny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. No other novel could follow “From the Corner of His Eye” better than “One Door Away From Heaven”. Second of three phrase-titled books, it’s also a transitional story, taking themes and styles from older Koontz novels, adding a religious undertone and introducing some techniques he’ll continue to apply for his high concept stories.

When recently arrived in the neighborhood Leilani Klonk tells her life story to Micky Bellsong, the latter at first shrugs it all off as an elaborate joke, but soon the...more No other novel could follow “From the Corner of His Eye” better than “One Door Away From Heaven”. Second of three phrase-titled books, it’s also a transitional story, taking themes and styles from older Koontz novels, adding a religious undertone and introducing some techniques he’ll continue to apply for his high concept stories.

When recently arrived in the neighborhood Leilani Klonk tells her life story to Micky Bellsong, the latter at first shrugs it all off as an elaborate joke, but soon the seriousness of the situation hits her. When Leilani is basically kidnapped by her obsessive stepfather, Micky vows to rescue her. Meanwhile, a boy who isn’t who he seems to be is on the run for his life and will ultimately find his way to the girls.

Koontz combines two completely different stories and creates a very memorable volume. The Leilani/Micky story is an alternate version of the “Intensity” story, which is even spoofed a bit when Curtis discovers some dentures in an elderly couple’s motor home. Leilani is almost a carbon copy of Regina in “Hideaway”, even up to the disfigured hand and the leg brace; the physical similarity is uncanny.

The E.T. story of Curtis Hammond on the other hand is told in the present tense and from such an innocent perspective it’s responsible for a big part of this novel’s humor.

Almost like an afterthought, Koontz adds a male hero figure in the form of Noah Farrell, a righteous private investigator who comes to Micky’s aid in tracking down Preston Maddoc.

Which brings us to the villain in this piece. Koontz rarely provides an afterword to his novels, but in the case of this utilitarian bioethicist, he wants to make sure that we’re aware this villain hasn’t sprouted entirely from his imagination; people like Preston Maddoc really exist and finding out about them Koontz obviously took as a personal insult.

Maddoc remains a faceless villain for almost half the book, and only in the last third do we get to read chapters from his point of view. Maddoc is an educated man but quite possibly psychotic and perhaps schizophrenic as well, with weird obsessions and strange beliefs, with a thirst for killing and the crazy ability to make his actions seem rational and logical. He’s the symbol for a huge part of humanity firmly convinced that their way is the only way, people who see others as objects instead of human beings, parts of a huge machine that can simply be replaced when broken, and who would probably raise screaming hell were the roles reversed.

A truly despicable creature, Maddoc’s demise takes place because of his own mistakes, and in my opinion he leaves this world far too easily, without much effort from the heroes.

Switching back and forth between the characters, Koontz delivers one cliffhanger chapter ending after another, keeping the tension high. He also tries to recreate the effect in “From the Corner of His Eye” where characters who have nothing to do with each other, end up together for the story’s finale. Yet while Reverend Harrison’s sermon about the apostle Bartholomew was a link between the characters in “From the Corner of His Eye”, such a link doesn’t exist in “One Door Away From Heaven”, which makes it difficult not to look at it as one huge coincidence.

The characters in “One Door Away From Heaven” constantly refer to God. Curtis Hammond’s doggy companion also plays a big part. Koontz has used dogs as comedy sidekicks more than once, but here for the first time he grants them extraordinary powers, in that dogs are able to perceive the Maker’s Presence. Curtis the alien has the ability to connect psychically with dogs in such a way that he can also sense that Presence. And to take it one more step further, the boy also has the ability to make other people create such a bond as well, ending the novel with a group of people, each with a dog companion, who can see proof that that the world has been designed and created – a more esotherical version of what he will do in “Breathless”.

Koontz creates a great contrast between the lighthearted exchanges between Leilani, Micky and Aunt Geneva on the one hand and Curtis and his many encounters on the other, and the deeply disturbing dramatic events concerning Leilani’s mother, Maddoc’s philosophy, and Noah Farrell’s sister. When you think you’re sitting comfortably enjoying a fun story, Koontz turns the entire atmosphere upside down and you start to wonder about your own place in the world and how you behave towards others. While creating an urgency in the story which he’ll later apply to his high concept stories, Koontz still takes the time to develop the characters and elaborate on the situations in order to really make you think about everything you read.(less)

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Feb 16, 2011 Stephanie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: misplaced, own

This is going to be a short one, since I read this a while ago, am lazy, and don't feel like investing a lot of time.

This book came to me as one of my Barnes & Noble impulse buys. Koontz is a decent enough storyteller, but the subject matter was a little out there for me (and I usually dig extremely strange things...). The little girl (name at the moment forgotten; see also: lazy) was probably the most memorable. Her mother was also decently developed, and I often contemplated how f*cked up...more

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Dec 05, 2009 Manda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I enjoyed this book very much, but I have some qualms about the subject matter. I really don't like reading about children in peril, or hurt, so a lot of this book was difficult for me to read.

I also have qualms about the ending. I'm all for upbeat endings, but this was upbeat and sugary sweet. And yet.

The book deals with bioethics - bioethics deals with the ethical problems raised by technology. Ie, we can now keep pre-term babies alive from a much younger age, but given the disabilities that...more

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Jan 12, 2009 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, thriller, animal-related, fiction, wbc-09

I loved the beginning of this book. In fact I loved it until the stories started to really merge at around the 450 page mark. I think it was probably 50-100 pages that didn't really need to be there. The ending however was wonderful, especially the end chapter, it wrapped up the story nicely.

The character of Curtis and his sister become Old Yeller had a way of making me identify with him and in part described the bond between me and my adopted cat (but as you will find when you read the book - n...more

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Jan 24, 2009 Chana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, fantasy, philosophy

Pay Attention: This bioethics stuff is frightening. This is the same movement that gave Nazi Germany their racial purity program outline. As a work of fiction it was a long book, most of which I enjoyed. It was witty and fast-paced with some really interesting characters and action. The ending was really botched up though. It was too long, and just worse than sentimental. The answer to the question about what is behind the door "one door away from heaven" was convoluted and confusing. The dog wa...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Jean-marcel rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book made me feel all soft and squishy inside. As this wasn't normal, I figured something was horribly amiss with my internal workings, so I went and had a lie down. I dreamed about being attacked by thousands of liliputian puppies who swarmed all over me and licked and drooled over my face and panted their stinking street- carnivore breath all over me. They were covered in mud, feces and other unmentionables. It was a horrible experience.

Dean Koontz. What to say? He's obviously a family ma...more This book made me feel all soft and squishy inside. As this wasn't normal, I figured something was horribly amiss with my internal workings, so I went and had a lie down. I dreamed about being attacked by thousands of liliputian puppies who swarmed all over me and licked and drooled over my face and panted their stinking street- carnivore breath all over me. They were covered in mud, feces and other unmentionables. It was a horrible experience.

Dean Koontz. What to say? He's obviously a family man. He loves dogs. Every sensible woman carries a gun or three in her purse. The good people of the world are unreservedly good, cleaned up their bad habits due to "hard love", and of course they also love dogs. The bad people probably watch exploitation movies, listen to heavy metal and love cats, and they go to or teach at liberal universities. I'm not even sure Koontz knows what bio-ethics really is, because he seems to believe the whole field is out to prove, as a concerted and well-honed body, that it is ok to kill disabled people; that it's ethical because you'd really be doing them a favour. I must confess to having not really enjoyed my university bio-ethics class and that I probably spent most of it talking to girls or reading novels, but I feel that he's indirectly doing my poor professor an injustice and that this really wasn't the gist at all. Maybe Koontz's bio-ethics teacher was Joseph Mengell? He has no excuse though; now a million shrill housewives and bored truck drivers will be going around yelling about bio-ethics, thinking that's really what it's all about and Mr. Koontz has got it pegged!

These mainstream "genre" books are funny. Inevitably I suspect the vast majority of their readers would not touch fantasy, science fiction or horror from some smaller press, and would scoff if you tried to discuss the plots of such books with them. "Unrealistic"!, "childish!", "space cadet stuff!", they might say. Well, let's try the JM Casey Version of the dust jacket blurb for this Koontz potboiler, then:

An adorable little nine-year-old girl with a leg brace and a genius IQ is being kept in a motor home with her drugged-up mum and her sinister professor boyfriend, named Dr. Doom. A cool lady of the late twenties persuasion and her nice auntie, who makes great apple pie, are going to be her surrogate parents, once they decide what a treasure she really is. But can they lead her away from Dr. Doom and the raving druggie? Meanwhile, an innocent and good extra-terrestrial shapeshifter is on the run from criminal and bad extra-terrestrial shapeshifters, and finds time to Love a Dog and befriend wacky Vegas showgirls with guns, and find out what it means to be human. Also also, what will happen to the alcoholic ex-cop and his braindead sister? Will he exact vengeance on the fan club of the evil bio-ethicists and their heinous creed? Read the book and find out! And Love Dogs!

Finally, the ending. Oh gosh, the ending. Somebody pulled the three dangling plot threads into some kind of pulsing knot with a dog tongue in the centre of it. It made a yapping noise and suddenly a lady who only appeared on page 30 or so showed up to give everyone a fat load of cash so they could start up some kind of squealy squishy dog-loving survivalist community. There's lots of rolling around and squealing and Praise the Lord-ing and Dog Damn it all, I can't believe this guy sells books. Oh, I guess I can, with a sigh.

P.S.: I really do like dogs, just not as much as Mr. Koontz does. I'm going to sit around with my blood-thirsty cat and watch Faces of Death now. Muahahahahaha.(less)

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Feb 16, 2011 Tracey rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book had been on my wish list for a while, but given that I have precious little bookshelf space these days, I ended up purchasing the e-book. Did I enjoy it? Yes, but I do think it was a little different.

The majority of the book follows separate plot lines and each time I settled into one of the plot lines I was reluctant to leave that character and jump to the next. I knew that that they must all come together in the end somehow, and probably spent too much time second guessing how Koontz...more

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Jun 13, 2010 Sarah Kirk rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

I read this when I was in my early teens and loved anything vaguely horror/thriller-like. And I LOVED Dean Koontz. Until I read this book. I never realised before how much he is completely and utterly obsessed with dogs. If a character is ever cruel to one you can be sure that they won't be around long before some kind of terrible justice befalls them. I like dogs but he seriously takes it too far. That is the only thing I can say of interest about this book as it is long-winded, badly written a...more

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Jan 06, 2012 Martip rated it 5 of 5 stars

Spoiler Alert. The orphan boy steals your heart. It's almost too bad he turns out to be an alien. The crippled girl's attitude seems just a little over the top for the tender age of 9, but a little suspension of belief and some tolerance of a little "over authoring" of that character helps pull you into almost a three, three, three stories in one. Each switcheroo is brief and clear enough to not be confusing, and I actually MISS the characters when the book was finished. Koontz is a masterful, a...more

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Dec 27, 2009 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

It has been a while since a read a Koontz book. I really enjoyed reading it because I was looking for a change of pace from what I had been reading. Long book, almost 700 pages but it had enough suspense to keep me coming back to read it at a time when I was to busy to read a lot. I think this took me about a month to read.
It is mostly a story about a boy who's parents were killed and killers are tracking him by extraordinary means, a intelligent nine year old girl's physical handicaps in an ab...more

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Jul 20, 2011 J.S. Bailey rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved reading this book! One Door Away from Heaven is an exciting mixture of mystery, suspense, and science fiction with plenty of warmth and humor blended in. Though this book is now ten years old, Koontz brings up some important issues that are increasingly relevant today--especially assisted suicide and the "merciful" killing of the disabled. Koontz does an excellent job of showing us that even the most seemingly insignificant lives have great value, and that even if we are unlov...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Natalie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is another Koontz book I listened to on CD. Once again the "bad guys" were more then bad, they were evil. I spent a lot of time wondering when exactly the "good guys" would get together, but I eventually understood how all the threads were woven. I liked the feeling of hope for humanity this book left me with. I was also introduced to the concept of Utilitarian Bioethics. I'm curious about it and may just try to learn more. It was worth a listen, though I need to warn the faint of heart tha...more

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Feb 11, 2011 Eva rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011, 1-2-stars

So... Koontz amazes me a lot. But this one... This just sucked.
In the beginning... the story starts with 3 main-characters. 1 character vanished al of the sudden to return in the last 10 chapters. Even though Koontz's story's could never happen in real life (just what you believe in I guess) but this was really to unbelievable. A 9-year old with the vocabulary of a 70-year old genius who studied English (Guess it is possible, but this wasn't believable,, far from it...), an alien-boy who takes e...more

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Jun 02, 2011 Kayla rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: worst-books

You rage you lose.

A complete piece of bile-riddled shit. I wish I could un-read this, I wish I could have my time back, I wish I could inflict bodily harm on the author of this for what he has done.

Overly-religious, a weird fixation on Golden Retrievers, so anti-Utilitarian that it makes you want to rage, and, most heinous of all, devoid of any good ending. Be prepared to be disappointed if you're simple, or be prepared to be pissed for days at a time if you are possessing of any knowledge of h...more

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