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Koko (Blue Rose Trilogy #1)

by Peter Straub (Goodreads Author)

3.52 of 5 stars 3.52 · rating details · 3,905 ratings · 120 reviews

This is a tremendously beautiful and oversized edition of Peter Straub's classic novel of the Vietnam War, with fifteen full-page exquisite wood engravings by artist Howie Michels. This edition also features a fine afterword by Laird Barron and is handsomely bound, with a top-edge stain, ribbon marker, special endsheets, and other extras. Limited to three hundred numbered...more

Paperback, 640 pages

Published May 8th 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (first published 1988)

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Mar 11, 2013 Dirk Grobbelaar rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, books-i-own

Tricksy Review

Where to start? An uneasy read, this.

There is real madness to be found here. A brooding, heady insanity.

Koko, the novel, is a disjointed, psychological, somewhat confusing affair. Why then is it such a good read? Well, because that is also the best way to describe half the characters in this piece of work. There is certainly method to the madness here. And Koko himself? He's certainly a disturbed man… and it rubs off.

This book is not a quick read, it's everything but, and when I...more

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Dec 27, 2010 Maciek rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those who like long, character driven stories

Shelves: owned-books, own-in-paperback, big-tomes, favorites, thriller-mystery-suspense, read-in-2010, reviewed, vietnam-war, own-in-hardcover

Koko is a lenghty tome. My paperback copy spans 640 pages and promises great things - a haunting nightmare of four Vietnam veterans, reunited 15 years after the war, thrust back into the horrors of the war when they learn about a chain of murders comitted in Southeast Asia - the murderer always leaves a playing card with the word "Koko" scribbled on it. The word has eerie connotations for the four men - they believe that a former member of their platoon is behind the murders.

After Floating Drago...more Koko is a lenghty tome. My paperback copy spans 640 pages and promises great things - a haunting nightmare of four Vietnam veterans, reunited 15 years after the war, thrust back into the horrors of the war when they learn about a chain of murders comitted in Southeast Asia - the murderer always leaves a playing card with the word "Koko" scribbled on it. The word has eerie connotations for the four men - they believe that a former member of their platoon is behind the murders.

After Floating Dragon and The Talisman, Peter Straub wanted to try his strenghts in a different field. He worked four years on Koko, and in many interviews names it as his strongest work. He fooled those who were expecting a supernatural tale like his two previous novels; there is little (if any) of supernatural in Koko, but there's plenty of ghosts. The scariest thing is that they are all alive.

Koko is a long, complex novel where the travel is most important, not the resolution; it's most definitely not an easy thriller or a simple mystery. It's a tale of a group of men who travelled to hell and returned with their own personal devils. And when their past calls them back, they decide to take action, and pursue the killer: through Signapore and Taipei to Milwaukee and New York City. Peter Straub in one of the interviews said that Koko was his best writing experience, where he entered a flow state in which he was with his characters and discovered that he wrote whole pages without thinking about writing them. It shows; Koko presents a world so complex and real that the reader feels like he was living in it. It does tend to wander from time to time, but doesn't life? Koko is full of real emotions, poignancy, sadness and ambiguity. Pumo, Spitalny, Beevers, Linklater, Underhill are all real people who will stay with you, and Koko is the ghost that haunts them all. These are some of the most realistic and memorable character I've ever encountered in fiction. The narrative is rich, long, detailed, satysfying and haunting, and will stay with the reader for a long time. It stayed with me.

Peter Straub has achieved something extraordinary in Koko; when he says that this is his strongest work, a favorite, he has his reasons. A long, complex journey to the heart of darkness that is not really about who - it's about why. A rare gem, worth multiple readings.(less)

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Jun 12, 2013 David Bonesteel rated it 4 of 5 stars

A group of Vietnam veterans search for a former member of their old unit, who they believe has become a serial killer called Koko. The identity and nature of Koko is inextricably bound up with a horrible experience that they all share--the massacre of children in a Vietnamese village.

This is a long novel. Straub paints fully realized characters with complicated and believable motivations. At times, the horror aspects of the novel take a back seat to the more straightforward human drama in his ch...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Just reread all the books in the "Blue Rose" series and I have to say, they entertained me as much this time as they did the first. I'll review each book in separately, but may allude to them since they connect - sort of.

Koko is one of those books that makes you feel like it must have felt to be in Vietnam, including the otherworldly quality most people have when in a foreign country. Not having ever visited an Asian country I can imagine that it is compounded due to climate, non-Western culture...more Just reread all the books in the "Blue Rose" series and I have to say, they entertained me as much this time as they did the first. I'll review each book in separately, but may allude to them since they connect - sort of.

Koko is one of those books that makes you feel like it must have felt to be in Vietnam, including the otherworldly quality most people have when in a foreign country. Not having ever visited an Asian country I can imagine that it is compounded due to climate, non-Western culture, and the people themselves. Flashbacks to Vietnam are interspersed with current time (al la late 1970s, early 1980s) as four vets from the same unit in Vietnam are brought together to find "Koko" - obviously, to them at least, someone from their old unit - who has been killing across Asia and leaving a playing card with the word Koko on it - something that they had done on the odd occasion after killing a Viet Cong soldier. In fact, at least one of them is convinced that it is Tim Underhill, currently living the writers life somewhere in Asia - either Bangkok, Singapore, or Taiwan. Three of the four ultimately travel to Bangkok to begin the search, while the fourth (Tina Puma) stays behind to oversee the renovation of his restaurant. Ultimately they find Tim Underhill, but he is not "Koko". Unfortunately for Tina Puma, Koko does find him and murders him.

The new quartet (Tim Underhill comes back to the states with them) continues to investigate (much to the chagrin of the NYPD) and believe they have figured it out - and they have, sort of. I won't give away the rest of the story, but I loved most of the characters. I kept wondering why these guys keep listening to their old lieutenant, who is the one who starts this whole thing moving. He was, frankly, a jerk and after their time in Vietnam having to follow his orders you'd think they'd tell him to get a life. However he was a vital part of the story, although a burr under the saddle.

Tim Underhill, who will figure prominently in the third and fourth books of the Blue Rose series, is one of my favorite characters, although sometimes the continuity between the books is a little hard to swallow (read them, you'll understand I think). Minor points, but still, kind of nagged at me.

Koko got rave reviews when it first came out and I have to agree it's a tight, well-written, and pretty much a nail-biter until the end. Be aware that it does get a little gory and the language can be offensive to some. Quite a yarn though, and it certainly sets the mood for the rest of the Blue Rose books.(less)

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Jul 03, 2012 Ethan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Totally and utterly amazing. I bought this book for two reasons: it was written by the co-author of The Talisman, and it was a hardcover book in good condition that cost me $1.00.
This was the first book by Peter Straub that I read, and it absolutely blew me away. While this book is not exactly a horror story, it does have spine-tingling moments. One public opinion I resent is that horror fiction has to involve supernatural occurrences, but in this case I have to agree. This book does not incorp...more

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May 14, 2012 Anna Ligtenberg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ISBN 0451162145 - Tough book to review, but a pretty quick (not easy, just quick!) read, Koko is worth the time! I often feel like the number of typos that get through is a good indicator of how highly (or lowly) the book is seen by the publisher and Koko has a mere 6 in 595 pages - but two mistakes really bothered me. Early in the book, Conor's shirt has yellow letters and two pages later, the letters are orange; late in the book, Koko leaves a note which reads, in part, "I have no name" and is...more ISBN 0451162145 - Tough book to review, but a pretty quick (not easy, just quick!) read, Koko is worth the time! I often feel like the number of typos that get through is a good indicator of how highly (or lowly) the book is seen by the publisher and Koko has a mere 6 in 595 pages - but two mistakes really bothered me. Early in the book, Conor's shirt has yellow letters and two pages later, the letters are orange; late in the book, Koko leaves a note which reads, in part, "I have no name" and is quoted two pages later as "I have no home". Petty? Sure - but I think most typos are due to poor proofreading and this type of thing is more likely the author's fault. I don't like simple continuity errors from an author like Straub, because I'm trusting him to write a complex story and if he can't keep simple things straight...

That said, Straub has done a great job with the big picture. In 1982, as Vietnam vets from all over the country flock to the new memorial wall in Washington, the killings begin - men are found dead, their heads mutilated, cards with "Koko" written on them in their mouths. Other than a small group of men who served together, no one has yet discovered that the killings are connected. Tina Pumo, Conor Linklater, Michael Poole and their rather aptly named former Lt. Harry Beevers gather in Washington for the memorial's opening and Harry proposes that they find the killer, because they all know his identity. Despite Harry's disturbing stance that they can make some money from this, the men agree to join him. Pumo remains in New York while the others return to Vietnam and set out to find Tim Underhill, a former member of their platoon and a crazed author who chose not to come home when the war ended.

The backstory is filled in, slowly, with flashbacks to the moment and place of Koko's creation - a cave in a small village in Vietnam, Ia Thuc. The atrocities of that day haunt all the men but none more than Koko, who has set out in his own way to right the wrongs they committed. This puts Linklater, Poole, Beevers and Pumo at the top of his hit list and they have to find him before he finds them.

One reviewer commented that he wanted to know what happened in the cave. The book does state what happened, but in tiny stages. The worst of it doesn't come out until very nearly the end of the book, as Harry's and Koko's paths begin to merge. How each of them perceives what happened is, ultimately, the reason for Koko's existence, so revealing it from the beginning would have detracted from the horror of it, making it seem not so much the sort of thing that would haunt men for over a decade. I, for one, also appreciated the way it was done because, really, the graphic details would have made the book too pornographic and far less worth reading.

In the end, the thing that makes this book a worthwhile read is the characters. Almost no one is who they seemed to be in the beginning, but the change in your perception isn't some abrupt thing forced on you by bad writing. It happens slowly, as one layer after another reveals clearly what you feel like you should have seen all along. Can you guess early on who the killer is? Sure, you CAN - there's even a giveaway on the back cover, where it mentions that one of the men searching for Koko is an writer - but don't bother. It isn't really about who - it's about why. And if the ending seems incomplete, and it does, it makes sense, too. Not just from the "setting it up for another book" standpoint, either. The man who became Koko died in Ia Thuc, and there is no fair and just punishment for him that he hasn't already suffered. Still, the only thing that keeps me from giving this book 5 stars is the sense that the open-ended ending was more to lead into the next book than anything else.

Among the things that stuck with me that had nothing to do with the story itself, Beevers (in 1982 in the story and 1988 when it was written) thinks of New York as "ground zero", no caps, no foretelling, just an interesting note. The mention of D.B. Cooper was a nice touch, as are the frequent mentions of other authors and books, including Blue Rose (ISBN 0887330053 and 0146001079) copyright 1985 by Straub himself but attributed to Tim Underhill in the book. Superbly written, and worth all 595 pages!

- AnnaLovesBooks (less)

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Dec 12, 2011 Bruce Castle rated it 1 of 5 stars

No one could say that Peter Straub can't write a beautiful sentence or that his description of people and places isn't excellent. I love his usage of language. This is 562 pages long. But, what I have found with horror writers, they seem to have a need to prove that they are better writers, which is ridiculous, and begin to picture themselves as great literary figures. And that is what I feel happened in this book. After forty pages, I had no idea who the main character really is; I have bits an...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Adam K. rated it 3 of 5 stars

I very much wanted to like this one. I enjoy Peter Straub, a lot. He's a thinking man's Stephen King (not to say that Stephen King books can't be cerebral, it's just that Straub goes much deeper into the psychology of his characters and horror). This is the first part of a thematic trilogy (I'm saying that rather loosely, having not read the other two) and focuses on a group of Vietnam veterans who, during a visit to the new memorial in Washington, D.C., confer with each other about a killer kno...more

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Apr 13, 2010 Tee Jay rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People with insomnia

Shelves: thriller

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It has been said that, “Despite the fact that it won the World Fantasy Award, Koko contains only minimal nods towards the fantastic, and was not published as a Horror novel either. But nevertheless, this tour de force – this thriller about Vietnam veterans and a serial killer is a horror novel if we use the word to mean the emotion that stows aboard books of any genre, and even aboard mainstream fiction, rather than the definition of ‘books with blood and guts’ (http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/non ...more It has been said that, “Despite the fact that it won the World Fantasy Award, Koko contains only minimal nods towards the fantastic, and was not published as a Horror novel either. But nevertheless, this tour de force – this thriller about Vietnam veterans and a serial killer is a horror novel if we use the word to mean the emotion that stows aboard books of any genre, and even aboard mainstream fiction, rather than the definition of ‘books with blood and guts’ (http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfict...).

I somewhat agree. I am also of the belief that this novel is one of the most boring selections I have read in recent memory. It screamed out that Straub was trying hard to write about a war he didn’t participate or believe in. I really can’t believe I finished the novel; I kept hoping that it would get better, I guess—and it never did.

As far as “horror” goes, the only horror I felt was at the end of the novel, when, with dawning horror, I came to the realization that the whole experience of reading Koko was one grand exercise in futility. I want my time back, I thought. Actually, I wanted to erase the whole reaading experience from my mind. The novel was so dreadful to read, in fact, that it almost made me want to never read another novel again. (Is that too harsh?) Okay, so I’m being a little melodramatic, but I do know that it took me over four months to complete the thing, a definite anomaly for such a voracious reader such as myself.

The novel did have a few positive attributes, however. I must credit Mr. Straub for his superb characterization skills: he really did flesh out believable characters in Koko with aplomb. There just wasn’t a point to them, and that was the problem. The story just wasn’t plausible and realistic. In effect, the novel was trapped in a void, a vacuum, with no point and no escape.

Koko did not pertain to anything remotely worth caring about, and this was what made the novel so disappointing. In the end, I agree with the Kirkus Review: “Although sharply limned, the characters remain static (and Kokoan unsatisfactory shadow) until the end; the plot meanders and the twists hold no punch, leaching suspense; the overriding mood of gloom and doom drags the whole effort down. In all, then, an honorable, mighty failure”.(less)

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Oct 03, 2012 Mackenzie Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

Koko is the second book in what became 'The Blue Rose' series. This second book has no connection with the first - Mystery - but characters from both book come together in the third instalment.
The story is linked intrinsically to the Vietnam War and for that reason I found the setting tedious at times. I think I just got fed up with a glut of books about the war and I suppose the same might apply to wars in the Middle East now. Too much of anything never sits well with me.
The story is at first...more

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Jan 08, 2011 Arun Divakar rated it 3 of 5 stars

One question that always haunted me is to what the true nature of insanity could be like. What really happens in the minds where the neural circuits do not connect ? Does it only entail feeling normal as the other so called sane people ? History gives us an excellent example of frothing-at-the-mouth kind of insanity over centuries : War. Koko takes us into a war that sent shock waves through a generation in America. One that took place in Vietnam. Reading this book I was reminded of the tagline...more One question that always haunted me is to what the true nature of insanity could be like. What really happens in the minds where the neural circuits do not connect ? Does it only entail feeling normal as the other so called sane people ? History gives us an excellent example of frothing-at-the-mouth kind of insanity over centuries : War. Koko takes us into a war that sent shock waves through a generation in America. One that took place in Vietnam. Reading this book I was reminded of the tagline from Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket "In Vietnam the wind doesn't blow, it sucks" .

Out in the jungles of Vietnam, a good many teenagers lost their sanity in mindless battles.Countless atrocities,hardship and the mixed feelings of despair and futility would have driven soldiers over the cliff edges of a sound mind. Peter Straub recounts the tale of one such platoon in the jungles of Vietnam, an incident at a village named Ia Thuc and how it comes back to haunt four men later into life.Seen from locations as varied as Vietnam,New York,Singapore...a host of others as well. The tale is about a lot of things that go sour : families, sexuality,a steady job(s), alcoholism and many others which pave the way for a life of dissatisfaction for the men & women involved with such a war. Through these four men, Straub explores the scars a war can leave.

The long and short of it is that this is a mystery told on the grand canvas of the Vietnam War. Don't let the "World Fantasy Award winner " fool you, there is no fantasy here. It is a dark,grim work about what war does to humanity. There is a whodunit in here but the importance of that comes to the end of the tale and it takes to the closing notes for us to understand why the author leaves the tale the way it is. The tale meanders a great deal with a lot of branches and tributaries running every which way. It impedes on reading at places, but at other times feel justifiable (just like any author who knows his trade !!!). I honor the unspoken rule of never giving too much away in a review for a mystery plot and close my review here.

Recommended for those who would prefer a long drawn out read.(less)

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May 28, 2010 Lyn rated it 3 of 5 stars

It seems hard to define the horror genre, but I frankly wouldn't include KOKO in that category. "Thriller," perhaps, or "Dark Mystery," but not really "Horror."

It is the mid-80s, many years after the end of Vietnam, and the surviving members of a squad come together to hunt one of their own, whom they suspect guilty of a series of grisly murders. Straub utilizes a thriller trope that must have been fresh when he used it, though I like the thread of theme that taints them all, and, of course the...more

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May 28, 2013 Jason Golomb rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, military, mystery, thriller, war

"The past is in the past because that's where it belongs."

"...no story existed without its own past, and the past of a story was what enabled us to understand it."

I've rediscovered Stephen King in the last year, in no small part due to my amazing discussions at work with a fellow bibliophile. In my search for similar reading, I came across Peter Straub. "Koko" is one of his earlier novels that met with some commercial success. And though his "Ghost Story" is often referenced among the best conte...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Stephen Sealey rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was quite possibly the first truly scary book I had ever read. Before this novel, I had only been exposed to fantastic horror novels. But the scare tactics used by Peter Straub in this work surpass them all just by being believable. This novel exposed me to the idea that perhaps the most monstrous thing in this world is our fellow man. Gripping and terrifying. Surreal yet believable. One word of warning though, I can picture this book having a dramatically bad effect on any Viet Nam veteran...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Chris Brown rated it 1 of 5 stars

I presume the only reason this book made the best seller lists was due to the public's fascination with psychotic Vietnam war vets. Not only is it boring, the character actions are completely stupid ("Here's a great idea, the killer is isolated in a basement completely unaware that several precints worth of police are blanketing his neighborhood looking for him. No, lets not notify the police, lets openly enter the basement unarmed in order to reason with him. Oh no! He escaped using us as hosta...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Benjamin Stahl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was my first experience with Peter Straub.
As I read it, I found myself almost instantly mesmerized with the way that he manages to pull the reader's interest right into the story and its characters. The premise of the story is nothing too amazing, and you start off thinking that's it's likely to be just another serial killer thriller - with flashbacks of the Vietnam War thrown into the mix. Instead you get the work of a true master storyteller, who knows how to seek the scary or sinist...more

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Sep 16, 2009 Julie Failla Earhart rated it 2 of 5 stars

Peter Straub is considered one of the greatest thriller writers of our time; second only perhaps to the master Stephen King. Yet, somehow I missed never reading anything by Straub. When Anchor Books re-released Koko, the first book in the “Blue Rose Trilogy,” I jumped at the chance to review it.
The Washington Post claimed that the 1988 work was “brilliantly written…an inspired thriller…(Straub’s) finest work.” I was ready, eager, anxious, and waiting when the almost six-hundred-page paperback la...more

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Aug 06, 2009 Tabatha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As the first in the loosely related Blue Rose Trilogy; Koko, Mystery, and The Throat; I wish I had read this one first. I read The Throat, and I like this one better, but it has left me somewhat confused on some of the common people and stories.
Yeah, I know... I'll just have to read Mystery.
It seems that the three books do stand alone quite well. Although it discusses Vietnam more than I find interesting, I thought this was a pretty good book. In particular when we are in the presence of Koko. T...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

3.5 - 4 Stars.
KOKO is book one of the BLUE ROSE TRILOGY; it can be read as a stand-alone. It is a lengthy tome (in need of the editor's blade)/meditation on the life-changing horrors of war and abusive parenting (both equally damaging to the child/individual).
Unlike several of Straub's other novels, this one is not a supernatural/horror mystery; it is a straight-forward murder mystery concerning a series of bizarre murders occurring in Southeast Asia that resemble war crimes from the Viet Nam Wa...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Arkadia rated it 3 of 5 stars

If I could give this a 3.5, I would. I wish I could give it a 4, even. I love Straub. He's a phenomenal writer and his prose is wonderful. His short stories 'Blue Rose' and 'The Juniper Tree' are two of my favourite pieces of short fiction, and both based in the Koko/Blue Rose Trilogy universe, so I expected a lot out of this book.

While his skilful prose was exactly what I expected from a Straub story, I did find the story itself somewhat dragging. I appreciate learning about character backgroun...more

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Mar 20, 2012 James Renner rated it 5 of 5 stars

Found this novel staring at me from the shelf of a used book store about a year ago. I picked it up, saw it was a first edition, and decided I had nothing to lose at the discounted price of $2.50. As I walked it to the counter, a single playing card fell out of the middle of the book, where, I assume, someone had marked a page. Only later did I come to discover how disturbing an omen this was.

My only exposure to Peter Straub (excellent Slate interview here) before this book was through his colla...more Found this novel staring at me from the shelf of a used book store about a year ago. I picked it up, saw it was a first edition, and decided I had nothing to lose at the discounted price of $2.50. As I walked it to the counter, a single playing card fell out of the middle of the book, where, I assume, someone had marked a page. Only later did I come to discover how disturbing an omen this was.

My only exposure to Peter Straub (excellent Slate interview here) before this book was through his collaborations with Stephen King in the Talisman saga. I feel a little sad that I’ve found him only now. It’s been too long since I’ve fallen in love with a book. And I’m smitten with this one.

Koko is my favorite kind of story–a quest that brings together mismatched characters who would never befriend each other under normal circumstances. It’s a tale about adults coming together to face a demon they thought they left behind years ago. In this way, it reminds a bit of King’s IT, another great story that sticks with you. Three Vietnam veterans (a lawyer, a doctor and carpenter) reunite to track down a serial killer who they believe was part of their platoon during the war. This killer has been going around offing people connected to their unit and leaving a souvenir in their mouths–a regimental playing card with the word “Koko” written on it.

Like the best novels written in the 80′s and 90′s, it’s a big friggin book, clocking in at 560 pages. Long enough to get lost in the story of these men and their hunt for a killer.

Straub’s writing is wonderful. Through scenes of mundane human existence he explores universal themes of redemption, grace, the nature of evil and forgiveness. In this way, his narrative–often revolving around cooking and writing–reminded me of John Irving more than King. But he also understands suspense and horror like King. I have to say I’m also humbled by the recognition of the research Straub must have done for this book–half of which is set in Saigon and Bangkok and Vietnam–especially when I consider this was done in a world before the Internet.

In the end, Straub’s alter-ego reflects on listening to good jazz in a tent in Vietnam. “We heard fear dissolved by mastery,” he thinks. The book is about applying this thought to life. And it’s something I intend to do as much as I can.(less)

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Oct 25, 2010 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those Who Like Suspenseful Character-Driven Stories

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Shelves: contemporary, fantasy, horror, mystery, romance, suspense, ultimate-reading-list, crime, fiction, novels

Koko is the first book in the "Blue Rose Trilogy." I wouldn't, despite the author's reputation and its winning the World Fantasy Award, call this a horror novel, more mystery/thriller--there's not much more of a hint of the supernatural to the novel.

This features a smooth, skillful style and well-drawn characterizations. For quite a while I couldn't warm to those characters though, and the plot was slow to develop, but the writing engaged me enough I stuck with it, and some of the characters gr...more

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Feb 01, 2009 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, beach-book, fiction, mystery, supernatural, thriller

After countless psychotherapy sessions, an endless prescription of Prozac, and some Disney movies, I’m conflicted - wanting to either kiss Mr. Straub or sue him for emotional distress. Here was a book that danced on the line between reality and fiction so discreetly, I found myself looking over my shoulder in fear.

Now, on to the dissection of it, shall we? The plot was inceptive, shocking, and comprehensive. With a thick history, the story unravels into a terrifying journey, keeping the reader...more

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Sep 03, 2009 Philip rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I first read Koko almost 20 years ago, and I remember thinking it was OK. Recently, our reading of Stephen King's Desperation prompted me to revisit Koko, because I thought Julie might like something by Straub. And I'm glad I revisited this book -- it's a much better novel than I remembered, and Julie and I both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Koko is a powerful psychological thriller about four Vietnam vets who, 15 years after the war, realize that a string of grisly murders in southeast Asia bears the u...more

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Oct 06, 2012 LibraryCin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: asia, murder, vietnam-war

3.25 stars

Four army buddies from the Vietnam War head back to Asia in the early 80s to look for a murderer, nicknamed Koko. They think Koko is someone else they knew from the war.

This wasn't quite what I expected. I was a bit disappointed in that it's not horror, which I was wanting to read in October. Took me a while to realize that, but still didn't really enjoy the first 2/3 of the book (though it was o.k.). It did pick up for me a bit in the last 1/3 of the book, but not enough for me to co...more

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Oct 21, 2010 mark monday rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: murdertime, blood-and-danger

the atmosphere of degradation, regret, self-loathing, and impending doom was pervasive and absorbing. the author shows a sure hand with characterization and a steady one with narrative. the identity of the killer was unsurprising but well-conceived. and either as an extended metaphor for What We Did Wrong in Vietnam or as an ominous tract on the depths that some men can sink in their hunger for self-destruction, Koko certainly succeeds.

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Jun 11, 2009 Todd rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: abandoned, horror

All these years later, I can STILL feel the disapointment brought on by this book. Shadowland and Ghost Story are two of my favorites and when this came out in hardback, I snapped it up just as soon as I could get to the local indy bookstore (oh the days before B&N and Borders...)

Did not finish and quite frankly, probably colored my reasoning against taking a chance of Straub since (not counting his collaborations with Stephen King.)

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Aug 28, 2011 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

This one gets five stars from me because this was the book, seventeen years ago, or so, that changed me from someone who read now and then into an avid reader. I got summoned for jury duty, my first time, and grabbed this book off my bookshelf on the way out of the door. Turns out it was a lucky grab cause it was a great book and I've never not been in the middle of reading one book or another since.

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Apr 11, 2013 Stephen rated it 1 of 5 stars

Pity it isn't possible to give this 0 stars. Generally I love writing that covers the Vietnam conflict, crime, and thrillers, so this had excellent potential.

Unfortunately it was utter bilge. Appalling, paper thin characters, terrible language, and a plot a 12 year old child could throw together.

This is the second Peter Straub novel I've given up before the end.

Terrible.

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Sep 07, 2012 Lewis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was a solid book. I'd definitely recommend it to big fans of the mystery/thriller books, particularly if you've also got an interest in Vietnam

However, while it might've been me, for vast swathes of the book I struggled to immerse myself in the world and didnt connect with most of the characters - aside from Conor and Michael they didnt feel real to me

The storyline is good and it's an excellent idea, but I dont feel like rushing out to get the next one in the trilogy (though if it crosses my...more

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About Peter Straub

Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 2 March, 1943, the first of three sons of a salesman and a nurse. The salesman wanted him to become an athlete, the nurse thought he would do well as either a doctor or a Lutheran minister, but all he wanted to do was to learn to read.

When kindergarten turned out to be a stupefyingly banal disappointment devoted to cutting animal shapes out of heavy...more Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 2 March, 1943, the first of three sons of a salesman and a nurse. The salesman wanted him to become an athlete, the nurse thought he would do well as either a doctor or a Lutheran minister, but all he wanted to do was to learn to read.

When kindergarten turned out to be a stupefyingly banal disappointment devoted to cutting animal shapes out of heavy colored paper, he took matters into his own hands and taught himself to read by memorizing his comic books and reciting them over and over to other neighborhood children on the front steps until he could recognize the words. Therefore, when he finally got to first grade to find everyone else laboring over the imbecile adventures of Dick, Jane and Spot (“See Spot run. See, see, see,”), he ransacked the library in search of pirates, soldiers, detectives, spies, criminals, and other colorful souls, Soon he had earned a reputation as an ace storyteller, in demand around campfires and in back yards on summer evenings.

This career as the John Buchan to the first grade was interrupted by a collision between himself and an automobile which resulted in a classic near-death experience, many broken bones, surgical operations, a year out of school, a lengthy tenure in a wheelchair, and certain emotional quirks. Once back on his feet, he quickly acquired a severe stutter which plagued him into his twenties and now and then still puts in a nostalgic appearance, usually to the amusement of telephone operators and shop clerks. Because he had learned prematurely that the world was dangerous, he was jumpy, restless, hugely garrulous in spite of his stutter, physically uncomfortable and, at least until he began writing horror three decades later, prone to nightmares. Books took him out of himself, so he read even more than earlier, a youthful habit immeasurably valuable to any writer. And his storytelling, for in spite of everything he was still a sociable child with a lot of friends, took a turn toward the dark and the garish, toward the ghoulish and the violent. He found his first “effect” when he discovered that he could make this kind of thing funny.

As if scripted, the rest of life followed. He went on scholarship to Milwaukee Country Day School and was the darling of his English teachers. He discovered Thomas Wolfe and Jack Kerouac, patron saints of wounded and self-conscious adolescence, and also, blessedly, jazz music, which spoke of utterance beyond any constraint: passion and liberation in the form of speech on the far side of the verbal border. The alto saxophone player Paul Desmond, speaking in the voice of a witty and inspired angel, epitomized ideal expressiveness, Our boy still had no idea why inspired speech spoke best when it spoke in code, the simultaneous terror and ecstasy of his ancient trauma, as well as its lifelong (so far, anyhow) legacy of anger, being so deeply embedded in the self as to be imperceptible, Did he behave badly, now and then? Did he wish to shock, annoy, disturb, and provoke? Are you kidding? Did he also wish to excel, to keep panic and uncertainty at arm's length by good old main force effort? Make a guess. So here we have a pure but unsteady case of denial happily able to maintain itself through merciless effort. Booted along by invisible fears and horrors, this fellow was rewarded by wonderful grades and a vague sense of a mysterious but transcendent wholeness available through expression. He went to the University of Wisconsin and, after opening his eyes to the various joys of Henry James, William Carlos Williams, and the Texas blues-rocker Steve Miller, a great & joyous character who lived across the street, passed through essentially unchanged to emerge in 1965 with an honors degree in English, then an MA at Columbia a year later. He thought actual writing was probably beyond him even though actual writing was probably what he was best at - down crammed he many and many a book, stirred by(less)

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19577.Koko?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348038461l/19577.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19577.Koko?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Koko by Peter Straub[/url]

Koko (Blue Rose Trilogy #1)

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