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54th out of 63 books
—
526 voters
The House of Thunder
Susan Thorton awakens in a hospital, after a near-fatal car crash, to see four men lurking outside her door--men who exactly resemble those who killed her boyfriend years before. Can these be the same men? As she tries to uncover the identities of those stalking her, Susan enters a terrifying nightmare--one from which she may never escape. Previously published by Pocket un...more
Mass Market Paperback, 360 pages
Published
June 1st 1992
by Berkley
(first published November 1st 1982)
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It's been quite a while since I've read anything by Dean Koontz, and I figured that it was about time to give him another go. This is one of his older books. That makes me feel old, actually, to say that, as it was published the same year I was born, but, it's true.
One of my favorite things about Dean Koontz is that he's able to keep me on my toes. He doesn't write the best dialogue, or write the best characters, but his stories are always twisty, and never end up where I think they're going.
H...more
One of my favorite things about Dean Koontz is that he's able to keep me on my toes. He doesn't write the best dialogue, or write the best characters, but his stories are always twisty, and never end up where I think they're going.
H...more
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So far reading like a straight, fairly awful, romance novel (why this from Koontz I don't know). Still on audio CD 1. Hopefully it will get better.
Now on cd 3 and the dialogue is pure drivel. A woman in peril story, oh and the woman is suppose to be a physicist but speaks like a complete idiot. Plus, the woman narrator (audio version) doesn’t help with her impressions of the older nurse, who she makes sound like Mother Goose. This doesn’t remotely read like a Koontz book. Plot is slow and flat....more
Now on cd 3 and the dialogue is pure drivel. A woman in peril story, oh and the woman is suppose to be a physicist but speaks like a complete idiot. Plus, the woman narrator (audio version) doesn’t help with her impressions of the older nurse, who she makes sound like Mother Goose. This doesn’t remotely read like a Koontz book. Plot is slow and flat....more
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It seems like I am reading a bunch of horror novels lately (not to mention haunted house stories) but that's just the way it's worked out. I chose this particular book almost be default. I've been trying a new library that is closer to my work place, making it easier to pick up and drop off but turns out there are very few audio books there that aren't abridged. This was just about the only one I found that was unabridged, and since I've read quite a few Koontz novels before I felt pretty safe i...more
Definitely not my favorite book by Koontz. I have been a big fan of just about everything I've read by him. (I went through a short phase in high school where I read probably around 10 or so... Give or take.)
The book is really closer to 2.5 stars, but I really like most Koontz books, so I'll bump it to 3. I would not recommend this to anyone who hasn't already read some of his work. This is really not his best, or anywhere close to it.
It had an interesting idea and premise- woman wakes up in a...more
The book is really closer to 2.5 stars, but I really like most Koontz books, so I'll bump it to 3. I would not recommend this to anyone who hasn't already read some of his work. This is really not his best, or anywhere close to it.
It had an interesting idea and premise- woman wakes up in a...more
1 like · like · see review
Sep 23, 2012
Jane Stewart
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-suspense
Too much of the story is a helpless victim being afraid.
STORY BRIEF:
In 1967 Susan saw four fraternity brothers beat her boyfriend to death in a college hazing. They were going to kill her, but she escaped and testified against them. Two of them later died in a car accident. It is now 1980. Susan just woke from a three week coma from a car accident. During the next several days she sees the four fraternity brothers in the hospital. Two are working as orderlies and two are patients. The four men...more
STORY BRIEF:
In 1967 Susan saw four fraternity brothers beat her boyfriend to death in a college hazing. They were going to kill her, but she escaped and testified against them. Two of them later died in a car accident. It is now 1980. Susan just woke from a three week coma from a car accident. During the next several days she sees the four fraternity brothers in the hospital. Two are working as orderlies and two are patients. The four men...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Aug 13, 2010
Neb
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Lovers of romance novels.
Shelves:
not-recommended,
mystery-thriller
I'm listening to a recorded version of this early Koontz offering, and for the first time ever (in a Koontz experience) I'm constantly skipping ahead to get past the dreary, breathless, romance-novel-like endless dialogue. It doesn't help that the woman reading the protagonists lines is giving it the squeaky melodramatic interpretation of a bad Harlequin Romance. The character is supposed to be a hard-nosed physicist, but between her endless hyperventilating over uncanny happenings and the actre...more
Okay, so this started off so uber-badass! Really!
Well, badass for a Dean Koontz book. It was mysterious, tense, somewhat surreal. . . .I mean, it would've made an excellent horror thriller film. A woman wakes up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. . . slight things in her surroundings start to bring back the hints of memories. . . and soon, the whole hospital begins to seem dangerous, the people around her are dangerous, everything is dangerous. . . and then, in the last 50 or 60...more
4 likes · like · see review
Susan Thornton wakes up in a hospital, at first not even remembering her name, much less how she got there. Slowly some of her memory comes back, but not everything. She has no recollection of the car accident that put her in the hospital and can't place any of the names of her co-workers from her job. With the help of a handsome, caring doctor and a plucky nurse Susan begins to feel better. Then she starts seeing men from her past at the hospital. Men that killed her boyfriend in college right...more
The House Of Thunder,
This being an older novel by Mr. Koontz, originally penned under the pseudonym Leigh Nichols, is not in my opinion his best work. Although I liked the book, I felt I couldn't connect with the characters. Susan is an enigma, not only her past but her present conditions are thin, lacking the depth needed to actually care about her character. The same is said about most of the characters that make appearances in this novel. It's very hard to care about characters you literally...more
This being an older novel by Mr. Koontz, originally penned under the pseudonym Leigh Nichols, is not in my opinion his best work. Although I liked the book, I felt I couldn't connect with the characters. Susan is an enigma, not only her past but her present conditions are thin, lacking the depth needed to actually care about her character. The same is said about most of the characters that make appearances in this novel. It's very hard to care about characters you literally...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This is my first Dean Koontz book as I'm more interested in suspense, mystery & thriller. I must say this book provide all that you were looking for. There was suspense, mystery & thrill in this book. Also, the book is written in so simple language that you don't have find meaning of each word in dictionary (except in the ending). I find the writing of author mesmerizing & he kept me hooked till the end.
As I'm flipping the pages I'm drowning more into the character of Susan. I starte...more
As I'm flipping the pages I'm drowning more into the character of Susan. I starte...more
I must say, I've really enjoyed the Koontz books I've read so far, and I have God-knows-how-many more stocked away in my closet that I have yet to read. I don't know if I even made it to the halfway mark in this book, but however far I got, I barely made it even there. This book was horrible...I had to put this one down I never finished it because I was so awfully bored. It got to a point where the thought of reading another page was torture. But you know what? Don't let me stop you! If it strik...more
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The House of Thunder was quite a good suspense novel but I felt it was a bit lacking in the interaction between the characters, especially compared with Koontz's other books. Then I discovered that this book was written in 1982 under the pseudonym Leigh Nichols. Koontz said his Nichols' books were "almost entirely about story, less about character and theme and language" than his other books. Yep, that was so and I felt the lack. However, it is a fast-moving, kind of scary story. Physicist Susan...more
Originally written under his Leigh Nichols pseudonym (hence why it’s different to a lot of his fare), The House of Thunder is the story of a young lady that wakes up after being in a coma for three weeks. After getting past an initial bout of amnesia she starts to see people from her past who were involved in the murder of her then boyfriend. However, they have not aged and she knows that some of them died not long after their crime. So how can this be? Can she really be being assaulted by ghost...more
I am torn on the rating for this book. I found it easy to read and difficult to put down. It is a mystery, suspense novel with a few of the bizarre and weird you would expect from Dean Koontz novel. It is written from the persective of a woman who unexpectly wakes to find herself in a hospital after being in a coma. The suspense is maintained through out, and the ending was a surprise although a bit abrupt. If romance was intended it is shortcoming. I would recommned this book to teens and adult...more
12/8/12 - finished
Well, where do I start? Hm, let's first say that this is my first D. Koontz novel. I'm hearing that that's a good thing. The over all public opinion of this particular story is that it's perhaps not one of his better ones. So for it to be the first of his I've read I like it more than if I had read his other material before. I give it 3 stars since there are no half stars to give; if there were it'd be 3 1/2 stars because I did find his writing and the story to be entertaining....more
Well, where do I start? Hm, let's first say that this is my first D. Koontz novel. I'm hearing that that's a good thing. The over all public opinion of this particular story is that it's perhaps not one of his better ones. So for it to be the first of his I've read I like it more than if I had read his other material before. I give it 3 stars since there are no half stars to give; if there were it'd be 3 1/2 stars because I did find his writing and the story to be entertaining....more
Oct 28, 2009
Bryce
added it
This is an amazing book. I am not a fan of reading and this book is easy to lose intrest in. There are many paragraphs that are completely meanless in this book. Once you get past the boaringness of this bookj it gets real intresting.
This book is about a lady named Suzan Thorton, who finds her self waking from a three week long coma. She is supprised to learn that she crashed her car on the way to a resort in Oregon.She ends up in a small hospital in Willawuka county. while at the hospital she b...more
This book is about a lady named Suzan Thorton, who finds her self waking from a three week long coma. She is supprised to learn that she crashed her car on the way to a resort in Oregon.She ends up in a small hospital in Willawuka county. while at the hospital she b...more
Jun 03, 2010
Merredith
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
koontz fans, mystery, horror, suspense
Shelves:
crime-mysteries,
horror
I used to LOVE dean koontz, i even got a signed autograph from him in the mail when i was in high school. his more recent stuff is bad, in my opinion. this one was one of his first, and written under a different name, i guess. maybe that's why i never read it till now. i enjoyed it a lot at first. it was creepy...the main character waking up from a coma from a car accident in a random hospital, with holes in her memory, and creepy stuff happens..i was thinking hmm what could possibly have happen...more
Written in the early days under the pseudonym Leigh Nichols, House of Thunder is the kind of Koontz I like - it's suspenseful, dark and surprising.
Susan Thorton wakes up in a hospital bed, having been in a coma for more than three weeks. She's having trouble remembering what happened to her or anything much about her previous life, and then she starts seeing people from her past ... That's all I really can say without spoiling it for others.
I'm a sucker for these "I don't know who I can trust"...more
Susan Thorton wakes up in a hospital bed, having been in a coma for more than three weeks. She's having trouble remembering what happened to her or anything much about her previous life, and then she starts seeing people from her past ... That's all I really can say without spoiling it for others.
I'm a sucker for these "I don't know who I can trust"...more
A young woman awakes in a hospital and is told that she has had a head injury following an auto accident and has been in a coma for 3 mos. She is definitely weak and has lost considerable weight . Her memory slowly returns, but there are big gaps. What she remembers acutely is an incident in her past when her boyfriend was killed during a fraternity hazing. She witnessed it and narrowly escaped being killed as well. The perpetrators were brought to justice and of the four of them, only 2 still l...more
This is one of those mysteries where you have absolutely no idea what is going on until the very end. Is she imagining things because of her brain injury? Is she really seeing ghosts come back from the dead to take their revenge? Or is it all just an elaborate plot to send her crazy? I really enjoyed most this book and I would have loved to give it a higher mark. Sadly, though, it was let down by the ending, which seemed to be rushed and didn't really fit the rest of the story. It is as if the a...more
Not one of Koontz's better efforts. One of his earlier books, originally penned under his Leigh Nichols pseudonym, it starts out with a lot of promise. The trials that the main character, Susan, undergoes, are suspenseful and downright creepy. The book grabs you and holds your attention. But as the veneer of suspense peels away, the book veers away from suspenseful to downright ludicrous. It's just so farfetched that it's ridiculous. I realize that I'm reading this thirty-some years later and th...more
This review contains spoilers, so do not read further if you intend to read the book and be surprised. This book has the feel to me of a short story (and a very short, short story at that) padded to make into a novel. The first 90% of the book is a sheer waste of time, with repetitive scenes of the heroine imagining each person she encounters to be one of 4 men who gruesomely murdered her fiancée several years before. This gets tiresome, to say the least. The last 10% of the book is much more in...more
Saya suka Stephen King dan Dean Koontz. Ya, mereka berdua adalah dua penulis novel thriller yang hebat. Saya mengagumi mereka.
Nah, The House Of Thunder adalah novel Dean Koontz pertama yang saya baca. Keren, ide ceritanya. Pembawaan novel juga sangat baik. Gaya berceritanya lancar, dan dapat dipahami. Tidak ada bagian2 yg membosankan.
1/4 bagian akhir dari novel ini, saya baca non-stop. Karena cerita mulai seru, seram, dan menarik. Wah, saya sempat mengerutkan kening sejenak ketika selesai memb...more
Nah, The House Of Thunder adalah novel Dean Koontz pertama yang saya baca. Keren, ide ceritanya. Pembawaan novel juga sangat baik. Gaya berceritanya lancar, dan dapat dipahami. Tidak ada bagian2 yg membosankan.
1/4 bagian akhir dari novel ini, saya baca non-stop. Karena cerita mulai seru, seram, dan menarik. Wah, saya sempat mengerutkan kening sejenak ketika selesai memb...more
Reading this book was a little bit like my experience watching Lost. I was drawn into the suspense. I felt the confusion of the main character. I knew that what she was experiencing was over the top, but I kept trusting that there would be a good ending. Instead, the ending was ridiculous. The author was able to imagine a convincingly horrific nightmare world but didn't know how to get out of it. The ending was like a ridiculously corny James Bond movie from the 1970s. I was gripped by the horri...more
This was the first Dean Koontz book I ever read. I really enjoyed how it played out, the twists and turns and the element of romance. I had been reading John Saul and while his books have some similarities they are darker and have litte to no romantic element. I quickly became a Koontz fan and started devouring his books. I was staying almost a step ahead of him for a while but during my "hiatus" during my kids' early years where I was reading mostly Dr. Suess and Golden Books he whized past me...more
This book is one of the descriptive and captivating thriller we have come to expect from Dean Koontz. It is about a physicist named Susan who has a car accident or believes she does... She is seeing people from a frightening past that are supposed to be dead and buried. As with any Dean Koontz novel you have to continually question what is happening because often times it is not what it seems. This book is no different! It has a great twist at the end the book that brings to light the situation,...more
Read this book on audiowhi.e drivi g back ands forth to Atlanta this week. The book kept us engaged on the 14 hour round trip and was the perfect length for one trip. The story was absorbing, you kept wondering what the heck was going on but that is what a good suspense novel is about.
I did t like the narrators however. I did not think the voices matched the characters especially Susan's character. The voice was a little meek for a character who was supposed to have 'moxy'
Still worth the read e...more
I did t like the narrators however. I did not think the voices matched the characters especially Susan's character. The voice was a little meek for a character who was supposed to have 'moxy'
Still worth the read e...more
Before I review this, I should post a disclaimer...technically, I don't really have the right to post a review, since I only made it about halfway through this book before I finally gave up. I suppose it's possible the book got much better in the second-half, but somehow I highly doubt that...
I tried to read this, I really did. I had heard good things about Dean Koontz, and the premise certainly sounded promising. But I just couldn't get into this book at all. The dialogue is so incredibly corny...more
I tried to read this, I really did. I had heard good things about Dean Koontz, and the premise certainly sounded promising. But I just couldn't get into this book at all. The dialogue is so incredibly corny...more
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| What's The Name o...: SOLVED - Dean Koontz book prior to 1993 [s] | 3 | 30 | Aug 10, 2012 10:30am |
Acknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.
Dean R. Koontz has also published under the na...more
More about Dean Koontz...
Dean R. Koontz has also published under the na...more
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