Odd Thomas (Odd Thomas, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 26, 2017 Rachel N. rated it really liked it

Shelves: california, thriller, love, read-in-2017, paranormal

Odd Thomas can see the dead, though they don't talk, and occasionally he uses this to help the police solve murders. Odd is a short order cook and completely in love with Stormy. A customer comes into the restaurant where Odd works and is surrounded by bodachs, evil beings who seem to be attracted to future tragedies. Odd sets out to try to stop whatever horror is about to occur. A suspenseful book that also made me cry, I didn't expect the crying from a Koontz book. I will be continuing the ser ...more

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May 15, 2011 Katie rated it liked it

Recommend to me by my brother. This is the first Dean Koontz book I've read, mainly because I'm a snob, but I enjoyed it. Mediocre writing bothers me, but I'm almost always willing to overlook it in favor of a really compelling story. This book had the dose of fantasy that I often enjoy in books - the element of fantasy allows for a great range of imagination in storytelling. The characters in this book were interesting, funny, likable, and believable. I was anxious to read on and find out what ...more

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Nov 10, 2014 Bogdan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: new-world

Suspense genre is one that allows a great deal of shortages in terms of literary technique, the most important thing that readers require is suspense. And Mr Koontz is well aware of that. He delivers that important thing, suspense, but has opportunities in improving his characters, dialogue and literary style in general.

The premise is not at all the focal point of this kind of novels. This is just the excuse to narrate the story. For this novel, the premise might be summarized as "People that ar Suspense genre is one that allows a great deal of shortages in terms of literary technique, the most important thing that readers require is suspense. And Mr Koontz is well aware of that. He delivers that important thing, suspense, but has opportunities in improving his characters, dialogue and literary style in general.

The premise is not at all the focal point of this kind of novels. This is just the excuse to narrate the story. For this novel, the premise might be summarized as "People that are able to see ghosts of dead people can't be happy". As it is something that I am not agreeing with (due to, to start with, the fact that ghosts are not real), my rating is 1 for premise.

Regarding the form, this is an interesting topic. The choice of first person narrator is pretty OK. But the author tried to insert a lot of stylistically elements that don't work too well. Plus the unreliable narrator piece that it is spoiled from the beginning is annoying. In the end it worked out well the short paragraphs and numerous chapters that make the story a lot easier to read despite the flow interruption to insert some other things, like quotes or stories from Elvis's life. Overall, I will rate it with a 2 for form.

In terms of originality, there is an abundance of books and movies dealing with the after life world, like zombies, ghosts or even other supernatural beings. What I think is more original in this story is the combination between that supernatural world and the mayhem made by humans with distorted psychic. So I will give it a 2 for the level of originality.

The characters, are, as another reviewer said here on GR, the Achilles' heel. And this is visible, as the narrator is presented as a 20 year old guy but speaks as a 50 year old. All the other characters are also polarized and simply made in two types: the good guys that are all so fond of Oddie and the bad guys are all the same. So I'll rate it with a 1.

Regarding the complexity and difficulty, the genre requires it to be simple and without too much complexity. Despite few references to some pop culture persons, movies or events, Dean Koontz managed to keep it fairly simple. Thus, I will rate it then with a 4 for complexity and difficulty.

In terms of credibility, for me personally, it failed from the first paragraph. I just can't believe in ghosts or other supernatural beings interfering with our world. If the after life exists, it is probably completely separated from our own world. My rating for credibility is then 1.

The last criteria is edition. My jacketed hardcover edition is very nice and elegant. I enjoyed it, including the embossed author and title letters from the cover. The translation was also quite good, as it tried to be as close as possible to the original. And the bonus was very few proof reading errors. I will rate it with a 4.

To summarize, I cannot say I enjoyed it too much as I am quite fond of beautiful literary devices as well as a good story. I must acknowledge the review made by Maciek that it is a lot better than mine. This proves that one side books are not my type. All in all, my final rating for it is 2.14, which I will round it to 2 on Goodreads system.


+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Criteria | Rating |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Premise | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Form | 2 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Originality | 2 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Characters | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Difficulty/Complexity | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Credibility | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Edition | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Total | 2.14 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+

For more details on how I rated and reviewed this novel, please read these guidelines. ...more

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May 31, 2022 Carla rated it really liked it

Julie posted a review about the main character, not quoting her, but misfits, sensitive and principled with a lot of empathy and respect for people, and somewhat sad are people I care about. Because Julie posted her review, I finished the last 100 pages. I'm not usually the best judge, still finding more to learn about judging a genre that is new to me.
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