Odd Thomas (Group Read - February 2010)

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Jen wrote: "...I keep reading Koontz. It's like he has become part of my family, not always perfect, but I love him. "

:-) Me too!

[Nora aka Diva]

Maciek wrote: "Ha. This is what I keep telling myself. I keep thinking that I shouldn't, but I end up reading them anyway. Koontz has been one of my biggest guilty pleasures last year and it's hard to break the h..."

It's like me & Jodi Picoult novels, somedays I ask myself, why do I read this? At least I don't buy them, my sister drops them off. lol. Some are good, some are ok and a couple should be lit on fire. lol.

[Tanya]

Maciek wrote: "Ha. This is what I keep telling myself. I keep thinking that I shouldn't, but I end up reading them anyway. Koontz has been one of my biggest guilty pleasures last year and it's hard to break the h..."

I keep saying the same thing about James Patterson. It's getting to the point where he will put his name on anything.... and I keep reading them.

[Donna]

I just got done reading this book. I was a little disappointed with the last two books I read by Dean Koontz so my expectations were not to high this time around. This is only my fourth book by Dean that I have read so don't have a lot to go by. I found it to be very good, it kept my interest throughout and wasn't dull. I think I will continue with this series.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Donna wrote: "I just got done reading this book. I was a little disappointed with the last two books I read by Dean Koontz so my expectations were not to high this time around. This is only my fourth book by D..."

What are the other 3 Dean Koontz books you've read? and which two were you a little disappointed with?

[Donna]

"Your heart belongs to me", "False Memory", and "What the night knows". The ideas used for the books were good just not well executed for some reason. False memory was my first book by Dean Koontz and it wasn't a terrible book but just so darn confusing to me at the time.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Donna wrote: ""Your heart belongs to me", "False Memory", and "What the night knows". The ideas used for the books were good just not well executed for some reason. False memory was my first book by Dean Koont..."

I agree. Of those 3, False Memory is the best :-) Your Heart Belongs to Me and What the Night Knows are among my least favorite Dean Koontz books - no wonder you were disappointed - they turned me off Koontz also.

Some of my favorite Dean Koontz books are Life Expectancy, By The Light of the Moon, Relentless, Cold Fire, Mr. Murder and The Taking.

[Donna]

I will definately have to check those one outs. Thanks for the recommendations. Maybe I will like those ones better.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

There are some other really good ones too :-) I'll be happy to recommend more or we have some recommendation threads you can check out to see what other people think:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...

[Christopher]

Started this book about a week ago and am halfway through it. I am LOVING it. I am so glad that I have a series I can delve into and characters I can come to love lol. How are the other books in the series as compared to the first one?

[Tracy]

Odd Thomas is my favorite series by far. I also love his Frankenstein series.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Most people would say that the first book was the best. see our group poll on the subject:
http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/27...

Personally, I like the third book, Brother Odd best :-)

[Christopher]

Thanks for the link to the poll. I also like his Frankenstein series. Only read the first book, but going to start #2 soon. I've heard the rest of the series goes downhill after that tho :-(

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

That's what many people say, but again my favorite in the Frankenstein series was #3 Dead and Alive :-) in which we meet Jocko, so you'll have to find out for yourself what you think.

[Jen]

Dustin Crazy little brown owl wrote: "Carol and Susan,
I never noticed the mention of Odd's mother running with the bodachs. I own a copy of Odd Thomas so if you can tell me what chapter it's in, I'll look it up :-)Thanks"

I didn't notice that anyone found the mention for you, Dustin, so here it is...Chapter 63, third paragraph.

...

As you may have noticed, I finally read book one in the Odd Thomas series. :-) I enjoyed it but have some of the same complaints Maciek had: I hated that Koontz/Odd gave away the ending to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It was bad enough that Odd revealed he'd be an unreliable narrator so early in the book (page three of the edition I read), but then to not only make the comparison to the unreliable narrator in Agatha Christie's famous work but to also give away the ending was unforgivable. "Unforgivable" because giving away the ending did nothing for Odd's story. Why did Koontz write the ending? He could have left that sentence/paragraph out and it wouldn't have negatively impacted the story in any way, just as have having it in there didn't positively impact Odd's story in any way. :-(

After I got past this bit, though, I didn't find too much else to complain about in the story. There were several odd things and I was left with several questions, but all in all I liked the story enough to give it 3.5 stars and want to continue the series.

If you'd like to see more of my thoughts, feel free to read my full review

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Thanks Jen. I just looked up chapter 63. It's been a while :-) Sometimes I miss or forget details, I guess that happens to the best of us readers. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Odd Thomas - Glad you finally got around to reading this famous book!

[Jen]

Dustin Crazy little brown owl wrote: "Thanks Jen. I just looked up chapter 63. It's been a while :-) Sometimes I miss or forget details, I guess that happens to the best of us readers. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Odd Thomas - G..."

You're welcome, Dustin. :-) And I'm glad I finally got around to it, too. I can understand why so many people love it, even though I didn't fall in love with it myself. :-)

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Odd Thomas is our December 2015 Group Read. This is the old discussion thread, which you may find interesting. A new discussion thread for 2015 has been created.