“Odd”, Indeed

Did you know Koontz has written like, seven Odd Thomas books now? I know I’ve read the first two, maybe the third…. So I thought I’d reread the series from the beginning at get myself reacquainted with this…special…young man (especially since my library has the whole series on eBook!)

“I’ve since discovered that many human beings need no supernatural mentoring to commit acts of savagery; some people are devils in their own right, their telltale horns having grown inward to facilitate their disguise.”

So, Odd Thomas lives up to his name in a very unique way: he can see the dead (at least, those who haven’t moved on). He also sometimes sees horror-seeking shades that he calls “bodachs”, and occasionally a premonition or too. He lives as quietly as he can, working as a fry cook and loving his girlfriend (a typically fiesty-with-a-dark-past heroine by Dean Koontz) and solving the odd crime or two. But when he starts seeing scores of bodachs and a creepy newcomers he calls “Fungus Man”, he starts to think the nightmare he’s been having about a massacre in his town might be coming true.

These books remind me a lot of the Moonlight Bay series (series! ha! the third one has been in the works for two decades — what are you doing with yourself, Koontz?!?) — humor interwoven with tragedy, lots of sunny California skies (although most of the action takes place at night) and kooky townies. The scene I remembered most from this novel, which I haven’t read in years, is one where Odd is stalked by coyotes out in the desert. Good and creepy. And of course, the sad ending — which I won’t spoil for you — that I found just as effective as the first time I read it. As I might have mentioned, the third Moonlight booked has been, um, stalled, while more than a half a dozen Odd books exist…so hopefully these will quench my thirst (and it is a thirst) for Christopher Snow for a while.