Book Review: Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz was born and raised in Pennsylvania and graduated from Shippensburg State College. While in college, Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and has been writing ever since. His books are published in 38 languages and have sold over 400,000,000 copies. Eleven of his books reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Dean Koontz is also the author of The Bad Place, Whispers, Darkfall, Strange Highways, and Demon Seed.

In Life Expectancy, Jimmy Tock was born on the same night that his grandfather died. During a violent thunderstorm Rudy Tock walks the hospital halls while his wife is giving birth and his father is dying.

Knowing that he will die, Josef Tock's request to see his son, Rudy. When Rudy arrives at his bedside, Josef insists that he write down five dates. As Rudy did this, Josef said that on those five dates his soon to be born son was going to experience horrible tragedies. Josef also predicted his grandson's name, length, and weight, and then he died. Rudy Tock assumed that Josef's words were rambles of a dying man until his son was born. Josef's birth predictions about Jimmy were correct which concerned, Rudy. If his father was right about Jimmy's birth weight and length, he was probably right about the horrible days that his son would suffer.

This novel is written in the first person character view of Jimmy Tock. He tells his life story through the five terrible days that his grandfather predicted. Jimmy is a professional baker who displays literate intelligence.

The themes and actions in this novel are original. Koontz's elements of surprise tactics were masterfully written. What's bad about this novel is that it can easily depress you because of all the unpleasant situations. Also, during my research I found a lot of readers' comments on how tired they are of clowns in Koontz's stories. Since, this is my first time reading a book by Dean Koontz I can't elaborate on the matter. However, it is very well written and kept my interest peaked.

Life Expectancy was published by Bantam Dell, which is a division of Random House Inc., in December 2004.