Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

"Odd Thomas" by Dean Koontz is a novel that quickly draws you into another world...even against your wishes. While delving into the world of Odd Thomas, fry cook and boyfriend of Stormy Llewellyn, you immediately get the feeling that you know the main character. His boy-next-door image is so true to character that you take him at his word, even when he starts having conversations with dead people. Odd's frank dismissal of his own importance in the world, coupled with the harsh reality of his life, make him a sympathetic figure indeed. You want to sit down and have a talk with this kid, encourage him a little maybe, while he fixes you a nice cheeseburger with extra tomatoes. Instead, you have to be content with watching life unfold through the eyes of Odd Thomas, no matter what horrific twists and turns it makes. Don't bother trying to guess the ending, you won't, just go along for the ride.

It starts out routinely enough in chapter one with twenty year old Odd detailing his family background and his unusual name. His strange parents get stranger as the story unfolds, but the paragraphs on Granny Sugars are reading with reasoning well worth the price of admission. Not that I agree with the reasoning, but it is very convincingly done. It gets even better with a host of other characters that are just as quirky as their names. It also gets worse. Let me caution you to skip page 4 if you haven't read Agatha Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" and don't want the ending spoiled. Living above a two car garage, in Pico Mundo, Odd Thomas walks you through the beginnings of his average Tuesday morning. Lest I be a spoiler, myself, let me just say, don't be surprised when the dead people show up. Quite regularly.

"Odd Thomas" is a great book that rapidly draws you into the fantastic storyline that is, at once, told as though the most unlikely of events are, indeed, commonplace. Dean Koontz has a remarkable way of writing that
injects humor as well as some serious thinking into his creation. One of my favorite quotes from the story is, "Evil was coming. I wondered whose face it would be wearing." Odd Thomas would be an excellent book for any English class studying modern writing. Koontz makes Odd Thomas real and therefore the evil presence in the story all that more terrifying. Even so, the humor is just as real as Elvis Presley and ex-president Lyndon Johnson make posthumous appearances.

The first book of the "Odd" series, "Odd Thomas" is a very good read. But beware the bodachs!