What's Elizabeth Reading? ... Koontz

Welcome to Winter Break, where Elizabeth spends a lot of her time reading. Don't worry; I do other stuff, too. Like re-watch Cinderella (Disney's) because I hadn't done so in years, take the family's dog for a walk (he ate some deer or elk poop today. Not sure if and when I should inform my mother), do my Christmas shopping, play games with my family, and figure out how to use two spatulas to flip a fat quesadilla without losing too much of the inside stuff.

When a book is good, and I have nothing else in particular to do (and when my older brother has been recently bugging me about how I'm not reading as fast as he thinks I should/could be), I can read really fast. Actually, I could read even faster, but when I read in my head, I think each word, just as I would say each word when I read aloud. If I go too fast, I start freaking out because my mind thinks it needs air. I don't actually start hyperventilating, though. It's more like my brain says, "SLOW DOWN, ELIZABETH! I NEED TO TAKE A BREATH!" So I rarely read that fast.

I mention that as my lead-in to the fact that it only took me a day and a half to read Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas. Koontz is a popular writer, so I'm glad I took a look at something he wrote. From what I've heard, Odd Thomas is more comedic than his books usually are, which I don't mind in the least. I love it when a book makes me laugh. This one did once or twice, but mostly the humor wasn't laugh-out-loud funny.

The writing was fine. I could tell Koontz has studied writing. It wasn't anything absolutely brilliant, but his target audience is not looking for brilliant. They want suspense. My older brother (who has been popping up a lot on this blog today) said Odd Thomas was like a comedic horror novel, but I disagree. I think it was dark urban fantasy with comedic undertones. That's my succinct genre-placement of this book. Too bad they don't have that section in the library. I'm not even completely positive it's an actual genre. It definitely isn't one of the traditional ones, that's for sure.

I must say that the ending nearly made me cry. My heart definitely dropped, and I felt sad. So kudos to Koontz for the ending; it was well done.

I'm not really sure what to write about this book, honestly. If you enjoy the genre, you ought to read the book. If you don't like the genre, don't read it. It's as simple as that. Odd Thomas is a book that aims to entertain those who are entertained by that genre.

P.S. - This book is the first in a series about Odd (the main character of Odd Thomas). I haven't read the series, so I can't tell you either way. My bet is that if you enjoy this book, you should think about reading the others. Also: They made a movie out of this book just this year. It's unrated, but I believe the author said it was a great adaptation of the book. The trailer for the movie certainly looked like it followed the book closely.