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cnapple's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Now 0/2 on my search to find a genuinely scary October read. This novel just dragged. The prose is overly descriptive and repetitive. There's only so many pages-long rhapsodic descriptions of fungus that can be supported by one novel.
Same goes for the characters. The cast is way too crowded and none of them are developed enough to understand their motivations or even care if they survive the plot. It also feels like Koontz just threw a bunch of ethnic backgrounds in a bag and drew at random for the cast. Maybe one of his editors told him that white male authors needto add some diversity to their stories these days, but it didn't feel genuine. Their ethnicities and backgrounds don't bring anything to the story or change their behavior in a meaningful way and it just feels hollow. Same for the children, they essentially speak and act the same as every other character rather than feeling like real children. Everyone is either brave, reasonable and heroic, or nonsensically foolish or evil. Not to mention the characters that were thrown into the mix at random intervals only to be gruesomely killed shortly thereafter.
As for the plot, there seemed to be some potential for an interesting mystery at first, but about halfway through the novel most of what's going on is revealed without any fanfare by a narrative POV that seems totally unnecessary and even detrimental to the storytelling.There's one final "twist" that's clearly meant to be shocking, but falls flat as there's no build up to it whatsoever. It felt like Koontz got to the end and decided he needed a villain and just threw a dart at a list of names. Don't make the same mistake as the editors, and give this one a pass.
Same goes for the characters. The cast is way too crowded and none of them are developed enough to understand their motivations or even care if they survive the plot. It also feels like Koontz just threw a bunch of ethnic backgrounds in a bag and drew at random for the cast. Maybe one of his editors told him that white male authors needto add some diversity to their stories these days, but it didn't feel genuine. Their ethnicities and backgrounds don't bring anything to the story or change their behavior in a meaningful way and it just feels hollow. Same for the children, they essentially speak and act the same as every other character rather than feeling like real children. Everyone is either brave, reasonable and heroic, or nonsensically foolish or evil. Not to mention the characters that were thrown into the mix at random intervals only to be gruesomely killed shortly thereafter.
As for the plot, there seemed to be some potential for an interesting mystery at first, but about halfway through the novel most of what's going on is revealed without any fanfare by a narrative POV that seems totally unnecessary and even detrimental to the storytelling.There's one final "twist" that's clearly meant to be shocking, but falls flat as there's no build up to it whatsoever. It felt like Koontz got to the end and decided he needed a villain and just threw a dart at a list of names. Don't make the same mistake as the editors, and give this one a pass.
alextwatts's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
tdarnley's review against another edition
3.0
It’s ok if you can get through the same long winded descriptions over and over again. At one point it felt like he was getting paid by the word. BUT I did enjoy the story.
lya06's review against another edition
Qui la recensione completa: http://bookland89.blogspot.it/2012/12/recensione-conratto-indecente-di.html
Allora lettori e soprattutto lettrici, eccomi anche io a parlarvi di uno dei tanti romanzi denominati "erotici"che sono in circolazione da quando queste maledette 50 sfumature sono diventate i best seller della stagione estiva.
Come ho già detto non ho apprezzato il primo libro della trilogia, ma mi ero ripromessa di ritentare con questo genere........niente da fare, anche contratto indecente, anch'esso primo di una trilogia e che che già dal titolo mi ha messo sull'avviso, non mi è piaciuto......
...... Non mi va di demolire l'intero romanzo, anche perchè è sicuramente scritto meglio delle 50 sfumature, ci sono i battibecchi tra i due protagonistiche non sono niente male e le scene erotiche non sono volgari, ma l'ho trovato assolutamente vuoto, non mi ha lasciato nulla.
I protagonisti hanno poco spessore e quando dimostrano un certo carattere lo fanno per i motivi sbagliati,...
Allora lettori e soprattutto lettrici, eccomi anche io a parlarvi di uno dei tanti romanzi denominati "erotici"che sono in circolazione da quando queste maledette 50 sfumature sono diventate i best seller della stagione estiva.
Come ho già detto non ho apprezzato il primo libro della trilogia, ma mi ero ripromessa di ritentare con questo genere........niente da fare, anche contratto indecente, anch'esso primo di una trilogia e che che già dal titolo mi ha messo sull'avviso, non mi è piaciuto......
...... Non mi va di demolire l'intero romanzo, anche perchè è sicuramente scritto meglio delle 50 sfumature, ci sono i battibecchi tra i due protagonistiche non sono niente male e le scene erotiche non sono volgari, ma l'ho trovato assolutamente vuoto, non mi ha lasciato nulla.
I protagonisti hanno poco spessore e quando dimostrano un certo carattere lo fanno per i motivi sbagliati,...
gordonk's review against another edition
3.0
I can only give this story a three star review. Before I go on I must l clarify that three stars to me means it wasn’t a bad story but it wasn’t amazing either. Firstly let me start by saying that this story fooled me in a big way. 100 Pages in and I was convinced that I knew what this story was about, I was wrong. Rarely have I experienced such a surprising case of misdirection. Very impressive Mr Koontz. It must also be said that some people call Dean Koontz a poor man’s Stephen King and it’s easy to see why. The early chapters of this book are very reminiscent of The Shining, Salem’s Lot and IT. Was Koontz inspired by King or is this just a big coincidence?
Forgive the pun but I wondered if I was actually on Shadow Street because I did find myself in the dark for most of this book. It is a confusing story and sadly uninteresting at times. I found that most of the characters just didn’t engage me, and the story skipped from character to character so often that I couldn’t remember who was who. There were two characters in this story who make it a whole lot more interesting; Iris and Winny. Their relationship in this book really did fascinate me. The story itself uses a lot of scientific jargon that is non relatable to me, this was the main reason for my confusion that I mentioned earlier. I do like the story, and it is like nothing I have ever read but I just don’t think it’s up there with the best horror novels of all time. Will I read Koontz novels in the future? I don’t see why not!
Forgive the pun but I wondered if I was actually on Shadow Street because I did find myself in the dark for most of this book. It is a confusing story and sadly uninteresting at times. I found that most of the characters just didn’t engage me, and the story skipped from character to character so often that I couldn’t remember who was who. There were two characters in this story who make it a whole lot more interesting; Iris and Winny. Their relationship in this book really did fascinate me. The story itself uses a lot of scientific jargon that is non relatable to me, this was the main reason for my confusion that I mentioned earlier. I do like the story, and it is like nothing I have ever read but I just don’t think it’s up there with the best horror novels of all time. Will I read Koontz novels in the future? I don’t see why not!
craftygal's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
nanerbug's review against another edition
1.0
I had to stop reading this one. It was taking forever to get to any point, felt like the story was being dragged out to try to fill pages. I even forgot who wrote it by the time I gave up.
marlamd's review against another edition
2.0
I have been a Koontz fan for 25+ years and I have never disliked one of his books so much!! It blatantly borrowed from Phantoms and Darkfall. He was introducing new characters as late at page 270 and very few were fleshed out enough to care about. I gave it a 2 because the ending was good. But it was a fight to get to it!!
lethaldose's review against another edition
2.0
Ok, I didn't finish this book, I tried I really did, but there were too many characters in this book and too few of them were interesting. I never really grasped what was going on in the building which I suppose I would have if I had read the whole thing, but I just couldn't make myself care enough to want to finish the book, what i read of it wasn't horrible, but it just wasnt' interesting either.