Reviews

I received an advance copy for free through GoodReads’ First Reads.

I read a lot of Dean Koontz’s books during my high school and college years, but have read almost none in the last 10 years, so I’m not really current on the Koontz oeuvre. But even to me, this felt like a lot of stock characters recycled to perform a lot of unnecessary tasks, making the book longer and less interesting than it needed to be. We spend a lot of time learning about characters who ultimately have very little to do in or with the story, while others more (and sometimes less) integral to the plot pop up halfway through with little explication.

Personally, I could get past bland characters if they were only serving as grist for a powerful storytelling mill. I mean, if something genuinely scary happens to a character, it’s going to be scary regardless of who it happens to, right? And the book does kick off fairly fast, but after the first couple chapters I just wasn’t feeling the tension. It takes too long for the stakes to be raised, as we keep switching from one pointless character to another to experience the same level of anxiety or suspense from 10 different perspectives.

So you slog through 400+ pages of that, and suddenly the bland characters have saved the world by

Spoiler

assassinating scientists for their ideas (because knowledge and ideas die with the scientists, right?), and then two of the most stock bland characters (“ex-military guy” and “single mom with inner strength who really loves her darn-good kid”) are married and having a kid together and the stepson is so thrilled to finally have a real dad and a dog. And that vision of domestic bliss is how you know they’ve really saved the world, and not just postponed the inevitable or something.

You’ll probably be too busy saying “WTF?” to barf.

Overall, it felt like a thin and sloppily assembled plot, more tied to finding an unusual explanation for an apparent haunting than exploring any number of the bigger and far more interesting ideas popping up at the resolution of the story. I’m giving it two stars because it wasn’t that painful to read, and if you shut your brain off at the end and/or move on immediately to another book it won’t seem that bad.

amy_da1sy's review against another edition

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4.0

I’ve not read many of this authors books but this was such a good one and makes me want to read more of them.

soulpopped's review against another edition

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2.0

Too many characters, not enough... anything good.

brittwake22's review against another edition

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1.0

The book had potential to be good. With a unique story line, consisting of multiple viewpoints of the residents of The Pendleton apartment complex, in their race against time and monsters. But the story never got exciting and just kind of stopped.

katrienvancalster's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

kaela_readsnwrites's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

2.5 ⭐️
It was an okay read. It wasn't particularly scary, just really weird but not in an intriguing way. I have to admit I did rush through the last third just to get it done with.

I didn't enjoy the chapters of the 'One', they just seemed to be a rambling word soup most of the time, and they didn't always make sense for a being that should be driven by logic.

I feel the author was a little safe with his victims, and as a result, none of the losses hit very hard. However, I don't feel we ever got much time to really bond with any of the characters so I don't think I'd have been too bothered by most of them dying. We were given back-stories for a few characters, but mostly, they didn't seem relevant to the story overall. Yet, there were a couple where more information would have been helpful but was lacking.

This is a personal preference, but I really didn't like the chapter structure changing up. At the start, we had short chapters that kept the pacing up whilst giving us time to focus on each of the characters involved. However, after the 'transition', the chapters were longer & kept switching point of view fairly quickly - well, except for when the author decided to randomly spend a few pages with one character. It ended up feeling rather jarring & messed up what I thought was a good momentum in the first third or so.

This horror went down the science-fiction route rather than the supernatural, and I feel that was to its detriment. To me, the 'science' never really stacked up or explained anything very well.

The ending felt a bit thrown together, and new information suddenly sprung on the reader for it to make sense. Although, to me, it still didn't make much sense. Perhaps because there were too many points of view, there was never enough time spent on certain characters to build a foundation for the ultimate reveal and conclusion. So in the end, it all fell a bit flat.

This, for me, was an okay read with an unsatisfying ending. I was hoping it would set off my spooky reading this autumn, but it was just a bit of a damp squib.

wombat_88's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

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