Loop Me in, Odd One

My mother has a tendency to laugh aloud when reading books, and when you say, "What?" she usually ends up reading selections from books to you. She did this to me one day recently, and the things she would read to me were quite funny, but odd as well, pun intended. At the end of the night, my mother came to me while I was almost sleeping on the couch and dropped Odd Thomas on my stomach with two words; "Read this." Now, my mother, being a teacher and a librarian, has earned quite a bit of respect from me, so I often do what she tells me, but as the book had the name Dean Koontz across the top of it, I was a little wary... not that I don't like Koontz, but I'm scared to read his stuff. I started the book Intensity one time and had to stop because I thought it was going to be over my head. I've decided to pick it up as soon as I finish reading this, skipping the fifth Harry Potter book that my mother insisted I stop reading to allow more time for Odd Thomas. Once again, mother was right.

Odd Thomas, yes that is his name. Odd's name is odd, as he himself is. You see, Odd sees dead people. Yeah, yeah, I rolled my eyes when I read this part, too, just what I don't feel interested in is another Sixth Sense story. But Odd is different; he's not depressed and scared like you expect this kind of character to be, he just goes about his day and helps the dead. Few people in Pico Mundo, where Odd lives, know about his gift, the few including his soulmate Stormy Llewellyn, his friends Terri and Little Ozzie, and the police chief and his wife. Besides seeing the dead, however, Odd also sees what he calls Bodachs. And after the wild start to his day on August 14, when our story begins, expecting the day to be mild in comparison, his expectations are shot down when he sees not one, not two bodachs, but 20 or more following an unfamiliar man; "Fungus Man."

You see, bodachs come around when "something terrible" is going to happen. They don't just show up when someone is going to be killed or die in their sleep; they thrive on destructive death, like bombings or plane crashes. Odd Thomas has never seen more than 20, until today.

What's going in little Pico Mundo that has attracted all these restless creatures? Odd has to find out; he attempts to prevent death when he can, and when he can't is when he feels unaccomplished. Odd uses what he calls his "psychic magnetism" to find Fungus Man and tries to find out (without being too illegal) what is in store for quiet Pico Mundo. But what is in store is worse than even odd Odd Thomas could ever know.

This book is hard to summarize without giving too much away, so I hope you'll forgive me, and please leave comments if you think I should add more about the story.

Odd Thomas goes through not only physical turmoil as he attempts to save Pico Mundo, his world, but emotional turmoil as well. Koontz has written this story in the first person point of view, as if Odd himself is writing the book, and while Odd speaks with a sort of detached quality, you can sense so much underlying emotion in the way he describes even the littlest things. He's often humorous, seemingly without knowing it, and the dark, almost depressing quality of this book is contrasted fantastically with the humor also within. As he lives in such a small town, Odd knows many of the people over whom the bodachs seem to be swarming, as if in preparation for the coming events. How to warn them to be careful without letting on his sixth sense is difficult, and many of the people don't take his warnings seriously. Odd seeks comfort in trying to help these people, and when this seems to fail, he resorts to his parents, who, though they live apart, have similar lives, considering their sanity.

Odd's character is so well developed I felt like I knew him personally, and could easily place a face on him by the time I was through reading. Even the many characters that only use up a few pages are very well drawn, and the entire town of Pico Mundo seems homey to me.

Though the story is a little far-fetched, it hits home easily, as it is written so well. The characters' actions and the little details in Koontz's writing make you feel as if you are already familiar with the people and the story. As I read in someone else's review, though, Koontz doesn't seem to think chapters are good stopping points, which, though originally I found it annoying, really added to the flow of the story.

This entire story takes place over the course of a few days. I found nothing wrong with this story, and in fact its got to be one of the best I've read in a long time. Though the mood as a bit depressing, as I said before, I really enjoyed it and I even enjoyed the ending, which is often more than most people can say.