BiblioAddict

Forever Odd by Dean Koontz finished sometime on August 17, 2008 (I forgot to write the time down).

Narrative: Six months following the events of Odd Thomas, Odd’s best friend is kidnapped for reasons unknown, and held captive in a haunted casino/hotel.  Sure that involving the police would only get his friend killed, Odd embarks on an impossible journey to save his friend from a sadistic woman and her fanatical goons.

Closing lines:

I don’t know what lies ahead for me in this world.  But I know [name omitted] waits for me in the next, and that knowledge makes this world less dark than it otherwise would be.

In spite of everything, I’ve chose life.  Now, on with it.

– Page 364

Finishing thoughts:  Well, it wasn’t as good as the first one, but Koontz’s larger-than-life Odd makes every page worth it.  Frankly, if it weren’t for the incredibly likeable Odd Thomas, this series probably wouldn’t rate above mediocrity.  But Odd, a young man with extraordinary talents who, in the face of his name (supposedly a birth certificate typo) and his gifts, strives only for normalcy even as he avenges the dead — well, maybe it sounds a little hokey, but he’s incredibly relatable, incredibly sympathetic, and so darned sweet that I think I might have a bit of literary crush on him.  But he’s already spoken for.  Then again, so am I, so maybe we’ll meet one day on the other side, in service.

Recommended if you’d like a bit of horror, a bit of mystery, and a quick, light read.  Still, you should probably read Odd Thomas first because it’s better and it goes a long way toward explaining why Odd is the way he is.

Favorite line:

Although I see the dead, whom others cannot see, the world wears many veils and is layered with secrets that cannot be perceived by merely a sixth sense.

– Page 108

Forever Odd
Bantam Books / Oct. 2006
$7.99 / 400 pps