Sundays In Bed With... Odd Apocalypse!

It's Sunday morning!  What are you curled up in bed with today?  Share what book you're reading today (or wish you were reading if you only had the day to yourself to stay in bed reading).  Just add to the linky below or comment.  Better yet, take a picture of the book in your bed and post on your blog!

It's a rainy day here, which is my favorite for laying in bed reading.  Sadly, I have to work all day today, although I get a fair share of reading done at work usually.  I need to finish up the last few pages of Pure by Julianna Baggott and I need to finish the last 27 percent of A Feast For Crows (A Song Of Ice and Fire #4)  by George R.R. Martin... but I'm hoping to start this today:

Odd Apocalypse!!!  I'd really like to be able to at least start it before it's released to the general public at the end of this month.  I'm not crazy about the new covers of the Odd books, I think I prefer the old style, but as long as the pages contain my beloved Odd one, I won't complain... much.

So participate in my meme and let me know what book you're reading today!

Odd Interlude Review

Odd Interlude
by Dean Koontz
From Goodreads:

Nestled on a lonely stretch along the Pacific coast, quaint roadside outpost Harmony Corner offers everything a weary traveler needs—a cozy diner, a handy service station, a cluster of motel rooms . . . and the Harmony family homestead presiding over it all. But when Odd Thomas and company stop to spend the night, they discover that there’s more to this secluded haven than meets the eye—and that between life and death, there is something more frightening than either.

My Thoughts:  Odd Interlude is a novella in three parts that includes more ties to the Moonlight Bay books. As I may have mentioned, possibly in every blog post I've ever written, I love Odd Thomas.  I also possibly have a crush on David Aaron Baker, who narrates the Odd Thomas books, and soon I will no doubt be obsessing over Anton Yelchin, who will be playing Odd in the upcoming movie.

From IMDb: Anton Yelchin (aka Odd)

 
Odd has become a slight obsession of mine, or may in fact be a full fledged obsession, I'll let you be the judge of that.  And yes, I am aware that some of you reading this are the same bloggers that I begged at BEA to help me get my grubby fan-girl hands on a copy of Odd Apocalypse. My crazy worked though, Kim helped me accost a Power Reader to get a copy.

So even though I got a copy of the ARC for Odd Apocalypse, I couldn't read it right away. No doubt you think I'm insane, but in my defense I wanted to read the novella Odd Interlude that was releasing in 3 parts over the last month or so.  I may have loosened up some in regards to reading series out of order, but I couldn't do that to my Odd one.

In Odd Interlude, Odd and Annamarie are still fleeing frome the events of Magic Beach, so the story picks up immediately after Odd Hours.  Odd and his strange abilities are drawn to Harmony Corner- a family owned motor-court and restaurant.  Things in Harmony Corner are not very harmonious though.  There aren't any ghosts or bodachs here, but there is some crazy evil that Odd must battle with, which he does in true Odd fashion.  He's still a reluctant hero, but as always he is compelled to help those in need.

We also meet twelve year old Jolie, who is a typical preternaturally smart Koontz kid.  Unlike the other Odd books, some of the chapters in the novella are told from Jolie's POV, which I loved.  I think Jolie and I are going to start the Odd Thomas fan club.  She sees Odd through the same rose-colored glasses that I do.

Odd Interlude has plenty of action and mayhem- mutant creatures, super computers, families held hostage, secrets, car jacking and other hijinks are perpetuated on and by Odd.  Fortunately Annamarie plays a small role in the story, because her mysteriousness has begun to wear thin on me.  I don't remember disliking her in Odd Hours, but she was definitely annoying me with her Yoda like answers in this novella.  She'd better start giving some answers in Odd Apocalypse!  She's like and enigma wrapped up in a pregnant riddle.  I do like her dog though, so that's something, right?

So is Odd Interlude worth it?  For Odd fans it's a must!  I don't think you have to read it before Odd Apocalypse, but it's just another chance to be looped in with the Odd one. ;)

Odd Interlude gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

What The Night Knows

What the Night Knows
by Dean Koontz
From Goodreads:

In the late summer of a long ago year, a killer arrived in a small city. His name was Alton Turner Blackwood, and in the space of a few months he brutally murdered four families. His savage spree ended only when he himself was killed by the last survivor of the last family, a fourteen-year-old boy.

Half a continent away and two decades later, someone is murdering families again, recreating in detail Blackwood’s crimes. Homicide detective John Calvino is certain that his own family—his wife and three children—will be targets in the fourth crime, just as his parents and sisters were victims on that distant night when he was fourteen and killed their slayer.

As a detective, John is a man of reason who deals in cold facts. But an extraordinary experience convinces him that sometimes death is not a one-way journey, that sometimes the dead return.

Here is ghost story like no other you have read. In the Calvinos, Dean Koontz brings to life a family that might be your own, in a war for their survival against an adversary more malevolent than any he has yet created, with their own home the battleground. Of all his acclaimed novels, none exceeds What the Night Knows in power, in chilling suspense, and in sheer mesmerizing storytelling.

My Thoughts: A little darker than some of his more recent books, What the Night Knows is still full of what Koontz does best- precocious kids and magical dogs, although the dog's part is small. What the Night Knows is about John, who lost his entire family to a serial killer. Before 14 year old John kills Alton Turner Blackwood, the killer makes a promise to return some day when John has kids. Flash forward 20 years, and John is meeting with Billy, a 14 year old with choir boy looks who just blew away his entire family, his crimes and words echoing Alton Turner Blackwood. Now John, his wife and his 3 adorable moppets, sorry, children, are in danger, as are other innocent families.

There were lots of things I liked about this book, but they are also things that might turn people off of it. First the kids, they are all pretty perfect and speak like tiny adults, it's not very realistic buy hey, they are home schooled. Like most Koontz books, this is about a struggle against good and evil, and it is clear what side Koontz is rooting for, and although this book is about a truly heinous serial killer there is still an underlying faith. There are also lots of extra characters, most are not the cute, harmless friends and neighbors one sees in other Koontz books, as these are people who walk the darker side of the streets, but the reader is given a glimpse into their minds, and they are known.

Koontz's writing full on Odd Thomas, and I think it would almost be better to listen to the audio version of this book. There are whole passages that would come alive if read out loud, but otherwise feels a bit cumbersome at times as you're reading. And although you get to read Alton Turner Brown's journal, I still don't know why he picked whole families to kill, or why no one in the Calvino house talks of the haunted feeling the house acquires upon Blackwood's return.

Overall it was a Koontz win for me. It is very violent, maybe more violent than I've come to expect from Koontz, but he stays away from Richard Laymon territory. There's always hope in Dean Koontz books, yes there will be death and despair, but there's still the hope that good can defeat evil.

What the Night Knows gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

Book Blogger Hop 10.14-10.17

It's been a long time since I hopped!  I'm trying really hard to comment everyday on blogs (at least 10 comments per day), and of course the Hop is perfect for connecting with other bloggers and finding even more great book blogs to add to my overstuffed Google Reader! ;) Hop along at Crazy For Books

This week's question:

“What is your favorite spooky book (i.e. mystery/suspense, thriller, ghost story, etc.)?”

This should be an easy question, but not for me!  So I'm going to cheat a bit and give a couple of different answers:

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
What don't I love about the Odd one?  He's become one of my all time favorite literary characters.  He see's dead people, but by gosh, he does something about it!  Although I love the series, the very first book is just magic.  Odd's voice, his personality, his sense of right and wrong, everything just drags me in.  His friends and family are wonderfully unique as he is.  I've lost count all the times I've talked about Odd Thomas on my blog, but there's a reason.  While Koontz is a hit or miss author for me, he won me as a fan for life when he breathed life into Odd.



It by Stephen King
I read It for the first time in while I was in the sixth grade and it wasn't even the first King book I'd read.  I have always fancied myself a fan of horror/scary stories, but It was really the first book that scared the crap out of me.  I wanted to be part of the Loser's Club, and when they descended into the sewers of Derry, I really was there with them.  I think King gets a lot of attention as a great horror writer, but he's just an incredibly great writer, period. It's not all about scariness or gore, he writes people so well.  I particularly love how he writes kids, he's just got an amazing talent. There are lots of King books that hold a special place in my heart, and maybe even a few like The Stand that I love more than It.  But It was my first real experience in getting lost completely in a book, and when the mini-series came out a few years later, I got to see it brought to life.  Subsequent re-reads (of which there has been many) always feature Tim Curry as Pennywise and Jonathan Bradis (RIP, Mr. Brandis) as Stuttering Bill.  "He thrusts his fists against the post and still insists he sees the ghost."  The moment Bill's little brother loses his paper boat to a storm drain and meets Pennywise, I dare you not to be terrified.

The best part of October for me is listening to scary stories while driving.  Here's a few of my favorites:

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (currently I'm still listening to this one, but it's fantastic, although it holds a lot of humor!)

And of course, the first time I read Odd Thomas was in audio book format, and the narrator is perfect!

Relentless by Dean Koontz

"Doom."

Sometimes I feel like there are two Dean Koontzes. One who writes fantastic, edge of your seat thrillers filled with wonderful, quirky characters like Odd Thomas and Cubby Greenwich. And then there's the Dean Koontz that writes books like he's obligated to, but not particularly inspired to deliver a great read- like in Your Heart Belongs To Me.

Those who know me well are aware of my literary crush on Odd Thomas. I adore him, and in his character Koontz has found a compelling voice. If you ever get the chance to listen to the audio book of Odd Thomas, or any of the sequels, do so. The narrator is perfect.

But this post is not about Odd, although like Lassie in Relentless, Mr. Thomas always pops up in the most strange places. So, moving on!

When I first saw Relentless on the Dean Koontz website I thought it might be a follow up to his incredible book Intensity. While it didn't have the same glaring orange and yellow book jacket, the titles struck me as very similar. But I was wary. It wasn't so long ago that I trudged through Your Heart Belongs To Me, and I haven't the will to even finish a much earlier work of his, The Door To December. So although Relentless has been out for many months now, I waited.

Reading the summary gave me some hope that this was going to be a special Koontz book, so it was one of the first books I ordered when I joined Book Swim. However, the book arrived with some Sookie Stackhouse novels, and Mr. Koontz was relegated to the back of the line while I finished my adventures for the time being in Bon Temps.

Finally, all done until May with the Southern Vampire Series, I turned my almost undivided attention to Relentless (I usually read a couple books at a time, until one book breaks from the pack- this time Blue Bloods Masquerade was the one to wait at the back of the line). Pretty much from the very first sentences the book had me.

I think Koontz is at his best when he writes first person narrative. Or I might be biased, because Cubby Greenwich, the main character from Relentless, could be Odd Thomas' older brother. For that matter his wife Penny could be Stormy's older, less tragic , sister. Sorry- back to the story. Cubby- real name Cullen which I just adore because I feel like it's some shout out to Twilight but realize that it's probably not- is a successful writer. His wife, Penny Boom Greenwich, is an artist who also writes and illustrates children books. Together they have a 6 year old son, who goes by Milo. He's an uncommon genius. Lassie, not a collie, is the family dog, and there's something special about her.

Anyone who has read past Koontz books knows this is something of a trend with him. There are several super intelligent kiddies in his other books- From The Corner Of His Eyes is one that immediately springs to mind- and lots and lots of books with special dogs. I don't mind though, I usually like the books with his smart tykes and supernatural dogs and I'm no literary snob. Sometimes it's nice to know what you're going to get when you pick up a book. Nicholas Sparks will give you love with a fair share of grief (most likely someone is going to die, but not before love is realized). Jodi Picoult will give you controversy, tough decisions, and wonderfully flawed and realistic humans. Johanna Lindsey will give you romance, and Stephenie Meyers will give you a happy ending. In the end they may not endure through history like Shakespeare, but in my opinion there's nothing wrong with having a semi-formula.

Back to Cubby and his family. They are all very happy and very loving and basically have the ideal family life despite having a son who is already done with college and moving on to quantum physics so advanced that Koontz can't and doesn't explain and I couldn't follow anyhow. Cubby's new book is out and reviews are coming in. He's published 6 or so previous novels and had some good reviews and some bad, but nothing prepares him for the vicious bile spewed by reclusive critic Shearman Waxx (I'll admit I thought his name was Sherman for the longest time, but it's Shearman). Cubby is shaken. Penny his wife advises him to let it go, while his agent seems to think being skewed by Waxx is a good thing.

Cubby Greenwich does not let it go.

That's not to say he calls up Waxx and demands an apology for his scathing and rather personal review. He's bothered mostly by that fact that Waxx appears to not have even read the actual book and at the fact that Waxx has lousy syntax. I can only hope Cubby doesn't stumble upon this blog... Cubby rather finds himself in the position to view Waxx in one of his rare public outings to a restaurant they both frequent. Cubby does not tell his wife, nor does he lie, rather he omits the truth. It turns out that Mr. Greenwich also has a BIG secret past that he has omitted from his wife's knowledge- bet that will come into play later in the story.

From then on the book begins to pick up pace. After an almost funny encounter with Waxx, who recognizes Cubby, the mean critic whispers one word, "Doom." The peace in that had been the Boom-Greenwich household is literally about to blow up. Waxx has it out for Cubby, who's bright optimistic outlook on life fills his books seems to really tick the critic off. Relentless is the precise word for which Waxx targets Cubby and family.

As they run from Waxx, the family encounters many quirky characters, like Ma and Pa Boom, Penny's survivalist demolition parents, and Milo's awesome hardass, pink wearing, gun toting babysitter, Vivian Norby. Cubby and Penny also discover what happened to a few other authors who's novels were skewered by Waxx and the knowledge only heightens the danger. Along the way Cubby also tells the reader about his BIG secret past, and it's a shocker. Well, not really for me, because I read Koontz's book Coldfire years and years ago that had a character with a similar tragic past (although he was a much different character than Cubby, and his circumstances, while mortally dangerous as well, were vastly separate)

I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I will say that this book had my heart rate up and my full attention. Right before I finished the book I had to take my Chiweenie, Emmy, out for a walk in the dark dark night, and quite frankly I was spooked. I like to pretend otherwise, but if I'm honest, I know that I would not survive to the end of a Koontz novel. While somewhat witty and charming (WARNING: blatant self compliments!), my nerves often are shattered in simple non-sinister games of hide and seek.

For me this book was an A, and I can even forgive Dean Koontz for veering off the Odd Thomas sequel path that I would firmly set him upon should I ever have the chance to put the author in a Misery like position. I also have to wonder if Relentless, and all his other books about special kids and super dogs, will accumulate into one awesome end of the world struggle book? I can dream!

In the very end Koontz reminds up that love is relentless, as well as friendship and faimly, faith and the human heart. I would simply add that book bloggers are relentless as well.