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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
I haven't read a Dean Koontz in quite a few years and I was curious about this one. I found it very enjoyable readm quirky and fun. I hope he makes a serious from these characters.
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My lowest rated book on this app by far after 300+ books rated. If this was just regularly mediocre or bad I'd have rated it 1.5 or 2 probably but it's also got piles of awful right wing propaganda and talking points all throughout.
Anti environmentalism (says electric cars are worse for the environment than gas cars, says wind turbines will make birds extinct even though they kill thousands of birds a year vs BILLIONS killed by cats for example).
Anti immigrant (blames immigrants for the bad driving in California saying they don't understand the laws as if they're somehow incapable of understanding traffic laws)
Anti helping the poor (literally at one point says programs and services to help the poor are actually to make the rich richer. Weird because it's always rich people wanting to cut services that help those in need)
Anti feminism (says women were better off in the past because men were chivalrous, ignoring how they had far less rights financially and bodily and were treated as property)
There's so much right wing propaganda and disinformation about the harm to birds and how crime used to be so much lower (except it was much higher in the LA metro area in the 80s and 90s than now. This writer is very old so he either forgot how life was in the past or is intentionally lying about crime rates).
In fact the amount of bashing of California (very popular for right wingers) makes me wonder wtf this man is doing living here. If you read the narrator and protagonist of this book you'd think California is a hellscape of crime and homelessness. At one point the narrator literally says 1/3 of drivers are criminals or on drugs while driving. Koontz should GTFO if he hates it here so much.
Add on top of this he places the blame for every ill on academics, rich elites and the government and it's only a few steps away from being a Q Anon storyline about secret elites and deep state ruining the world for nice people (that's literally in this book: the evil conspiracy is to take down nice people, that's it!).
His attacks on the rich are also laughable because the hero sounds rich and the narrator defends the "poor" oil companies from the evil environmentalists (literally a line in this book).
If there were just a few examples of this type of thing it would be easier to overlook but it's riddled throughout the book and usually comes completely out of the blue from the narrator or the mouths of the heroes.
Beyond all that crap the book is quite boring (one of the most lifeless and boring protagonists who is basically a naive teddy bear), a story with zero real obstacles in the way of achieving their goals, an insufferable waitress turned private eye turned girlfriend turned fiancee character (all in seven hours I think?) who is non stop bad attempts at quippy awful lines that are supposed to be funny and clever, I think.
I genuinely wouldn't have been able to finish this if I was reading it instead of listening to it as an audiobook while working. Truly terrible. If I rolled my eyes any more times I'd cause permanent damage I think.
There's a line about women in their 20s wanting to have babies with John Wayne a fake movie tough guy (military service in WWII dodger) who's been dead for 50 years or something and who walked like he had permanently crapped his pants. I'm sure all the 25 year olds in 2024 love John Wayne.
If this book was written in 1984 I'd probably be more forgiving of the levels of backwardness but nah this is a book in 2024 with views from the 50s.
I'm still curious about other books by the author because this is literally my first experience with his work. I hope the rest is better, I don't think it can get much worse for me.
Anti environmentalism (says electric cars are worse for the environment than gas cars, says wind turbines will make birds extinct even though they kill thousands of birds a year vs BILLIONS killed by cats for example).
Anti immigrant (blames immigrants for the bad driving in California saying they don't understand the laws as if they're somehow incapable of understanding traffic laws)
Anti helping the poor (literally at one point says programs and services to help the poor are actually to make the rich richer. Weird because it's always rich people wanting to cut services that help those in need)
Anti feminism (says women were better off in the past because men were chivalrous, ignoring how they had far less rights financially and bodily and were treated as property)
There's so much right wing propaganda and disinformation about the harm to birds and how crime used to be so much lower (except it was much higher in the LA metro area in the 80s and 90s than now. This writer is very old so he either forgot how life was in the past or is intentionally lying about crime rates).
In fact the amount of bashing of California (very popular for right wingers) makes me wonder wtf this man is doing living here. If you read the narrator and protagonist of this book you'd think California is a hellscape of crime and homelessness. At one point the narrator literally says 1/3 of drivers are criminals or on drugs while driving. Koontz should GTFO if he hates it here so much.
Add on top of this he places the blame for every ill on academics, rich elites and the government and it's only a few steps away from being a Q Anon storyline about secret elites and deep state ruining the world for nice people (that's literally in this book: the evil conspiracy is to take down nice people, that's it!).
His attacks on the rich are also laughable because the hero sounds rich and the narrator defends the "poor" oil companies from the evil environmentalists (literally a line in this book).
If there were just a few examples of this type of thing it would be easier to overlook but it's riddled throughout the book and usually comes completely out of the blue from the narrator or the mouths of the heroes.
Beyond all that crap the book is quite boring (one of the most lifeless and boring protagonists who is basically a naive teddy bear), a story with zero real obstacles in the way of achieving their goals, an insufferable waitress turned private eye turned girlfriend turned fiancee character (all in seven hours I think?) who is non stop bad attempts at quippy awful lines that are supposed to be funny and clever, I think.
I genuinely wouldn't have been able to finish this if I was reading it instead of listening to it as an audiobook while working. Truly terrible. If I rolled my eyes any more times I'd cause permanent damage I think.
There's a line about women in their 20s wanting to have babies with John Wayne a fake movie tough guy (military service in WWII dodger) who's been dead for 50 years or something and who walked like he had permanently crapped his pants. I'm sure all the 25 year olds in 2024 love John Wayne.
If this book was written in 1984 I'd probably be more forgiving of the levels of backwardness but nah this is a book in 2024 with views from the 50s.
I'm still curious about other books by the author because this is literally my first experience with his work. I hope the rest is better, I don't think it can get much worse for me.
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Benny had been going through it but he keeps on smiling. Spike shows up to find the people who are ruining his life and put it back on track. I didn't know what to expect with this book because I have never read Koontz before and this was a very weird story but enjoyable. Benny, Harper and Spike were all very good characters though I didn't care for the fourth wall broke. I will say that I am curious to read his other works after reading this one.
this book is extremely unserious and silly. i would’ve given it a 2 or 3, but it was so damn enjoyable it gets a 4
polar opposite vibes of the authors “Phantoms”, it’s almost giving lemony snickett. the concept is silly and borderline cringe, especially the romance, but it’s so well written that it makes it a good read. i would’ve liked if the flashback sub plot was more tied in to the main story, but still a good read/listen
great audio book!
polar opposite vibes of the authors “Phantoms”, it’s almost giving lemony snickett. the concept is silly and borderline cringe, especially the romance, but it’s so well written that it makes it a good read. i would’ve liked if the flashback sub plot was more tied in to the main story, but still a good read/listen
great audio book!
Quite an unexpected read from Dean Koontz. I picked it up as part of Amazon's first reads offer for January. It was listed as a thriller but in reality it was a humorous fantasy with it's tongue firmly in it's cheek. Really quite different from anything I've read by Dean Koontz before.
Benny Catspaw has an optimistic view of life but that's all tested when he looses his job, his reputation, his finacee and his favourite chair all in one day. Someone is out to get him and he doesn't know who or why. Along comes Spike who is a Craggle, a seven foot tall supernatural creature whose job it is to protect him and who enjoys intimidating people who cross him by removing his own internal organs. As it says at one point in the book, "...He would have opened his abdomen, extracted his stomach—an organ with its own teeth—and set it loose to chase them around the room until they collapsed, exhausted by terror."
That's the type of book this is!
The story is interspersed with flashbacks to his childhood where he faces a number of calamities that end with him at boarding school where he faces a number of bizzare and funny predicaments that involve him and his two friends battling a headmaster who is acting under the influence of some unknown force that may just be alien in origin.
What I read was nothing like I was expecting but thoroughly enjoyable and I loved the humour. It's a pretty feelgood and really it's a delightful read.
Benny Catspaw has an optimistic view of life but that's all tested when he looses his job, his reputation, his finacee and his favourite chair all in one day. Someone is out to get him and he doesn't know who or why. Along comes Spike who is a Craggle, a seven foot tall supernatural creature whose job it is to protect him and who enjoys intimidating people who cross him by removing his own internal organs. As it says at one point in the book, "...He would have opened his abdomen, extracted his stomach—an organ with its own teeth—and set it loose to chase them around the room until they collapsed, exhausted by terror."
That's the type of book this is!
The story is interspersed with flashbacks to his childhood where he faces a number of calamities that end with him at boarding school where he faces a number of bizzare and funny predicaments that involve him and his two friends battling a headmaster who is acting under the influence of some unknown force that may just be alien in origin.
What I read was nothing like I was expecting but thoroughly enjoyable and I loved the humour. It's a pretty feelgood and really it's a delightful read.
