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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
3.5 Stars
My not-for-children fiction reading took off in the summer of 1993 with Stephen King's [b: Christine|10629|Christine|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327270815s/10629.jpg|1150571]. Yes! the HoRrOR Genre!! And by 2001, I had completed reading about eight SK books (plus a couple of others, one-or-two here-and-there, and a few short stories by [a: Edgar Allan Poe|4624490|Edgar Allan Poe|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1427039804p2/4624490.jpg] and [a: M. R. James|2995925|M.R. James|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1254798756p2/2995925.jpg]. With all those synapses for horror benchmark created, I then read Dean Koontz, and disliked [b: The Voice of the Night|64949|The Voice of the Night|Brian Coffey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1308461608s/64949.jpg|888389], followed by [b: Winter Moon|268559|Winter Moon|Dean Koontz|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347808490s/268559.jpg|2034554], also slightly disappointing. Having realized, Koontz's stories lacked depth (at least in those two), I ended up not reading any of his books until now, with "Phantoms".
This time, I needed to get-away from SK's horror writing, and decided to try Koontz once again, most importantly without comparing to SK. Although this certainly did make a significant impact, eventually as much as many a times as King can use his language, Koontz just wouldn't. Koontz writing is just mostly plain and simple, focusing mainly on the story, and creating the psychologically induced suspense effect (which is terrific, no doubt about that!). "Phantoms" certainly had a high amount of suspense, kept for quite a long duration of time, about 350 of 450 pages, and with twists at places. Personally the ending wasn't great for me, but neither did I dislike it. It was alright. It was a satisfying read eventually, as much as a light-read goes for me usually as breaks!
For a large part of the book, I could rate it 4-star (about 370 pages) - but eventually I felt it was being dragged, and was followed by the usual action-style stuff, which bores me. Eventually the last 75 pages took as many days to drag-and-read, as the first 350 pages! As a result 3.5 Stars, and certainly better than my previous two Koontz reads.
My not-for-children fiction reading took off in the summer of 1993 with Stephen King's [b: Christine|10629|Christine|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327270815s/10629.jpg|1150571]. Yes! the HoRrOR Genre!! And by 2001, I had completed reading about eight SK books (plus a couple of others, one-or-two here-and-there, and a few short stories by [a: Edgar Allan Poe|4624490|Edgar Allan Poe|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1427039804p2/4624490.jpg] and [a: M. R. James|2995925|M.R. James|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1254798756p2/2995925.jpg]. With all those synapses for horror benchmark created, I then read Dean Koontz, and disliked [b: The Voice of the Night|64949|The Voice of the Night|Brian Coffey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1308461608s/64949.jpg|888389], followed by [b: Winter Moon|268559|Winter Moon|Dean Koontz|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347808490s/268559.jpg|2034554], also slightly disappointing. Having realized, Koontz's stories lacked depth (at least in those two), I ended up not reading any of his books until now, with "Phantoms".
This time, I needed to get-away from SK's horror writing, and decided to try Koontz once again, most importantly without comparing to SK. Although this certainly did make a significant impact, eventually as much as many a times as King can use his language, Koontz just wouldn't. Koontz writing is just mostly plain and simple, focusing mainly on the story, and creating the psychologically induced suspense effect (which is terrific, no doubt about that!). "Phantoms" certainly had a high amount of suspense, kept for quite a long duration of time, about 350 of 450 pages, and with twists at places. Personally the ending wasn't great for me, but neither did I dislike it. It was alright. It was a satisfying read eventually, as much as a light-read goes for me usually as breaks!
For a large part of the book, I could rate it 4-star (about 370 pages) - but eventually I felt it was being dragged, and was followed by the usual action-style stuff, which bores me. Eventually the last 75 pages took as many days to drag-and-read, as the first 350 pages! As a result 3.5 Stars, and certainly better than my previous two Koontz reads.
"They were all aware that death was coming for them, and they needed to understand why and how they were meant to die. Death was terrifying, yes; however, senseless death was the worst of all."Phantoms had such an intriguing and unique premise. Unfortunately, it ended up being rather confusing. Everything felt rather inconclusive and by the end I was left with more questions than answers.
When Dr. Jenny Page returns home, she discovers something terrifying: every single person in her small town of Snowfield, California is dead. It is up to Jenny to discover what happened and how.
What is disappointing about this novel is that we are never truly given a concrete explaination about what actually killed everyone in Snowfield. The answer is left up to interpretation; we are told it is either
Spoiler
a manifestation of the DevilSpoiler
an ancient prehistoric speciesAdditionally, the characters were rather mediocre. Nearly every single character in the story narrates a chapter at one point or another. Because there are so many different narrators, there really isn't enough time to develop each of them properly. The chapters aren't long enough to allow the reader to form an emotional attachment to any of the characters because the narrators are constantly shifting.
Ultimately, Phantoms was not as gripping or engaging as the summary makes it out to be. However, the horror scenes are well-written and atmospheric.
“When you come right down to it, maybe the only real devils are human beings; not all of us; not the species as a whole; just the ones who’re twisted, the ones who somehow never acquire empathy or compassion.
3.5 stars
This started out so creepy I was scared to turn my light off at night! I wish it would have turned out more supernatural than it did, but I gobbled it all up in a fairly short amount of time because I just had to see what happened next. This book got me out of a two month long reading slump. It was exactly what I needed!
This started out so creepy I was scared to turn my light off at night! I wish it would have turned out more supernatural than it did, but I gobbled it all up in a fairly short amount of time because I just had to see what happened next. This book got me out of a two month long reading slump. It was exactly what I needed!
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The way this book started, I was very intrigued. The situation was creepy, and it was a nice guessing game as to what happened. Unfortunately, the starting was the best bit for me, and it was all downhill from there.
It felt a lot like a movie novelisation more and more as I went along.
It starts out from the POV of Jenny. As more characters are introduced, the POVs keep changing. The worst was at the climax, the POVs kept changing with every sentence, with the same scenes through different eyes.
I was enjoying the unknown monster, where they didn't know what it was. And that it might be a Jurassic era moth. However when it was discovered what it was, and all the religious mumbo jumbo, I started looking forward to finishing the book as quickly as possible.
Kent was a horrible character and his would have been a great role. However I was bored by where his story led. Same with the asshole cop, Stu (I think).
Audiobook - I've seen a lot of people commenting that the narrator was terrible. I listened to a sample, and decided he wasn't bad. I didn't mind his narration at the start, but it got worse further on. He just wasn't good with the tension and scare factor.
People mentioned his female voices were terrible. Again, I didn't mind Jenny's and Lisa's voices. However when Valerie Chow and Dr Flyte were introduced, I despised the narration for their characters. It was just so bad.
I definitely think this book would have been better read than listened to. It just wasn't scary or interesting enough with that voice. However the book just wasn't that good either way.
It felt a lot like a movie novelisation more and more as I went along.
It starts out from the POV of Jenny. As more characters are introduced, the POVs keep changing. The worst was at the climax, the POVs kept changing with every sentence, with the same scenes through different eyes.
I was enjoying the unknown monster, where they didn't know what it was. And that it might be a Jurassic era moth. However when it was discovered what it was, and all the religious mumbo jumbo, I started looking forward to finishing the book as quickly as possible.
Kent was a horrible character and his would have been a great role. However I was bored by where his story led. Same with the asshole cop, Stu (I think).
Audiobook - I've seen a lot of people commenting that the narrator was terrible. I listened to a sample, and decided he wasn't bad. I didn't mind his narration at the start, but it got worse further on. He just wasn't good with the tension and scare factor.
People mentioned his female voices were terrible. Again, I didn't mind Jenny's and Lisa's voices. However when Valerie Chow and Dr Flyte were introduced, I despised the narration for their characters. It was just so bad.
I definitely think this book would have been better read than listened to. It just wasn't scary or interesting enough with that voice. However the book just wasn't that good either way.
First Koontz I have read in a long long time. This was awesome, characters you care about, quick pacing and scary. Very descriptive making this a page turner.
mysterious
slow-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
This book starts great and the sense of mystery is palpable. It does not last. The entire last 4th of the book I read on auto pilot. Absolutely hated it.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
My first Dean Koontz novel and definitely not my last. This book checked most of the marks for me: likable characters, several creepy scenes, science (!) with a little bit of history, and a battle of good vs. evil (without being cheesy). Pacing was nice and the creeps start right at the beginning! My only complaint is the Kale subplot. I wanted more from that for it to really stick for me. As it was, it sorta fell flat and felt like an afterthought. However, this is definitely a keeper for me.