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A review by buildhergender
The Mask by Owen West
2.0
The Mask by Dean Koontz
I am going to be doing Dean Koontz reviews differently than my normal reviews.
Personal feeling to the story: A decent read but definitely one of his earlier works. The lack of an epilogue keeps it from having a satisfactory ending and there really isn't much of the signature wacky/weird Koontz includes in his writing. I would have liked to know if the daughter got her memory back, and what happened to Carol and Paul afterwards.
From beginning to now Dean Koontz has been slowly moving from horror to life affirming, so I think his books should be gauged on a horror to life affirming measure.
With 1 being as horror filled as a Trump Presidency and 10 being as life affirming filled as a being buried alive by baby chickens
This was about a 3 on the meter. There was quite a bit of horror and gore elements in the story. Including the recounting of two different murders and the burning alive of someone in the past. Lightning that is motivated by personal vendetta. Dreams full of headless people and an ominous THUNK sound that will not leave the characters alone.
Weirdness/wacky content. A book written as straight with not at least a little bit of weirdness in them would not be a Dean Koontz book. This book does not have his signature weirdness and so I was not surprised to find out it was released under another pen name. Owen West
However, although it is not meant as wacky, there is a scene of a cat attacking a phantom human and eating part of his face. Ever since I saw that movie Cat’s Eye where it ended with the cat crawling down a man’s throat I can’t really take killer cats seriously.
500 word or less synopsis.
Paul and Carol are happily married and want to expand their marriage with children. However, Carol who gave up a baby as a teenager, can not get pregnant anymore so they decide to adopt. This seems like a good idea, but something is keeping them from doing so. First it is a freak lightning storm that almost kills the head of the adoption agency then it’s their paperwork being lost right before an approval meeting. Carol then runs over a young woman, who is about 16 years old. It’s not her fault as the girl walked out between two cars and Carol was already going well below the posted limit. There is no physical damage, but the girl is amnesiac, something Carol who is a psychiatrist, plans on helping. After release from the hospital Carol takes the girl back to her house and they work through hypnosis to find out who she is. During different sessions the girl gives different names and addresses, all which initially don’t pan out. Meanwhile Paul, a writer, is having trouble doing any writing because something keeps THUNKING into the house and he can’t figure out what it is. Finally we learn that a hundred years ago a daughter died in a cellar during a house fire and that she died cursing her mother thinking her mother was purposely trying to kill her. Unknown to her, the mother also died in the fire. The mother was reincarnated and had a child, the original daughter reincarnated, who went crazy and tried to kill the mother on her 16th birthday. She failed and was killed by her mother. This happens again years later and now Carol is repeating the third reincarnation of this, the girl with amnesia is the daughter she gave up as a teenager. However, an aunt who saw the original fire is also reincarnated and is able to explain it all to the mother and daughter and the curse is broken.
Golden Retriever Watch:
No golden retrievers appeared in this book. (But there was a demon cat)
I am going to be doing Dean Koontz reviews differently than my normal reviews.
Personal feeling to the story: A decent read but definitely one of his earlier works. The lack of an epilogue keeps it from having a satisfactory ending and there really isn't much of the signature wacky/weird Koontz includes in his writing. I would have liked to know if the daughter got her memory back, and what happened to Carol and Paul afterwards.
From beginning to now Dean Koontz has been slowly moving from horror to life affirming, so I think his books should be gauged on a horror to life affirming measure.
With 1 being as horror filled as a Trump Presidency and 10 being as life affirming filled as a being buried alive by baby chickens
This was about a 3 on the meter. There was quite a bit of horror and gore elements in the story. Including the recounting of two different murders and the burning alive of someone in the past. Lightning that is motivated by personal vendetta. Dreams full of headless people and an ominous THUNK sound that will not leave the characters alone.
Weirdness/wacky content. A book written as straight with not at least a little bit of weirdness in them would not be a Dean Koontz book. This book does not have his signature weirdness and so I was not surprised to find out it was released under another pen name. Owen West
However, although it is not meant as wacky, there is a scene of a cat attacking a phantom human and eating part of his face. Ever since I saw that movie Cat’s Eye where it ended with the cat crawling down a man’s throat I can’t really take killer cats seriously.
500 word or less synopsis.
Paul and Carol are happily married and want to expand their marriage with children. However, Carol who gave up a baby as a teenager, can not get pregnant anymore so they decide to adopt. This seems like a good idea, but something is keeping them from doing so. First it is a freak lightning storm that almost kills the head of the adoption agency then it’s their paperwork being lost right before an approval meeting. Carol then runs over a young woman, who is about 16 years old. It’s not her fault as the girl walked out between two cars and Carol was already going well below the posted limit. There is no physical damage, but the girl is amnesiac, something Carol who is a psychiatrist, plans on helping. After release from the hospital Carol takes the girl back to her house and they work through hypnosis to find out who she is. During different sessions the girl gives different names and addresses, all which initially don’t pan out. Meanwhile Paul, a writer, is having trouble doing any writing because something keeps THUNKING into the house and he can’t figure out what it is. Finally we learn that a hundred years ago a daughter died in a cellar during a house fire and that she died cursing her mother thinking her mother was purposely trying to kill her. Unknown to her, the mother also died in the fire. The mother was reincarnated and had a child, the original daughter reincarnated, who went crazy and tried to kill the mother on her 16th birthday. She failed and was killed by her mother. This happens again years later and now Carol is repeating the third reincarnation of this, the girl with amnesia is the daughter she gave up as a teenager. However, an aunt who saw the original fire is also reincarnated and is able to explain it all to the mother and daughter and the curse is broken.
Golden Retriever Watch:
No golden retrievers appeared in this book. (But there was a demon cat)