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A review by cnapple
77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Now 0/2 on my search to find a genuinely scary October read. This novel just dragged. The prose is overly descriptive and repetitive. There's only so many pages-long rhapsodic descriptions of fungus that can be supported by one novel.
Same goes for the characters. The cast is way too crowded and none of them are developed enough to understand their motivations or even care if they survive the plot. It also feels like Koontz just threw a bunch of ethnic backgrounds in a bag and drew at random for the cast. Maybe one of his editors told him that white male authors needto add some diversity to their stories these days, but it didn't feel genuine. Their ethnicities and backgrounds don't bring anything to the story or change their behavior in a meaningful way and it just feels hollow. Same for the children, they essentially speak and act the same as every other character rather than feeling like real children. Everyone is either brave, reasonable and heroic, or nonsensically foolish or evil. Not to mention the characters that were thrown into the mix at random intervals only to be gruesomely killed shortly thereafter.
As for the plot, there seemed to be some potential for an interesting mystery at first, but about halfway through the novel most of what's going on is revealed without any fanfare by a narrative POV that seems totally unnecessary and even detrimental to the storytelling.There's one final "twist" that's clearly meant to be shocking, but falls flat as there's no build up to it whatsoever. It felt like Koontz got to the end and decided he needed a villain and just threw a dart at a list of names. Don't make the same mistake as the editors, and give this one a pass.
Same goes for the characters. The cast is way too crowded and none of them are developed enough to understand their motivations or even care if they survive the plot. It also feels like Koontz just threw a bunch of ethnic backgrounds in a bag and drew at random for the cast. Maybe one of his editors told him that white male authors needto add some diversity to their stories these days, but it didn't feel genuine. Their ethnicities and backgrounds don't bring anything to the story or change their behavior in a meaningful way and it just feels hollow. Same for the children, they essentially speak and act the same as every other character rather than feeling like real children. Everyone is either brave, reasonable and heroic, or nonsensically foolish or evil. Not to mention the characters that were thrown into the mix at random intervals only to be gruesomely killed shortly thereafter.
As for the plot, there seemed to be some potential for an interesting mystery at first, but about halfway through the novel most of what's going on is revealed without any fanfare by a narrative POV that seems totally unnecessary and even detrimental to the storytelling.There's one final "twist" that's clearly meant to be shocking, but falls flat as there's no build up to it whatsoever. It felt like Koontz got to the end and decided he needed a villain and just threw a dart at a list of names. Don't make the same mistake as the editors, and give this one a pass.