Review: Odd Thomas (Book)

What's it about?

Odd is exactly that, odd. What else would you call someone who can regularly see the dead and other not so human creatures? In his small western town he's mostly accepted as himself and allowed to exist, work at a local diner, even fall in love.  Still something is brewing along the seams, in ways that only he can see. So he must choose if his oddness is something he can use to his advantage and stop whatever is coming.

Thoughts?

Full disclosure: Dean Koontz is an interesting author, and not generally my cup of tea, as he tends to wade into areas of horror that are less then interesting to me.  Though I will admit a certain love for a couple of his books and the ideas he weaves within. This book (and series) falls squarely within the Urban Fantasy genre, rather then horror, and thanks to it having a great movie tie in and even a manga series, I'll admit, I was curious.  For those who care, yes I've seen the movie and I really loved it. 

The author's writing style in the book caught me off guard. It's not so much writing as a long rambling conversation. This means we get to see into Odd's thoughts in a very personal way, but it also lends to a lot of tangents and a lot of pages where the story seems to take forever to actually go somewhere.  It makes the novel easy to read, but also very easy to put down because you just want the main character to get on with it!

I do love how the dead can't speak.  Not to Odd, not to anyone, but rather exist in silence around him. It adds an interesting touch and makes them easy to ignore, or hilarious to watch.  In the movie this trick was used masterfully, though in the book it was a bit easier to tell who was dead and who wasn't.  Still, additions of certain silent characters made for some great reading. 

Specifically Elvis.  Yep, Elvis is a main character in this book and seems to be one of Odd's best friends, in spite of the fact that he's dead. The idea of Elvis being a main character is a great touch and reminds me a lot of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books, where he's also a regular. I think, if I had to choose, I'd say this book did a better job of using him. Having a regular dead character show up gave a sense of normalcy to Odd's strange world and very quickly communicated the limits of what the dead could do. 

The story line itself has some great twists and turns, and even plays with some ideas of fate, thanks to Odd trying to discover and stop whatever is building up around him. Though at times the story is predictable (the ending very much so) it's still a solid start to a series. My only regret is that the main actor in the movie died and no sequels seem to be forth coming, so if I want to read more, I'll have to deal with the long winded narrative.

Final Thoughts?

Overall I liked the story and the series is quite good.  I just really wish I could enjoy it without the endless tangents in the narrative.