Now Koontz follows Odd as he is irresistibly drawn onward, to a destiny he cannot imagine. The legend began in the obscure little town of Pico Mundo. A fry cook named Odd was rumored to have the extraordinary ability to communicate with the dead. Through tragedy and triumph, exhilaration and heartbreak, word of Odd Thomas' gifts filtered far beyond Pico Mundo, attracting unforgettable new friends - and enemies of implacable evil. With great gifts comes the responsibility to meet great challenges. But no mere human being was ever meant to face the darkness that now stalks the world - not even one as oddly special as Odd Thomas.
After grappling with the very essence of reality itself, after finding the veil separating him from his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, tantalizingly thin yet impenetrable, Odd longed only to return to a life of quiet anonymity with his two otherworldly sidekicks - his dog, Boo, and a new companion, one of the few who might rival his old pal Elvis. But a true hero, however humble, must persevere.
Haunted by dreams of an all-encompassing red tide, Odd is pulled inexorably to the sea, to a small California coastal town where nothing is as it seems. Now the forces arrayed against him have both official sanction and an infinitely more sinister authority...and in this dark night of the soul, dawn will come only after the most shattering revelations of all.
Chalk this up to another book that I had started during my
reading slump and took me awhile to finish.
I think my slump was partially due to not being motivated to
read and also being the middle of a few books that I didn’t get immediately
sucked into/needed breaks from.
This was the first Odd Thomas book that didn’t pull me in
and refuse to spit me out until it was over. There was just something about the
storyline that I didn’t really care about. Once I was determined to finish it
and actually sat down with the intent to do so, I did enjoy it. But, I was not
hooked on the storyline in this one.
Odd Thomas sets out to stop a nuclear disaster. With a
little help from psychic magnetism and Frank Sinatra – yes, THAT Frank Sinatra,
he gets put into some sticky situations but comes out of it as only Odd can.
The story got deeper towards the end. Odd was in moral
conflict with himself which was interesting to read. I hope the next storyline
grips me more than this one. I really enjoy this series, but it’s hard when it’s
a book that isn’t a “cant put this down” read.
3/5 Stars
Memorable Quotes: “Bad men wound and destroy one another,
although as targets they prefer those who are innocent and as pure as this
world allows anyone to be. They feed on violence, but they feast on the
despoiling of what is good.”
“Sometimes I am a mystery to myself.”
“In fact, people were not in the habit of asking if I would
die for them. And I was not accustomed to answering in the positive, without
hesitation.”
“No one can genuinely love the world, which is too large to
love entire. To love all the world at once is pretense or dangerous
self-delusion. Loving the world is like loving the idea of love, which is
perilous because, feeling virtuous about this grand affection, you are freed
from the struggles and the duties that come with loving people as individuals,
with loving one place — home — above all others.”
“Loss is the hardest thing. But it’s also the teacher that’s
the most difficult to ignore.”
“Grief can destroy you — or focus you. You can decide a
relationship was all for nothing if it had to end in death, and you alone. Or
you can realize that every moment of it had more meaning than you dared
recognize at the time, so much meaning it scared you, so you just lived, just
took for granted the love and laughter of each day, and didn’t allow yourself
to consider the sacredness of it. But when it’s over and you’re alone, you
begin to see it wasn’t just a movie and dinner together, not just watching
sunsets together, not just scrubbing a floor or washing dishes together or
worrying over a high electric bill. It was everything, it was the why of life,
every event and precious moment of it. The answer to the mystery of existence
is the love you shared sometimes so imperfectly, and when loss wakes you to the
deeper beauty of it, to the sanctity of it, you can’t get off your knees for a
long time, you’re driven to your knees not by the weight of loss but by
gratitude for what preceded the loss. And the ache is always there but one day
not the emptiness, because to nurture the emptiness, to take solace in it, is
to disrespect the gift of life.”
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