Synopsis
"The dead don't talk. I don't know why." But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn.
Maybe he has a gift, maybe it's a curse, Odd has never been sure, but he tries to do his best by the silent souls who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Odd's otherworldly tips to Pico Mundo's sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time it's different.
A mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a filing cabinet stuffed with information on the world's worst killers, and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the man is and what he wants, not even Odd's deceased informants can tell him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calendar for August 15.
Today is August 14.
In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock 'n' Roll. His account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmares, and a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere.
This book was recommended to me by a friend/bomb Americano
maker. So, obviously I had to read it. She was kind enough to lend it to me.
Now, I have to say, I’m pretty hooked on this character.
This book was a ride from beginning to end. It laid the
foundation for the protagonists. It explored their depth and the depth of the
story. Then it completely took off.
I didn’t know the synopsis when I went into the book, so I
was going in blind. I think that was good for this one. It made for so many
surprises. I didn’t think it was going to be creepy, but I didn’t expect that
it would also break my heart. There were so many different emotions. I can’t
wait to read the next one. I have to see what comes next for everyone involved.
5/5 Stars
Memorable Quotes: “We are not, however, a species that can
choose the baggage with which it must travel. In spite of our best intentions,
we always find that we have brought along a suitcase or two of darkness, and
misery.”
“The dead are sensitive to the living. They have walked this
path ahead of us and know our fears, our failings, our desperate hopes, and how
much we cherish what cannot last. They pity us, I think, and no doubt they
should.”
“In our dreams, we are not detached observers, as are the
characters who dream in movies. These internal dramas are usually seen strictly
from the dreamer’s point of view. In nightmares, we can’t look I to our own
eyes except by indirection, perhaps because we fear discovering that therein
lie the worst monsters plaguing us.”
“Most people desperately desire to believe that they are
part of a great mystery, that Creation is a work of grace and glory, not merely
the result of random forces of colliding. Yet each time that they are given but
one reason to doubt, a worm in the apple of the heart makes them turn away from
a thousand proofs of the miraculous, whereupon they have a drunkard’s thirst
for cynicism, and they feed upon despair as a starving man upon a loaf of
bread.”
“A cynic once said that the most identifying trait of
humanity is our ability to be in humane to one another.”
“The town slept, but not its demons.”
“Life, Stormy says, is not about how fast you run or even
with what degree of grace. It’s about perseverance, about staying on your feet
and slogging forward no matter what.”
“Most people tend to think the best of those who are blessed
with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal
twisted emotions or a damaged mind. “
“We are not strangers to ourselves; we only try to be.”
“It takes awhile to realize what a lonely world it is, and
when you do . . . Then the future looks kinda scary. “
“We who survive must go on in the names of those who fall,
but if we dwell too much on the vivid details of what we’ve witnessed of man’s
inhumanity to man, we simply can’t go on. Perseverance is impossible if we
don’t permit ourselves to hope.”
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