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Book Review of Dead and Alive (Frankenstein, Bk 3)

Dead and Alive (Frankenstein, Bk 3)
venus avatar reviewed on + 33 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7


I loved the first two Frankenstein books. They came across as tightly formatted and carefully structured, which made me as a reader feel cared for and tended to. You felt the consideration that was put into a well-crafted story, and you were able to enjoy the books greatly because of that. The first two in the series did not have loose ends; every side story was lovingly rendered and came across with a depth, despite or because of their brevity, that was quite enjoyable.
You can imagine my disappointment when some of the side stories become loose threads in the third installment. Conflicting descriptions of the characters bloom in full form, leaving the reader flipping back through the pages of the earlier books in the hopes of having been wrong. The dialogue, where previously creative and enjoyable, is now tedious and uninspired. Situations are made mention of that never come into the story for resolution. Additionally, the hurricane is mentioned at the very beginning only, which had me wondering 'Why bother with it at all, then?' He had all the elements, but he did not do with them what he could have. The frustrating thing is you can see the promise in the story beneath the lack of attention.
The entire book shows Koontz simply phoned it in on this one, and I really expected so much more based on the length of time we had to wait for it to come out. He has left me feeling let down, because it lacked consistency and trumpeted the fact that he went this one solo. All this book gave me was closure, because it certainly lacked the heart and care to give me satisfaction as the previous two had done.