Helpful Score: 2
As someone who is a huge fan of Dean Koontz, I was over the moon about winning a copy of his newest novel in a giveaway. I think I might have even done a little joyful dance in my chair. I never could have imagined I'd be rating this one with 2 stars, though perhaps I should have suspected it. Dean Koontz is one of those authors that I either love his book with a passion or I absolutely hate it. I've read some stinkers of his, but I wasn't expecting this one to be among them.
All I expected from this book was a good old fashioned ghost story. And the back cover seemed to promise just that. The Pendleton is a luxury apartment building that has long been plagued by strange happenings. The original owner's wife and daughter disappeared shortly before he killed himself. And that was just the beginning of the troubles in this home. Now its all starting again and the residents can only hope to unravel the mystery and survive the night.
This book started out interesting enough and I was eager to see what comes next. But soon I found myself getting a bit bored. By the end of the book I really, honestly didn't care anymore. I didn't care who lived or died, I didn't care what happened to them after the novel ended. Frankly, if I hadn't won this in a giveaway I probably wouldn't have finished it at all. Here is where I think this book failed:
1. There was just too much going on. It got way too confusing. I can only keep track of so many events happening at the same time. And this book bounces around between 10 different things happening at once, then introduces 10 more. I couldn't keep track of everything and so I just kept getting confused. Have we seen this ghost/creature before? When? No? I don't know! This book dragged on so much that it felt like it took place over a whole month, when really most of it took place in 90 minutes of time.
2. Too many narrators. There are at least 12 different characters that take turns narrating this book, which is just too many. It made it so that I couldn't keep anyone straight. Ignis...is he the doctor? Or the ex-marine? Or maybe he's the security guy? No, maybe the security guy was Hawks? Well then who was the paranoid conspiracy theorist if is wasn't Hawks? Winny's mom is who again, Twyla or maybe Sparkle? And because I couldn't keep the characters straight I couldn't connect with any of them. And if I can't connect with the characters then I really can't care about what happens to them.
3. Too late on the solution. By the time the book got around to revealing what was really going on at the Pendleton, I was too bored and confused to even pay that much attention. And the solution is a pretty complex one, so I didn't care to pay attention by that point. It would have required too much brain power and my brain was still frantically trying to put the 1000 other pieces together.
At the end of the day I was very disappointed with this and thankful that it was over because my brain could relax again and not over stress itself anymore. This is going into the Koontz stinker pile.
All I expected from this book was a good old fashioned ghost story. And the back cover seemed to promise just that. The Pendleton is a luxury apartment building that has long been plagued by strange happenings. The original owner's wife and daughter disappeared shortly before he killed himself. And that was just the beginning of the troubles in this home. Now its all starting again and the residents can only hope to unravel the mystery and survive the night.
This book started out interesting enough and I was eager to see what comes next. But soon I found myself getting a bit bored. By the end of the book I really, honestly didn't care anymore. I didn't care who lived or died, I didn't care what happened to them after the novel ended. Frankly, if I hadn't won this in a giveaway I probably wouldn't have finished it at all. Here is where I think this book failed:
1. There was just too much going on. It got way too confusing. I can only keep track of so many events happening at the same time. And this book bounces around between 10 different things happening at once, then introduces 10 more. I couldn't keep track of everything and so I just kept getting confused. Have we seen this ghost/creature before? When? No? I don't know! This book dragged on so much that it felt like it took place over a whole month, when really most of it took place in 90 minutes of time.
2. Too many narrators. There are at least 12 different characters that take turns narrating this book, which is just too many. It made it so that I couldn't keep anyone straight. Ignis...is he the doctor? Or the ex-marine? Or maybe he's the security guy? No, maybe the security guy was Hawks? Well then who was the paranoid conspiracy theorist if is wasn't Hawks? Winny's mom is who again, Twyla or maybe Sparkle? And because I couldn't keep the characters straight I couldn't connect with any of them. And if I can't connect with the characters then I really can't care about what happens to them.
3. Too late on the solution. By the time the book got around to revealing what was really going on at the Pendleton, I was too bored and confused to even pay that much attention. And the solution is a pretty complex one, so I didn't care to pay attention by that point. It would have required too much brain power and my brain was still frantically trying to put the 1000 other pieces together.
At the end of the day I was very disappointed with this and thankful that it was over because my brain could relax again and not over stress itself anymore. This is going into the Koontz stinker pile.
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