Forever Odd (Odd Thomas Novels) (Paperback)

by Dean Koontz (Author)
Key Phrases: chief porter, snaky man, psychic magnetism, Pico Mundo, Danny Jessup, Terrible Chester (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Besides having an unusual moniker, 21-year-old Odd Thomas (whom readers first met in Koontz's 2003 novel of the same name) has some very unusual powers, chief among them his ability to see the dead. He can see, feel and talk to them, too (though they don't talk back: "Perhaps they know things about death that the living are not permitted to learn from them"). These days Odd is still hosting the ghost of a morose Elvis Presley, still grieving for his dead girlfriend, Stormy, and still worrying about his very fat friend P. Oswald Boone, whose cat, Terrible Chester, likes to pee on his shoes. Late one night, Odd is summoned by the ghost of Dr. Wilbur Jessup to the Jessup home, the site of a gruesome murder. Dr. Jessup is the father of Odd's best friend, Danny, who is afflicted with osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bones. Odd finds Dr. Jessup's body, but Danny is missing. Since Odd has what he describes as "psychic magnetism," he can follow an invisible mental trail, which in this case leads him to his endangered friend. After he finds Danny in a spooky, burned-out Indian casino, it is Odd who becomes the quarry. The beautiful and stunningly evil Datura, aided by two frightening minions, wants to use Odd for his supernatural abilities—and then kill him. Odd's strange gifts, coupled with his intelligence and self-effacing humor, make him one of the most quietly authoritative characters in recent popular fiction. (Nov. 29)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Grieving the loss of his fiancee, killed during the climax of his eponymous debut despite anything he and his supernatural intuition could do, Odd Thomas returns in a more suspenseful but less piquant adventure. Only a year older (21), he feels almost ancient and more rueful than ever about his gift for seeing ghosts, Dr. Wilbur Jessup's in particular. The loving stepfather of Odd's brittle-boned friend Danny was alive yesterday, so Odd investigates, as the "psychic magnetism" that attends his ghost-seeing compels him to, and finds the physician brutally murdered and Danny missing. Odd tracks Danny and his abductors to an abandoned casino-hotel, closed by an earthquake that killed dozens five years ago. It's a trap. Danny is bait to draw Odd to Datura, a spookily self-absorbed, wealthy porn entrepreneur and New Age nut, who, obsessed with violent death, wants Odd to make ghosts visible to her. He can't, but there are eight ghosts in the casino, one of whom comes in handy when Odd escapes Datura and her two gorillas, rescues and hides Danny, and engages in the protracted, lethal game of cat-and-mouse that makes the novel good-to-the-last-page enthralling. Quite apart from Odd's moroseness (understandable given his circumstances and endearing youthfulness), the tale's stranglehold suspense allows for less of the offbeat humor that lightened Odd Thomas (2003). Datura is a creation that allows Koontz some sledgehammer polemicizing against alternative religion and spirituality, which additionally darkens things. Not to complain, though. This is only slightly less than top-drawer Koontz. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (November 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553384511
• ISBN-13: 978-0553384512
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (251 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,652 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 2 in The Odd Thomas Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bring back the real Odd!, December 6, 2006

By	ManicPanic (CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forever Odd (Odd Thomas Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you love Odd Thomas I guess you'll have to buy this book - but I warn you - don't bother!

Suddenly Odd has a best friend we never heard of in the entire first book, whose life he has to save from some meglo-maniacal new-age wanna-be witch lady protected by psuedo-zombie male followers, all holed up in an old Indian casino. For some reason Odd must transverse an underground drainage system to get there, which takes up half the book, why Koontz thought this would be interesting is unknown to me. Once he gets there his psychic magnetism and numerous failures of architecture thwart his rescue attempts. Unfortunately this creates little more suspense than does 100 pages of running through drainage tunnels.

This sequel totally lacks the gut-wrenching twists of fate that defined Odd Thomas, and all of the humor that made that book so wonderfully readable. The plot limps along to a boring climax involving a villain we are never frightened by. I truly enjoyed Odd Thomas, and I want more of this eccentric, haunted character, but please, let's give him something half way interesting to do!

I hope the next chapter in this series, Brother Odd, will prove much more entertaining.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very odd and entertaining! though not the emotional impact of the original, November 30, 2005

By	Sandra Lancaster "my real name" (Las Vegas, NM) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Forever Odd (Odd Thomas Novels) (Hardcover)

To start with do not read this book until you have read "Odd Thomas" (Which I highly recommend!). If you have not read "Odd Thomas" stop reading this review and go buy it now. If you have read "Odd" then continue on.

"Forever Odd" Takes the reader back to Pico Mundo California, and its most celebrated and strange citizen, Odd Thomas. Odd has the gift of being able to see, feel, and speak to the dead (but for some reason they can't speak back?).

This time out Odd meets the ghost of Dr. Wilbur Jessup who has been murdered and has Odd come to his home, where Odd discovers the doctor's dead body! Jessup is the father of Odd's best friend Danny who is afflicted with a disease that makes his bones brittle. Danny is missing from the home! Odd uses his "Psychic Magnetism" to try and tract Danny down. I don't want ruin any of the surprises, but Odd soon finds himself the quarry of a beautiful but evil advisary who wants to use Odd for her own evil purposes!

This is a quirky story---The Ghost of a melancholy Elvis is still hanging around Odd---that combines a number of genres suspense, terror, adventure, mystery. and even some humor. The story moves along at a rapid pace and is a quick read compared to some of Koontz's other stories. Overall a good sequel to the original book, but it does not have the emotional impact, though it is still very entertaining!

145 of 181 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What a let down, January 9, 2006

By	Terry Mesnard (Bellevue, NE) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Forever Odd (Odd Thomas Novels) (Hardcover)

Note: As you can see from both the polarizing response my review has gotten (25 helpful, 29 unhelpful) and other reviews here, this book is a love it or hate it. Ignoring for a moment that it is an Odd Thomas book and looking at it as simply a thriller, I still believe it isn't a very good novel. The writing is sloppy, the villains insipid. Deus Ex Machina abounds, the ending is melodramatic. But I can over-look most of these if the novel thrills me. Forever Odd didn't. Not once was I fearful, not once did a passage grip me and pull me along. In fact, this is one of the first Koontz books that had me skimming to get the gist of what happened.

For those who don't know whether to read this or not, no one can honestly say. I, for one, did not like this book. Others here did. Personally, if you are going to read it and aren't collecting, I would wait for it to come out on paperback. Its just not up to Koontz's (or Odd's) thriller top. And I don't see why we should support weak work; particularly when Koontz is spitting out books so quickly (Husband is coming out next month) and, in my opinion, sloppily.

Unhelpful votes, here I come!

My Review:
Two years ago, Dean Koontz released Odd Thomas and created his most memorable and lovable character ever. That story fascinated me and the characters pulled me along. It was by far one of the most endearing and tender stories, while at the same time tense and dark. When I heard that Forever Odd was coming out and would be another story centering on Odd, I was over-joyed.

What pulled me along in the first book was Odd's use of language. Koontz did a great job making Odd's voice unique and the first person narrative was perfect. Odd's views, his way of looking at life was a perfect counter point to what was happening on the page. And he was a great imperfect narrator.

Unfortunately, that trend and this book is not the same calibur of Odd Thomas. In fact, the only reason the story fits with Odd Thomas is because of Odd's supernatural ability. The beginning starts out great. It catches the readers up with what's happening in Pico Mundo since the sad events of Odd Thomas. It felt like coming home; Dean Koontz had created such wonderful characters the first time around that seeing them again was a treat. About 3/4s of the book, however, was a silly and insipid thriller taking place in a burned out casino. The casino wasn't scary. The villain's motive was silly, the ghosts weren't spooky. It felt like a rushed job. And, considering how many books Koontz has been publishing recently in a year (another book is coming out in May by the way), I'm wondering if he's been replaced by a machine...I felt no connection to most of the characters, there was too much repartee for no other point than to be "witty," and, the worst offense, the plot was a retread of so many thrillers Koontz has written throughout the years. And, I might add, had done much much better with earlier.

As I continued to read, I found myself flipping through pages, summing up paragraphs and basically skimming my way to the end. The thriller is, at time, intense but it also grows dreary as you realize this is all it is: a thriller dressed up and posing as another life-warming Odd Thomas story. What eventually killed it for me was that Koontz utilizes a Deus Ex Machina, not once but at least twice, and that just soured everything that followed. It just wasn't very exciting.

By the time I got to the ending with its insipid attempt at being another "life-altering" and poignant ending that Odd Thomas has, I was ready to be done. One thing I have noticed with Koontz is that he tends to end his novels with a sappy or "poignant" cathartic moment. In Odd Thomas, it works and affected me in the way Koontz wanted it to. In Velocity it was fairly successful. In this book, I just shook my head.

What really brought this book down to below the average rating for me was expectations. Odd Thomas, the book and character, stands as Koontz's best in my opinion, not only in characterization but also in the three important "P's": plot, pacing and prose. It included characters you genuinely care about, thrills that belied the light tone the imperfect narrator kept, and a plot that kept turning and winding. Koontz took an idea that was tired after Sixth Sense and created a world that jumped off the pages with heart and panache. Then to turn around and release this book is, to me, a mockery of Odd Thomas. Nothing in this book worked as intended for me. From the lazy thriller aspect to the ending that tried to be a "twist" like the first book's, nothing worked. The ending was a lip curling attempt to trick the readers; whereas the first book's ending genuinely worked to provoke catharsis, this one made me shake my head. I was so excited and thrilled to see another Odd Thomas book and then was sorely disappointed at what was given. Here's hoping that if Koontz does write a next book, he will keep more in line with the first instead of dressing up a thriller in tones of Odd.

Not only not up to the first book, Forever Odd isn't up to par with most of Koontz's thrillers.