Customer Reviews

Intensity (Random House Large Print)

5 star:		(373)
4 star:		(88)
3 star:		(35)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(34)

 

 

It's a rush: a novel set within a 24 hour time span, revolving around one character as she battles one of the most insidious villains in literature.

Chyna Shepherd is visiting her friend Laura's house. She like's Laura's family; it makes her wish she had one like it. Nice parents, a loving brother...it's gonna be a nice visit.

Then someone else shows up. His name: Edgler Foreman Vess. He is not psychotic; he is beyond that. From the letters of his name, he spells: GOD FEARS ME. As well He should.

Hiding in the shadows, Chyna watches as Laura's family is murdered. Then, in a daring attempt at escaping the hell house, she finds herself aboard Vess's trailer...and on a ride that will take her to places (both physical and mental) that she never thought she'd be.

INTENSITY is the thrill-ride of thrill-rides. Dean Koontz proves that he is, after all, the Master of Suspense, as he weaves a tale that will keep you riveted to the edge of your seat. Dean Koontz is driving down the road of mastery; you better hold on.

I chose this book for a book report because it was recommendedby a friend. I thought it was fabulous. I've read many of thesereviews and many say it was intense. Okay, to be original, this bookwas more than that. It creeped me out because Vess (the antagonist) was real. He was the man living next to me, a teacher at my school, that uncle no one ever sees. He could be anyone. The book made me realize bad guys are not always strange old men who spend all day thinking of ways to kill people. They have jobs, families and friends just like you and me. That is why this book scared me. As for many of the people who didn't think it was so great, I can agree with you on a few points, but I don't agree they made the book a bad one. The chair. Yes, there is a point in the book where the protagonist, Chyna, attempted to get out of a chair. It was totally boring, and made me want to pull my hair out, but, Mr. Koontz obviously thought very long and hard about this act, and he deserves some respect for that. Many also argue that pace was all over the place. Well I say, come on. This was a semi- realistic book. Life does not follow a pace. Murders do not follow a pace... Let's not over analyze, okay? The book was a good one...

As an avid Dean Koontz fan, I couldn't NOT read this book. And I wasn't disappointed. "Intensity" is a good read. Perhaps not my favorite of his, but still very typically Koontz.

This novel starts out slower than most of his novels --- usually I'm entirely captured by the first or second page, he gets right into the guts of the story, but this time he paced the beginning a lot slower.

But in a relatively short time, things start to get --- well, intense.

Chyna Shepherd is staying with her best friend's parents over a school holiday and suddenly her entire host family is dead, and only she remains living. Having always been a passive person, not wanting to get involved in anything frightening or risky (thanks to a very nasty childhood), she suddenly decides this is something she NEEDS to put herself in the middle of, to vindicate her friend.

So she follows the killer. Learning that he has a 16-year-old captive, she vows to rescue her as she was unable to rescue her friend.

At first, the killer has no idea she's there, but when he finds out, things heat up a bit, and there are a few heart-stopping scenes of suspense.

The book takes place in only a 24-hour period, and each moment counts. And, as always, Koontz has a couple of intriguing surprises up his sleeve --- the identity of the killer, for one thing.

"Intensity" follows the story from both viewpoints, the killer's and Chyna's. Chyna's portions are told in typical 3rd person past-tense, but the killer's sections are told in the rarer PRESENT tense. It's a tad distracting at first, but you'll get used to it. My major complaint with this one was that sometimes, things went a little too slowly for me --- especially with a book called "Intensity." Sometimes Chyna seemed a little TOO smart, a little TOO lucky with the ingenious ways she came up with of escaping, and at times the suspense lagged simply because I knew she was going to get out and remain alive by the end of the book, I knew she wasn't going to have any problems. I wanted to see a little bit more of a struggle for her life and her freedom, more at close quarters with the killer. Most of her struggle came when the killer wasn't anywhere near, and wouldn't be anywhere near for hours.

One of the earlier reviews for this book was, I have to say, a tad misleading, because he DOES employ a couple of his usual devices, though not in the same way. There are definitely dogs --- several of them, in fact --- though they don't save the day. And there IS a law officer in this book --- though, again, not in the typical way he uses them. And I'm not too sure about everyone's assertions that the french film "Haute Tension" was a rip-off of Dean Koontz's novel. There also happens to be a french novel called "Haute Tension" that the french FILM is more likely to be based on --- that book was published three years earlier than Koontz's "Intensity." Just because it has a similar set-up doesn't mean it's BASED on this novel --- TONS of films have similar set-ups, especially in the horror genre! And I think it's fairly insulting to Dean Koontz to try and attach his name to such an awful excuse for a movie.

On the whole, "Intensity" was wonderfully written, and exciting to read. Yet another fantastic adventure from Dean Koontz.

Chyna Shepherd, a twenty-six year old young lady, is the product of a deeply disturbed and seriously dysfunctional family. Having had to endure violence, rape, child molestation and a bizarre life of crime with an vodka-soaked promiscuous mother, she has found the best road to survival and safety is passivity and invisibility. When Edgler Foreman Vess, a sociopathic serial killer, invades the home of Chyna's dearest and only friend, Laura Templeton, and brutally slaughters the entire family, this deeply nurtured ability to hide out of sight and out of mind saves Chyna's life. The killer is not aware that there is a guest in the home that night. Laura, savagely raped and near death, is scooped up by the killer and taken to his motor home to be "enjoyed" and mutilated later in the evening. As Chyna cautiously follows hoping to rescue her captive friend, she inadvertently discovers that the killer has also kidnapped a young, innocent sixteen year old girl and is holding her captive "waiting for her to ripen, get just a little sweeter". Now driven by the possibility of elevating her life to a meaning beyond passivity and mere survival, hoping to draw some meaning from the death of her friend, Laura, who has succumbed to her injuries, Chyna resolves to rescue Ariel or die in the attempt.

I have to hand it to Koontz. The writing in "Intensity" is ... well, intense! In any given chapter taken out of the context of the whole, the tension is electric and the dramatic cliff hangers are to die for! But the fact is, that as a whole, the darn book is just too long. There are absolutely no plot twists and the only surprise is the real identity of the killer! I mean, let's face it, we all KNOW that Chyna's going to survive! The only catch is how many tight spots she's going to worm her way of and how many times the killer is going to come within an ace of finishing up his intended night's work of blood and gore! (Does anyone remember the movie "Wait Until Dark" - remember that scene that made you jump out of your skin when the killer leaped across the room after we thought all was well??) The dramatic effect of Koontz's admittedly brilliant, psychological suspense is watered down by the mere length of the book. I actually found myself thinking it had become slightly tedious at times.

Certainly this is a novel that will be enjoyed by die-hard fans but I don't think it's the kind of novel that would prompt me into running out to the bookstore to pick up something else by Koontz. Chyna and Vess, the only two real characters in the novel, are well described and exceptionally well-developed. Like Ted Bundy and Paul Bernardo, perhaps the most frightening thing about Vess, which Koontz portrayed magnificently is the oftentimes stunning banality of these multiple murderers and their uncanny ability to blend in to their milieu and appear entirely normal.

In summary, "Intensity" was briefly entertaining but, in response to those who have suggested that it deserves a place of the list of the ten best thrillers of all-time, I can only say that I disagree.

Paul Weiss

How many words does it take to convince me Edgler Vess is bad? Or that he is a sociopathic, wide eyed maddened killer. At times I forget the plot of the story by the time Koontz finished his ten page wordy description of how the moon hit the asphalt! I am a huge fan of Koontz works but this was the most absolutely frustrating of all his works for me to have to endure.

As I mentioned when I reviewed "By the Light of the Moon," I have long been a fan of Dean R. Koontz. I often like his work even better than Stephen King's. The only drawback is that once you've read a few of his books, you soon realize that the majority of his male and female main characters are the same: A man with a sad background; a woman with a terrible background; they find one another in this crazy world; etc.

But in "Intensity," although we still get the same woman with a terrible background (and MAN, does Koontz know how to come up with HORRIBLE afflictions for these poor young women!), we are spared her male counterpart. And so I was able to REALLY get into the story this time.

And what a story! It's the ultimate being in the wrong place at the wrong time tale, with a young lady named Chyna staying with a friend on the very same night a psychotic killer arrives to murder the entire family!

What follows is one tense situation after another; the book is aptly named. I don't want to give too much away, but if you enjoy being on the edge of your seat, this book is perfect! Koontz also does some interesting tricks with the past and present tense telling of the story. The only books I have read with anything like it would be King's "The Cycle of the Werewolf," though the tense only changed once in that book, and Christopher Andrews' "Pandora's Game," which played similar tricks with the POV. Koontz's technique was effective and creepy.

The ONLY thing that prevents me from giving this book a 5 star rating (and believe me, it was close) was that there is an "element" (again, I don't want to give too much away) to the psychotic killer that I think was hinted at a little too early. It is revealed near the end, and I'm pretty sure that it was SUPPOSED to be a huge surprise. But I became suspicious of it about 1/3 through the book, and convinced I was right about ½ through the book. I kept hoping I would either be wrong, or that the "secret" would be revealed earlier and not be so much of the climax. But ... not to be.

But again, "Intensity" IS a great novel. And I recommend it strongly to anyone who enjoys thrillers! 4-1/2 stars!

If ever there was a spine chiller of thriller, this is it. Hats off to Dean Koontz for this novel. This is the Koontz novel that will be read a hundred years from now. I've never come across anything like it.

I can't say it was just a page turner, because that would be an understatement, and it would be not be true either. It was so intense for me, and so awful (the situation the heroine was in, I mean, not the story) that every so often I had to stop reading and put the thing down and do something else. I had had enough for the time being, and just couldn't take it any more.

Next day, I would not be able to stay away from it, and would pick it up again, and carry on, with trepidation, biting finger nails, and sliding off the edge of my seat. It ought to come with a WARNING LABEL: If you have a bad heart, do NOT read this book.

The first two or three pages give no hint of what's coming, but once Edgler Vess gets into the big house in the Napa Valley, where heroine Chyna Shepard is staying with her friend's family, you will be hooked, and in for the thriller of a lifetime. It's the scariest novel I have ever read.

I suppose, however, that if you just read it with a cold, critical, analytical eye, you will find tiny plot flaws, as some reviewer spoilsports have seemed intent on doing. I can do that kind of thing too with a novel, and tend to when I am bored, but with this one I was too scared for that. I never noticed any flaws.

One moment...let me catch my breath. Phewwwwwww....

Intensity is the pinnacle of suspense, surpassing any book that I have ever read in that category. The book lives up to its name, and it is so Intense that you want to take a fifteen minute break after each of the chapters. The book never lets up, never slows down. It gets so intense that you WANT the book to slow down but at the same time you don't. The two main characters, Chyna Shepard--a inquistive young woman with a heart wrenching past--and Edglar Vess-- a frightfully intelligent killer with no remorse--are both wonderfully depicted.

The detail in Koontz's work is addicting, and you find that reading less-descriptive books dissapointing. The vocabulary he uses is fresh and deep in substance.

After finishing the edge of your seat ending you realize that you have finished a satisfying book that is worth a re-read.

This is my second-favorite book of Dean Koontz's (the first being Phantoms) and I guarantee that this will have your heart pounding faster and faster with every page you turn. The story is interesting and the characters have so much depth. The killer is utterly deranged and Koontz shows this so well that it made the hairs of my neck stand on end, and Chyna, the heroine, is my favorite character in any Koontz book so far. I defiantely recommend this!

This is the best Dean Koontz book I have ever read. It is non-stop from beginning to end; I literally did not put it down! His vivid descriptions make one feel as if they are right there. If you want to read an INTENSE book, definitely read this one. The title says it all!