I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Odd Thomas: You Are Destined to Be Together Forever (Short Story)
by
Dean Koontz
horror in eBook edition that was published by Bantam Books on December 9, 2014 and has 41 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Deeply Odd, The City, Saint Odd, The Silent Corner, The Whispering Room, The Crooked Staircase, The Forbidden Door, The Night Window
A prequel to the Odd Thomas horror-lite series and revolving around a young fry cook and his girlfriend who live in Pico Mundo, California. It’s late May in this tale.
My Take
I am torn between giving this a “3” or a “4”. The “3” is my annoyance over how short this story is — 39 pages!. And while it feels repetitive, it actually does include a well-written shortie. It is Dean Koontz after all — still, if money is an issue in your house, I wouldn’t bother even spending the 99¢ on it.
That whine over, Koontz does write a quirky story with unexpected characters who charm their way into your heart. The circumstances Koontz puts them in and the way he has them express themselves…too funny. I really do like this series, and I’d encourage you to spend your money on the first in the series, Odd Thomas, 1, instead of this one.
It’s Odd, of course, helping someone who’s died horribly only there’s a nasty twist at the almost-end followed by that bitter bit of foretelling at the end. Made me want to cry.
Koontz is light on the details; the way he wrote about Roberta made me wonder if she was the real(ly) guilty party in this.
Read about Odd, and you’ll see why I think of it as horror-lite, *grin*.
The Story
Just a short side trip to help a crazed dead man running through Odd’s car before Odd and Stormy head off to the carnival and those momentous words from the Gypsy Mummy.
The Characters
Odd Thomas is a very independent young man; he’s had to be with the mother he has. Father is definitely not in the picture.
Stormy Llewellyn is Odd’s girl. And he still can’t believe it. An orphan, she has a strong goal in mind for ice cream parlors, and she’s learning all she can at Burke & Bailey’s at the mall.
P. Oswald Boone is Odd’s friend and mentor, a famous mystery writer. Terri Stambaugh owns the Pico Mundo Grille where Odd works as a fry cook. Wyatt Porter is the chief of police, and he and his wife are friends with Odd.
Elvis Presley likes to haunt, er, visit with Odd. Odd has his own ideas about why Elvis hasn’t passed to the Other Side.
Kurt is the man with a meat cleaver in his neck. Roberta owns the picturesque house. Kristen is the girl in the handcuffs. Hannah was the broken one. Johnny and his fiancée aren’t too happy.
The Cover and Title
The cover is grim with that dust bowl flavor in an apocalyptic setting: a leaning ferris wheel rises up out of a sand dune alongside a lonely road. Bare brown mountains lurk in the background as dark, gray, stormy clouds hover over it all, completing that fuzzy frame of black encircling it all.
The title is more of that foretelling, a prick in the heart as Koontz reminds us that their idea of “You Are Destined To Be Together Forever” has a different connotation than Odd and Stormy are planning.
