Author: Dean Koontz
Genre: Thriller
Length: 335 Pages (Hardcover)
Release: 2004
My Rating: 5/5 Stars
Review
I started reading Dean Koontz when I took a semester off of college five years ago. While searching my house for something to read I found my mother's copy of Life Expectancy and immediately started reading it. This initial reading started what would become my "Koontz" phase. I read around 19 of his novels from September-November of 2011 and I have been a fan ever since.
All of that just tells you that I have read this book before and that I absolutely adored it. Perhaps adore doesn't seem like an appropriate word to describe my feelings for a thriller/horror novel, but adore it I do. There is just something magical about Jimmy Tock and his "five terrible days." There is something special about the closeness of his family, the descriptions of food, the exploration of what it means to be good and what it means to be evil. This book delivers.
The novel is split into several sections that outline what happens to Jimmy on the "five terrible days" his grandfather predicts are in store for him. The events span just over 30 years, from Jimmy's birth to the final of his terrible days. And there is a lot of terror within those days.
One thing that I appreciate most about reading Koontz is the humor, and this book has more than perhaps any other that I have read. There are moments of laugh out loud worthy dialogue, even in the most dire of circumstances. This, more than anything, is what keeps the horror at bay. To lose your sense of humor is to lose a crucial part of what makes you you.
To delve into the specifics of the story would be taking away the chance that you (whoever might be reading this), will lose the the magic that it has to offer. Just know these things: clowns can be scary, a beautiful face does not make a beautiful person, family is more than blood, nothing is lost as long as there's cake, and laughter can brighten the darkest of days.
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