Deeply Odd: Odd Thomas, Book 6

I've been a fan of Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas books since the first one was released, many years ago. While I find most of Mr. Koontz's other fiction very hit or miss (mostly miss this past decade), the Odd Thomas books are consistently interesting, witty and captivating. Odd Thomas (someone left the T off of Todd on his birth certificate), or Oddie, as he his known to his friends and fans, is an ex-fry cook. He makes the world's best, fluffiest pancakes. He also sees ghosts. They do not speak, but gesture to him and pantomime, to get their points across almost always that something bad is coming, and trying to help out. In the first few books his ex-vivo silent companion was Elvis, followed for a bit by Frank Sinatra. Currently he is haunted by Alfred Hitchcock.Oddie also has a kind of psychic magnetism that draws him inexorably towards places that he needs to be. These always have to do with stopping a person or persons from committing acts that could or will result in mass death and/or destruction. It seems that Oddie's mission in life is to prevent as much of this mayhem as he can, until a stray bullet, explosion or knife in the back catches him and reunites him with his ("You are destined to be together forever") beloved Stormy Llewellyn . There's a lot more more to Odd's back story, but you can glean much of it from this novel, that refers back to many or most of the previous books. "Deeply Odd", like all of the Odd Thomas books, can be read as a stand-alone, but I recommend going back at some point and reading them all. All of them are little gems and the references to previous events will be clearer and the enjoyment of this newest entry, "Deeply Odd", that much the greater.Near the beginning of the novel, Odd runs into a white-haired nasty cowboy driving a ProStar+ rig, both of which emanate terrible evil. A waking daydream or vision convinces Odd that trucker intends or is somehow linked to the mass death by fire of a large number of young children. Fleeing from the trucker's threat to de-man him with a gun, Oddie meets up with octogenarian, Edie Fisher, who is driving a black Mercedes stretch limo. Seems her long-time driver has just died and Edie is in need of a replacement that she instantly identifies as Oddie. ("I'm a fry cook, Mrs. Fisher, not a chauffeur.") But Mrs. Fisher ("Call me Edie. Yes Ma'am".) is much more than she seems to be, and "hires" Oddie (over his protestations) as her driver (while still driving the limo herself). Mrs. Fisher becomes Oddie's' partner in his mission to find and stop the evil cowboy to stop him before he kills the children. Along the way things become way strange, venturing into a parallel universe (or is it?) and Odd finds, for the first time, someone with abilities similar to his own.In Deeply Odd, Oddie takes center stage sans all of his friends and companions from previous novels (having left Annamaria back at the ranch when he went for a short trip into town to buy some jeans whereupon all of this adventure started). But Mrs. Fisher is a great new character, and a fine foil for the witty banter that Odd Thomans fans have come to love expect. We meet a few of Edie's friends (she seems to know just about everyone all over the place) who are uniformly extremely helpful and all of whom love her very much. Odd's internal commentary (all of the books are purported to be his memoirs, not to be published until he is dead) is also funny, with many of his similes and metaphors apt to make the reader laugh out loud.The ending (actually I think it would have worked better as a Coda or an Epilogue) is a little too fantastic, incomprehensible and happily ever after, but that is a rather small quibble. Finally, at the end, this reader was left feeling that Odd Thomas's adventures that began only 19 months (and 6 novels) ago in Pico Mundo, CA, may be drawing to a close, and he may be coming closer to his reunion with Stormy. This is only a impression, but it is one that has lasted for the week since I finished the novel.Another must read for all Odd Thomas fans, but also a reasonable place to start if you like interesting characters, horror leavened with humor, and light fantasy of a unique sort.Highly recommended.J.M. Tepper

Dean Koontz wrote some great horror books early in his career. In recent years he's evolved into a writer who not only tells a great story but who can also be relied on to create a deeper "layer" or "current" beneath the surface of the book that serves to inspire or exalt morality and virtuous behavior. Koontz did this masterfully in Odd Thomas, the first book in this series - creating a great protagonist that was heroic, witty, loyal, but also a bit flawed.I enjoyed the subsequent books in the series, but I also felt in the most recent ones that Odd Thomas lacked direction and growth in terms of his character. Well, Deeply Odd cures that and then some. This is easily the best book in the series since the original and I'll give two reasons why I feel that way:1. Odd Thomas gives voice to his most overwhelming need - redemption. It's been a constant theme of course that he saved lives in the original book but lost Stormy - however, it's never been this in-depth or articulated so well. In Deeply Odd you can literally feel how pained Odd is and how much he craves redemption, even though he doesn't believe it is possible.2. Odd Thomas' journey in the last few books was so random at times that I was frustrated at the lack of growth in his character, but now ... we find out how all of his adventures have been building up to one great purpose - his journey has a destination, and everything to this point (and including the storyline in Deeply Odd) has been preparing him for the final book in the series. Without including a spoiler, suffice it to say that Odd Thomas' journey is set to come full circle.It took me 175 pages or so before I began to appreciate these two points in Deeply Odd - but from that moment forward the pace was relentless and everything that had seemed random began to take shape and gain meaning.A couple other notes (without spoiling anything) for readers already immersed in the world of Odd Thomas - it's pretty subtle but if you read closely between the lines then I think there's a big reveal about Annamaria near the end of the book that could play a major role in Odd's future; and Alfred Hitchcock does something pretty cool, as well.For readers who are new to the world of Odd Thomas: I noticed other reviewers suggested that if you've never read an Odd Thomas book then you should probably read the others first - however, I'd put it this way: if you're willing to suspend your disbelief at the randomness of the universe then you'll be just fine reading this book. Two examples: one, if it bothers you that when Odd is running from a bad guy he just happens to cross paths with a gang of bank robbers who leave keys in the getaway car, then you might be distracted from the finer points of the book; and two, if the first randomly convenient car bugs you but doesn't keep you from plowing forward, then the elderly woman who shows up in a limousine and asks Odd to be her chauffer at the next instance in which he is in desperate need of wheels might. Just suspend your disbelief - his name is Odd for a reason - and you'll enjoy this book.

A good read, and more overt 'horror' than some of the other Odd Thomas books, but coming straight to this after reading the first five in sequence, I'm starting to get a bit irritated by Oddie's scrupulous over-politeness. His stubborn refusal to address his elders as anything other than 'Sir' or Ma'am', even when they repeatedly ask him to use their first names, and his substituting coarse language with silly euphemisms when supposedly reporting dialogue, becomes laboured rather than humorous . Odd, for fornication's sake, we know you don't use bad language yourself - but when you're relating others' conversation, either leave the swear-words out altogether, or just tell us what was said.I'm hoping Oddie will get a bit less saccharine in the final 'episode' - Saint Odd - despite its title.

** spoiler alert ** "In life, little happens by chance, and most bad hands we're dealt are the consequence of our actions, which are shaped by our wisdom and our ignorance."To be honest, after "Odd Apocalypse", which is a much better book, "Deeply Odd" is somewhat of a disappointment, but thinking about it a while it actually makes some sense, because after the original "Odd Thomas" book, its direct sequel "Forever Odd" was also rather disappointing to me. Luckily that one was followed by the amazing "Brother Odd", so I'm guessing "Deeply Odd" is the same kind of transitional book as "Forever Odd" and we will get an epic conclusion of the series with "Saint Odd"."Tom, you must be planning a trip straight to Hell City.""I'm hoping it's just a suburb, sir.""Deeply Odd" is more urban fantasy than fitting in with the previous Oddities, and feels a lot like an episode of "Supernatural". The Elsewhere showing up all the time was very Silent Hillish. It has less humor, and the atmosphere is not exactly darker but more solemn, which just might be me projecting my thoughts about the series slowly coming to an end. The final chapters are the best part of the book. Meanwhile we meet so many extra characters and witness so many unexplained things, we yearn for the original "Odd Thomas" about one ordinary guy in a small town, nothing more and nothing less. What we learn in "Deeply Odd" about the world, together with Odd himself, seems to throw all the rules we were told in the first novels out the window (dead Alfred Hitchcock suddenly talking even when "the dead don't talk") and it seems like anything is possible. It's no longer just a guy who sees dead people and solves crimes, but that hasn't really been the case anymore for a long time. Yet the contrast here is much bigger.Then again, Hitchcock explained it himself somewhat: he never lingered, not when he was alive nor when he's dead, so he passed on immediately and now has been sent back from "service" to help Odd."I'm sure that your life is full of women who are drawn to you. Because they know or sense that you take a vow seriously, that you're faithful forever, that you recognize and cherish in good women what qualities you loved in the one you lost, that you respect them, that you care deeply about their dignity perhaps even when they don't, that you will never walk away from one in need."What certainly took some getting used to, was Odd's new sidekick. Sometimes I had the feeling that Betty White must have blackmailed Dean Koontz to create a sassy character for her to play if the franchise ever takes off, the first movie adaptation finally comes into theaters and is such a success all the other books will be turned into movies as well. Edie Fischer makes sure Odd gets where he needs to go. It's like Odd is no longer in control of his own life and body, he's merely a vessel and performs tasks and even gets words put into his mouth as some kind of puppet controlled by a higher force, and Edie takes on the role of assistent to bring that puppet to the place of its next performance. Odd himself is left to reminisce about old times and to complain about the modern world.There might be some insights into the identity of Odd's previous sidekick, Annamaria. She doesn't want him to diminish her after he says that sister comment, probably meaning she doesn't want to be viewed as merely human. Hitchcock asks why he wouldn't sound like Annamaria, hinting they have something in common. And judging by some abilities of her own, there's a good chance she hails from the same world Hitchcock has returned from, with the big difference that other people can interact with her too."Always questioning your motivations is a healthy thing, but fearing your capacity for doing the wrong thing, so that you retreat from many aspects of life, is a terrible error in itself."Throughout this novel I was seeing things, little details, which I think are just a subconscious desire to link this story to others and which probably aren't really there, and I'm actually scaring myself a little with my own ideas of what might or might not happen. The lightning bolts in the sewer gratings made me think of the goblins' sigul in "Twilight Eyes", and what do I see a few pages further on but Odd himself mentioning this very fact, even naming the book by its title and claiming he's read it! Of course immediately I started to wonder whether Dean Koontz would write himself into this story in the same way Stephen King wrote himself in "The Dark Tower". (And I find it kind of insulting how he fails to mention Stephen King's "Christine" when he lists movies about demonic cars ...) We already had connections to the Christopher Snow stories with Moonlight Bay. And with this in the back of my mind, I started making other connections: the waitress in the diner reminded me of Deliverance Payne of "Tick Tock", the family living in armored seclusion reminded me of Penny Boom's family in "Relentless", the nine children, five adults and three dogs at the end of the story made me think of the ending of "One Door Away From Heaven" and probably some other Koontz book endings as well, like "The Darkest Evening of the Year" and "From the Corner of His Eye".So, we have even more and more questions, no resolutions, and only one book to go. No matter what, I'm definitely excited about it and I can't wait for the chance to read this entire series back to back as a whole!

With this being the penultimate full Odd novel there's a sense of something huge looming, that everything Odd has been through is about to culminate in...something. Unsurprisingly that means some of what happens here feels like set-up, with people introduced and events which will probably make more sense and play a bigger part in the finale. It's also possibly the darkest book so far in terms of the kind of evil Odd is forced to deal with and he's pushed into some tight corners that bend his positivity and good humor to breaking point. Odd has been on a lot of adventures, but the weight he carries as a result has never been more evident than here.I still think the best of the books was the first one, as a self-contained piece of momentum-filled dread and adventure with a massive emotional pull it was something that no follow-ups could really match. That shouldn't be seen in any way as a criticism of the follow-ups, as the sequels have still all been hugely engrossing and exciting tales in their own right. Now that the final book is looming I'm feeling that pull and dread again, will be interesting to see where this goes.

The darkest yet of the Odd Thomas tales, Dean Koontz writes a terrific character in first person prose. If you have read the previous stories of Odd and have grown to love him like I have then be warned this will again break your heart when you read the words from the card given to Odd and Stormy from the gypsy fortune teller and yet again when we are reminded that Odds memoirs are not to be published until his death. We were told this in the first story entitled "Odd Thomas" so we have known all along that our hero will die ..... BUT WE DON'T WANT IT TO HAPPEN!"Deeply Odd" is the darkest and most supernatural tale yet and leaves us with a lot more questions about just what is going on in Odds strange life.

I discovered Odd Thomas sitting on a New Books table in my local independant bookshop a few years back, read 10 pages in the shop and bought the book and every subsequent book in one sitting. Although, I learnt my lesson and now make sure I have no commitments for a day!You do not put these books down, it can't be done! They seem to contain some psychic magnetism that ensures that as long as they have words you haven't read on the pages, they will automatically seek out your hands, whether you want them to or not.More recently I rebought the entire set on my Kindle Tablet to keep me company when I'm out and about.Don't miss this one, but read the others in order first!!