Dean
Koontz
Brrrr.
I almost have to shake myself clean and clear after just thinking
about this book, let alone reading it. Koontz
has managed to distil the essence of fear, or that which frightens,
and put it down in words. This is different from most scary books,
including the few (two or three?) of Koontz’s that i have read, in
that the spiritual world is very much a part of the novel, to the
point that i am pushed to wonder what beliefs Koontz himself may
have. I don’t really think that it matters (at least, not to this
book), but he stimulates the question with sympathetic portraits of a
man who prays seriously, and acknowledges he does, of a family who
are concerned about the spirituality of their parish priest, not to
mention the fact that the source of the evil in the story is very
clearly demonic, straight from Hell by the description of a defrocked
priest (who also obtains a sympathy from the author). All too
frequently (and the use of that phrase is not a criticism, but a
recognition of how writing is done in this world) the only source of
evil is human, but here Koontz write of the demonic and evil powers
as though he understands and believes in them. To be sure, for the
functioning of the plot it is necessary to a demonic source of evil,
because the humans who have performed the evil are dead, but it still
continues, so there has to be an ongoing cause. Perhaps i am just
interested by the whole conception of the plot by a secular writer.
Whatever, however, i thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will read
another based solely on it.
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