Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz knows that it ain't easy bein' odd.

Stephen King and Dean Koontz share a number of traits. They both write in my beloved supernatural-horror-thriller genre, they both have the ability to create truly wonderful characters, they’re both prolific and they both have a strong tendency to disappoint me. Okay, that last one is certainly not restricted to these two authors. But when I get myself all excited to read one of their books and it stinks, I feel the letdown one can only feel when one knows the author can do better. Fortunately for me, Odd Thomas did not let me down. Not in any way, shape or form.

Odd Thomas is a book I had been meaning to read for quite some time and just never got to. I’m not sure what put me off, but I think it was the gimmicky name of the main character. It just seemed too precious to name a guy who has all sorts of ESP “Odd”. Come on. It took me about ten pages to get past that little conceit and throw myself completely into this, the first story about the odd man named Odd.

Odd Thomas is, indeed, quite odd. He sees dead people. They show him things that he passes along to the police chief – or perhaps acts upon himself. It depends. He sees ghostly images. He can find people by simply picturing them in his mind. He’s absolutely and completely in love with the woman with whom he is certain he will spend the rest of his life. All this and he’s only twenty years old.

We meet Odd as he sets off for work – he’s a genius behind the grill at the diner – and meets one of his friendly neighborhood dead people. After taking care of that situation, he heads off to the diner only to be faced with a confounding situation revolving around a customer. Only Odd is confounded by this man, for reasons that I will let you discover for yourself. But it is that chance encounter that begins this chapter in Odd’s life. And quite a chapter it will be. There is considerable violence throughout the book and a bit of criminal sexuality. If your preferences can handle such a combination, you’re good to go.

Now from that basic sketch, Odd Thomas doesn’t sound like anything really unusual or extraordinary for the genre. What makes Odd Thomas a cut above the average is Odd himself. Koontz doesn't skimp on the character development for this young man even a little bit. He also doesn’t do some sort of introductory info-dump, supposing that we’d like any and all character development out of the way so that we can just enjoy the mayhem to come. What Koontz does is weave that character building into the story. We learn the origins of his name, quite a bit about his past and a whole lot about what it means to have such a “gift”. As the plot itself unfolds, so does Odd.

And I’ll tell you, I like Odd. He’s quirky and strange, but as we come to know him, we come to understand why this is so, and why it must be so given his past and circumstances. People like Odd and we understand why – he’s kind and polite, empathic and without the arrogance that often marks young male characters. His friends are a motley crew – not because he seeks out those on the fringe, but because in order to maintain some semblance of a normal life he needs to surround himself with people whose minds are a bit more open than the average Joe. Those open minds tend to come with less than completely traditional lives.

Koontz is in fine form with Odd Thomas. His character creating talent shines as he gives us a boy to whom we can somehow relate despite how different he is from the mainstream. Koontz made me mad with only one aspect of this book. Each chapter ends with a mini-cliffhanger. Now generally that’s fun and exciting and the very thing that makes a book a page turner. But in this case it kept me up way past a decent bedtime on several occasions. I have no willpower when it comes to a really good Koontz book. Anyway, the plot and action propel the story forward at a good clip without sacrificing character development in the slightest, giving the reader the ability to invest in both the characters and the storyline. Written in the first person, we feel like we’re really getting a peek into the world of young Odd.

There are two more books out there featuring Odd Thomas and I plan to seek them out as soon as possible. This first installment leaves lots and lots of room for further development of Odd as well as many of the peripheral characters introduced here. Odd Thomas is why I love Koontz and will always come back to him, even after he writes something horrid like The Taking. I’m willing to read through the bad to get to the good when the good is as delightful as Odd Thomas.