Forever Odd- Dean Koontz

Forever Odd by Dean Koontz

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Dean Koontz, the master narrator comes up with his mysterious fiction, "Forever Odd", in which the central character has a rare gift, he can see dead people. He has a psychic magnetism through which he can locate ghosts and even people. The story deals with the encounter he has to face with because of this rare gift.

Crime thrillers and mysteries often do not come under the analysis of literary critics as they think that these are inferior, or maybe they don't have the aesthetic taste to enjoy them. However, as these mysteries do appeal to thousands of people, and deals with the life of the people, its crime and decay, we need to consider the genre seriously.

The antagonist in the novel is the owner of a porn site who makes money by exploiting the sexual demeanor of the people. She, Datura her name, then ventures to exploit the other interest of the people, that of the unending desire for the supernatural. She wants to see the dead, and meets many black magicians to get what she wanted. Then, she heard about Odd Thomas who has the skill to see dead people. For making him summon ghosts for her, she kidnaps Thomas' friend. As in any thrillers, at last Thomas comes victorious.

Apart from this short story with its twists and turns, what the novel presents us? I agree that it came just as a representation of our long held battle between good and evil. But why the evil always is woman and not man. It is easy to identify women with evil, from the time immemorial, women has a liking for evil. It is Eve who ate the forbidden fruit.. It is women who were brutally murdered in the name of witch hunt. To add the spice, the author has a fine description of the Hindu woman-goddess Kali, who in her appearance shows everything grotesque. So it is easy for the author to compare Kali with the antagonists, but in the hurry forgets, maybe knowingly, that Goddess Kali stand for good as per old tradition, who never rests in her fight against the evil. Here, the author achieves by combining the women image of evil with the exotic oriental dark bloodthirsty goddess a special mood to the story which will satisfy any ordinary reader who gets mystified by these images.

However, here the antagonist seems so weak, without much to do in the encounter. The end is predictable, like in every crime thriller that is the victory of good over evil. Even then, I felt that the opponent is so weak, failing to arouse any horror.




View all my reviews