Forever Odd: A Novel

This book could have used a little more uumph (if you know what I mean).
I always forget how far Mr. Koontz can go with his descriptions of a scene or a memory or a person or just about anything he gets started on.
I accidentally put this audio book back a chapter and was throughly reminded of the excessive details Mr. Koontz feels compelled to convey. It became clear how incredibly, mortifyingly long it took for anything to happen in this book. It's a good story but it needs something more thrilling or urgent to compensate for the meandering ultra-descriptions.
The reader is very good except for his attempt at the voice of the female villan. The voice and inflection he gives her are terrible. She sounds like a stupid, valley-girl, mall-rat, goth attempting an immitation of a smokey-voiced lounge singer. Not to put all of that on the reader, that character is written very poorly too. Just not as intimidating as a villan in her place could have been. She was almost funny, thoroughly irritating, and absolutely not scary.
Other than that, Odd Thomas is still a unique and interesting character. It was nice to see a little more of his life but it seems like he could have shared a little less description and a little more suspense.

I really enjoyed Odd Thomas, but this didn't live up to it.
I liked the character enough to read Brother Odd and that is a great read. My advise is to skip Forever Odd -- there really isn't anything in the book you need to know to enjoy Brother Odd.

Odd Thomas is an extremely likable character. He is one of the most harmless people you would ever meet. He is kind, generous, giving, and just an all out nice guy. The events in the first book are exciting, adventurous, and amusing. The endinging is sad and touching. This book does not measure up to the first book in any way. It is a simple chase book with little of the charm of the first book. Odd's odd abilities are almost an afterthought in this book as he tries to foil some one dimensional evil woman whose disregards all reason to her own destruction. I was sad as I was so looking forward to another great Koontz book but this is not worth the listen.

After I finished listening to Forever Odd, I had to go back and listen to Odd Thomas just to see what it was that made me want to listen to Forever Odd. Then I thought maybe I had inadvertently downloaded an abridged version of Forever Odd, without the characteristic convolutions and engaging enigmas of a typical Koontz novel, but it really was just a short, flat, uninteresting book about some really interesting characters. If Koontz revisits Odd in a third book, go straight to that one from Odd Thomas.

I guess after "Odd Thomas", I had big expectations. A found a lot of the descriptions of Odd's surroundings boring and not quite easy to picture in the mind's eye. I was hoping for the "Bodocks" and other interesting characters that was in "Odd Thomas."

This is the first Dean Koontz book that I've listened to that I didn't like.

I enjoyed Odd Thomas (the first of the series) and David Aaron Baker's narration of both novels. But Dean Koontz isn't up to his normal superb story-telling with this tale. Most disappointing is his ending which reminds me of the cop-out we all learn in high school writing class when our hero is trapped beyond escape ... "and then he woke up."

Koontz can do MUCH better and we, his readers, deserve MUCH better.

This book was not as good as Odd Thomas. I agree that Dean Koontz should write more stories about Odd Thomas, and he left the ending ready to add book three. This story was much weaker than the first, but entertaining enough to listen to the whole story. All in all, this is a good story, but nothing great. I hope the next book is much better.

I was utterly disappointed with this linear & twist-free story. There are no surprises, no interesting revelations about Pico Mundo, Odd Thomas or any of his cohorts. I enjoyed the quirky world in the original Odd Thomas but Forever Odd fell flat.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Odd Thomas. The characters in the first book were interesting and refreshing. In this book you are reintroduced to a lot of the same characters and the plot of the first book, so you waste a little time in that regard. It seems he may have rushed this to market to capture the appeal of the first book, but it's still decent.

That aside the book is a good listen, and it keeps you interested like most of Koontz's books. The plot-line of this book revolves around black magic, and Koontz must have done a lot of research. This makes it interesting and lends a degree of "trueness" to it that makes you wonder if the black magic mentioned in the book is really out there.

"Odd Thomas" was amongst the best stories that Dean Koontz has ever written. The characters are fascinating, the story is quirky, and the plot has enough depth to be something other than just a slasher story.

"Forever Odd" is a very worthy sequel! This story picks up 16 months after the events in "Odd Thomas", and all of the interesting characters are back. The style of the story telling, the atmosphere painted by Koontz, and the style of plot are all very recognizable from the first book. David Aaron Baker does an amazing job with the all of the characters, but especially with Odd himself.

This is one of those stories that will have you sitting in the car in the driveway after your drive home, hoping to hear just a little bit more.

Very very highly recommended!