One Door Away From Heaven

Rating:
Summary: I'm not in Kansas anymore
Review: Even after closing the book, I couldnft recover from the numbness soon. For a while I was immersed and wandering in the eerie Koontz world. My last feeling was somewhat detached one: I rather like Koontzf fear stories which will chill my spine! Nevertheless this story will be the best one in another dimension that spreads one door away from heaven.

Leilani Klonk is a too precocious girl close to ten years old. Her talk baffled Micky, Michelina Bellsong because Leilani talked about after death, UFO, and above all the murder of his brother Lukipela. Leilani has deformed left hand and she declared herself as a mutant. Micky's aunt Gen, Geneva was living in her motor home with Micky who was desperate to find a job because she came out of prison. She was entangled in a business crime that was not her responsibility. Leilanifs father was Dr. Doom or Preston Maddoc and her mother was Sinsemilla. Preston Maddoc was a nasty but intelligent doctor to inflict natural death on his patients. And Sinsemilla was obsessed with some sort of hallucination. Micky thought that Leilani was as good as dead in her environment. She wanted to help Leilani before Leilani was killed by her father.

A ten years old boy lost her mother killed by someone and fled from that enemy. He entered into a house and found a boy sleeping. His name was Curtis Hammond. He borrowed his clothes and money and even his name! Hereafter he called himself Curtis Hammond. The real Curtis was found dead next day by the mysterious fire started by Curtisfs chasers. He found a dog in that house and brought her with him. His dogfs name was Old Yeller. He started from Colorado to Nevada, and beyond. He was hailed by a pretty woman, named Cass. She has twin sister Polly. They helped Curtis flee from his enemies.

Noah Farrel is an ex-cop. His sisterfs face had been severely damaged in her left side. Laura was also mentally damaged and hospitalized. But Nurse Wendy Quail cured his Laura in her own way; Laura was murdered by nurse Quail!

These three different characters unfold their own story with readersf sincere expectation that they will converge in the long run! Most thrilling thing was the true identity of Curtis Hammond and the fate of Leilani. This mysterious twining of stories draws the attention of readers to the last turn of pages.

Rating:
Summary: Two tales cobbled together
Review: I think ONE DOOR AWAY FROM HEAVEN could've been split into two separate books. The fact that they weren't results in more pages for the buck, but also perhaps a less satisfying storyline.

On one track, we have a 10-year old boy, whose family has been slaughtered, fleeing cross-country from the killers. He comes upon the isolated Hammond farm in the wee hours inhabited by its sleeping residents. Within no time, the killers track the boy to the home and butcher the family. The boy continues his flight, taking along the Hammond's pet dog and the identity of the Hammond son, Curtis. Eventually, "Curtis" teams up with identical twins Cass and Polly - statuesque, street smart, pistol-packin', blond, ex-Las Vegas showgirls roaming the West chasing UFO sightings in a motorhome purchased with divorce settlement monies.

There's something strange about Curtis. His knowledge of the world is solely based on 9,658 viewed movies.

On a parallel track, we have 9-year old Leilani, born physically deformed like her older brother Lukipela because of their mother Sinsemilla's incessant and heavy drug use. Both Leilani and her mother are under the control of the former's stepfather, Preston Maddoc. The family travels around the country in a converted bus to sites of potential extraterrestrial landfalls. Preston claims that the ETs can heal Leilani's deformities. The girl knows better. The way she tells it, Preston, aka Dr. Doom, is a serial killer, who murdered her brother in the Montana woods on his tenth birthday. Leilani fears she's next.

Leilani befriends Micky Bellsong, a jobless, ex-con at rock bottom, who lives with her Aunt Gen in the Los Angeles area. After hearing Leilani's story, Micky decides to redeem her life by rescuing the girl from Preston and Sinsemella, but the three depart before she can act. To help track down and recover the girl, Micky employs private detective Noah Farrel, who's burdened with guilt for having let his father beat his sister into a permanent coma seventeen years before.

Have I lost you in the melodrama yet? In any case, all players eventually collide in Idaho at the dilapidated home of a pathetic recluse that gives new meaning to the term "pack rat".

This thriller is no better than a beach read, though it may take several days while soaking up the carcinogenic UV rays. That the book would have been better split into two is evidenced by the awkward last chapter, which made me think that the author, having arrived at his publisher's deadline, mused, "Uh-oh, now what do I do to wrap this up?"

The conclusion pretty much brings to closure the Leilani arm of the story, but leaves so much unclarified about Curtis's situation and future that I smell a sequel coming. That's fine, as long as it includes Polly and Cass.

ONE DOOR AWAY FROM HEAVEN better serves, perhaps, as an outlet for the author's loathing for utilitarian bioethics, that philosophy which condones (and, at its extreme, promotes) the elimination of those members of society deemed unproductive, i.e. those who are aged, deformed, insane, terminally ill, or just dirt poor.

The author also reveals his predilection for dogs. I'm a cat person myself.

Rating:
Summary: One of the better efforts in recent years
Review: This book was one of Koontz's better efforts in the recent years. It seems harder to get into books that have such unreal stories, but if told well enough, it's a great read. This book is an example of that. You can either pull it off or not. This time Koontz did pull it off. The suspense kept me reading all 680 pages. I do agree with one other reviewer though that in I would have liked to see a bit more from Noah's point of view. I loved each character, but he especially intrigued me, however, he wasn't in much of the book.

At a time when I was thinking maybe I'd outgrown Koontz, this book renews my faith!

Rating:
Summary: Blah!
Review: I have tried twice to read this book. I got less of it read the second time than I did the first! The passages are long and wordy and the plot is S L O W. This is the worst Koontz book I've ever read and I've read a lot of them.

Rating:
Summary: Didn't hold my attention - story boring
Review: I read about half the book and started skipping ahead until there was nowhere to skip. I found the majority of the story boring and a waste of time. the kid was the most interesting until each chapter became a repeat of the one before.

Rating:
Summary: My First Koontz book...awesome!!!
Review: One Door Away From Heaven was my first Koontz books. I'm hooked! I've read many of the other reviews that really disliked this book. I, for one, loved it. Yes, it took a long time of the characters and plot and all to come together but I loved the structure of the novel. I think that the time it takes for the characters to "come together" is effective in developing each character and adding depth to the story. The girl is a little unbelievable but this IS a science fiction/thriller isn't it? I mean, one can expect such unbelievable things, right? I love the connection between Curtis and Old Yeller. Maybe this is because I have a close connection with my pets and I can "feel" this.

Koontz has a way with words and detail. Yes, it can get long sometimes but it's ALOT better than King. The only book by S. King that I've been able to get through is "Carrie" and "Eye of the Dragon". I enjoy Koontz 10 times more than King.

I'm on my 6 Koontz book sense I started reading him this summer. Right now I'm reading "Servants of TWilight" and loving it!!!

Rating:
Summary: Koontz Gets Better and Better!
Review: Look out Mr. King. After living in his peer's literary shadow Koontz appears to be coming into his own popularity. Admittedly the first novel of his I read that I can admit to really loving was False Memory, and have included ,myself as a fan ever since.
Micky Bellsong, Leilonni Klonk and the other characters are what drives this incredibly intense, yet touching tale. His characterizations are superb and he doesn't sacrifice any effort on his villians either.
Confession time, I haven't read this book in a while, but the glow of the memory of reading it surrounds me. A definite must-read for fans and non-fans of the horror/thriller genre.

Rating:
Summary: not his best
Review: I am a big fan of most of Koontz' work and because of that I have to admit that this novel is awful. Between this book and From the Corner of His Eye, I have read two too many books about the amazing abilities of children. One Door Away from Heaven is absurd. The child prodigy Leilani Klonk is the most unreal character I have ever encountered reading about (aside from Barty from his previous novel.) This 9 year old girl had the psyche, wit and vocabulary of a 50 year old english professor that practices comedy on the side, give me a break. It takes atleast 400 pages for the story to take off and become anything interesting at all. None of the other characters are particularly interesting (except for Old Yeller, the dog).
That all aside he could have really made this book exceptionallly shorter and better. His point about utilitarianism is well seen and his attempt at writing about extraterrestrials is a huge miss...This book took for ever to finish. needless to say, I will be taking a break from Koontz for a while.

Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! My kind of Koontz!
Review: As someone who can finally qualify as being very familiar with Koontz (although I still have a few to read), I can tell you this is one of my VERY favorites! It's long, with lots of character buildup. And the characters are really great; not one of them that you want to strangle the woman, as I've wanted to in several of his. The people are funny, exciting, and the good guys are all very likeable and the bad guys are staggeringly horrid!!!! This bad guy in this one, considering that he's actually a true human (no sci-fi, no supernatural, just a HORRIBLE person but with a wonderful mask) is a real coup of a "bad guy" creation!!! Both of the children in this book are pistols! I LOVE them!!!! The book was long; never tedious. I was truly disappointed when I finished it, because I wanted it to keep going for a lot longer! The ending was very well done; not abrupt as some of his are. But long and satisfying! I can't think of anything about the actual story to tell that wouldn't be a giveaway. This book is truly exciting, suspenseful, enjoyable and I would say fun, except that it has a very grim message of the future, as some of his other books do. I would say this book falls right in with the likes of "Strangers" and "Lightning" which are two of my other very favorites of his. I DON'T understand why this one has a 3 star rating!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Uneven but entertaining Koontz in the classic tradition
Review: After several dozen best-sellers, Koontz does not abandon the formula that has made him a popular success. His fans will recognize all the familiar elements and style here: injection of one paranormal element into an otherwise average environment, lonely individuals who find a reason to continue living, action that initially simmers to a roiling explosive boil, mini-cliff hangers at the end of each chapter that repeatedly compel the reader to relent to "just one more chapter, then I'll go to bed". What is remarkable about Koontz is that with each novel he molds these same fundamental components into new and intriguing stories. Admittedly, even fanatical Koontz fans have difficulty recollecting and properly identifying the characters and plots from one novel to another. But one does not pick up a Koontz book for the deep philosophical issues or intricately designed psyches of the characters, but for the immediate thrill of the read itself. And, the bottom line, "One Door Away From Heaven" is an invigorating read.

Another Koontz trademark is the agonizing patience with which he dolls out information and explanation. Here Koontz weaves three separate plot lines, jumping between them with each chapter. Although it is an intellectual game for the reader to decipher how these seemingly separate stories will ultimately come together, Koontz delays the merger far too long: the first inklings of a convergence do not occur until 400 pages into this 600 page book. Koontz initiates one plot line, then abandons it for nearly 200 pages, only to return after the reader has become far more involved in the other stories. Ultimately, this third plot line seems superfluous and unnecessary to the final resolution. And after all the preliminary energy invested in the developing story, the ultimate climax seems facile and disappointedly relies upon a "deus ex cosmos" to resolve the major conflict.

As cagey as Koontz is about his plots, he is never ambiguous when he paints his characters. His palette consists of only monochromic black and white. The reader is never in doubt of who is good and who is bad and that the former will by the final pages triumph over the latter. That's not to say that his characters are simple; in fact, at times the entire cast is almost overwhelmingly eccentric. No character is drawn from the middle of the bell curve; each is endowed with often layered quirks. Included in the cast for "One Door" are a staggeringly precocious girl with malformed limbs, a brain-rotted perpetually stoned ex-flower child, an elderly woman who thinks she's a Hollywood heroine thanks to a head injury, a pair of blonde big-bosomed twin Vegas showgirls who are also adept at all manner of armed and unarmed self-defense, and a dirty, disheveled doppelganger of Gabby Hayes. Koontz's novels are most involving when they thrust ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances where they are compelled to discover within themselves an unrealized strength and courage to survive. When the characters, both pro- and an-tagonistic are plucked from the fringes, the suspension of disbelief is more difficult to maintain and the involvement of the reader in their lives less intimate. Finally, although genuinely intelligent conversation between characters is engaging and satisfying, here Koontz often tends toward an overwritten badminton banter of too-clever witticisms and one-liners which in no manner resemble ordinary conversation and ultimately grow tiresome and annoying.

These minor criticisms aside, I nevertheless frequently found myself continuing to turn the pages late into the night. I recommend the book as a satisfying introduction to Koontz; and, for old-time Koontz fans, I doubt they will be able to read the revelations in the final pages without a smile and a chuckle.