Rating: 
Summary: You won't be able to put this one down!!
Review: This is the 1st Koontz book, in fact the 1st "Thriller" book I have ever read. I usually stick to Romance and Mystery(F.B.I. stuff). I happened to buy this book just to read something different and once I opened it, I could NOT put it down. I found myself ordering pizza for the kids and letting the laundry pile up so that I could read! I even made my husband sit and listen to some of it, now he is interested and he has NEVER been an avid reader. This book will keep you on the edge the entire time. Just when you think you have it figured out, you don't. The main characters are so easy to like and through the wonderful writing style, you will feel as if you know them personally. Each time I tried to put it down I realized that I had to find out what else was going to happen next. I am now a dedicated KOONTZ fan and am planning to buy every book of his that I can find!! This one gave me goosebumps and I was up for 3 nights straight to finish it! I found myself screaming out loud at the characters as I read, like you would in a movie theatre while watching a scarey, edge of your seat, oh my ga, type movie. I hope this review will help you make your choice. I am not a talented "report" or "review" writer. In a nut shell, this book is just completely awesome, spooky, scarey,thrilling, funny at times and the best thing I have read in my life other than the Bible! HAPPY READING!
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed styles
Review: I like Dean Koontz. Correction-I love Dean Koontz novels. But in this work, I don't know what happened. He certaintly has the talent, the creativity to tie a reader to their seat and hold them in violent suspense. But for some reason, in this writing, he seems to want to experiment with cumbersome narrative and metaphors that appear to be thrown in like darts. They don't fit and they clutter the pace. Clumsy is a better word, down right amateurish. For a writer of his caliber, he's gone off and messed up a pretty good story. I agree with other reviewers, it's far to long. Here's hoping his next is back to good old Koontz basics.
Rating:
Summary: loved it
Review: I read a lot of books & this one has been one of my favorites.
Rating: 
Summary: Too slow to get going
Review: I've read just about all of Dean Koontz novels, and I'd have to say this ranks as one of his most, if not the most, disappointing. Like some of the other reviewers, I just found this way too long. He spent an excessive number of pages setting up his story. It was page 400 out of 600 before things really started moving. The first 200 pages I kept waiting for something to happen other than redundant setups and plot threads that eventually come together. While it becomes a real page-turner in the last 200 pages, for the first 200 it was a page skimmer. If this had been a 400-page novel, it would have been a four- or five-star thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful
Review: I haven't read much Dean Koontz since I was a kid. The last books I read by him were "Lightning" and "Strangers" - when I was a kid I realized he had a rather goofy, dime-store manner of writing ... but the stories were fun, and I could let it slide.So while looking for something to do recently I decided to check in with Koontz, see if he still had the magic. If this book is any indication, he certainly doesn't. If it were possible to give zero stars I would do so. The concept of the story is interesting: the very idea of being afraid of oneself seems an impossible one to screw up. But from the first page Koontz loses it. He spends pages describing the most ridiculous, unnecessary detail - from each individual parapet on a house to the color of every tree on a street. It is more than annoying, it is tiresome and frustrating. This style pervades the story: at one point he breaks away from Dusty chasing Martie through the house to give the purchase history of a clock. It is one thing for a novel to be suspenseful because the story is well written; it is another for a novel to keep you waiting for events because the author is a long-winded gasbag. Frustration abounds in this novel. I was a quarter of the way through it when I realized I hadn't even spent a full day with the characters. I had unconsciously begun skimming, because I was confronted with page after page of such nonsense as Martie going through EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the house and discarding it. Scissors? Those look sharp. Andirons? Yep. Stapler? In the bin! Mortgage bill? Whoops, I could give him a papercut with this. On and on and on. Was Koontz being paid by the word? This is not the only problem with the way the story is told: the characters are also dumb as a bag of hammers. When Dusty takes his brother to the clinic he says a name that triggers an episode in his brother, and then they recite a bunch of weird phrases, then he commands his brother to sleep and he does so. When his brother wakes up he tries each of the phrases again ... except the one that triggered the episode! The one that is written down fourteen times on sheets of paper he has stuffed in his pocket! Are we supposed to believe he has _forgotten_ the name? That it would not occur to him that his brother began behaving strangely when he said the name? Apparently Koontz thinks so. When the villain is finally revealed, and his plan explained, he is so cartoonishly evil that he lacks power. Much like Jason or Freddy in a camp horror movie, he is always in the right place at the right time, always one thought ahead of his victims. People just aren't that easy to predict, no matter how smart you are. Also, Koontz makes me a little uneasy with his style in this book. He describes rape and domination scenes with such lurid detail and enthusiasm that it makes me uncomfortable. I have read other Koontz books, and this man seems to have a thing for rape. He continues to travel that avenue in this book, and is exceedingly graphic in doing so. I truly think this book could have worked had the writer not been so inept at telling the tale. Throughout the story it is obvious that Koontz thinks he is writing high-class literature; this is why Stephen King so readily outclassed Koontz, because he knew he was writing schlock and just did it well. With Koontz you see every plot device, every contrivance, and he thinks he can distract you with errata. Like he's saying "I know this makes no sense, but let me describe a sunset for two pages to distract you. Still think it's stupid? Here's some more throwaway stuff about the dog. Everybody likes dogs!" This book is just awful. Had Koontz cut it in half and trimmed it down to the bare bones it might be decent, throwaway summer reading. Instead it is self-important, overlong, and poorly constructed nonsense. Not even the fact that it is about a game designer in Corona Del Mar - I am a game programmer in Laguna Beach - could keep me from tossing it in disgust. If this is modern acclaimed fiction, perhaps the television has more going for it than people realize.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't like it? Yes u did, Dr Ahriman instructed you not to
Review: This is a sensational book by Koontz and extremely believable. What Dr Ahriman does with drugs and mind control is obviously something you hope will never happen but there are a lot of people out there with his outlook on life and on women who would do exactly the same thing if they could. This is what makes this book sensational, terrifying, believable and addictive. I couldn't put this one down.
Rating:
Summary: Worst Book of Koontz I've read
Review: I have read alot of Koontz, and all have been excellent, until this one. It was slow, it dragged. I had trouble finishing it. I did though, thinking it would get better, it didn't. The dog really annoyed me in this one. I was waiting for him to show some spunk, but he remained a wimp all the way through. I'm not sure what happened here, but this is one Koontz, I would skip if I were you.
Rating: 
Summary: The Fastest 700 Pages You Will Ever Read
Review: When I bought this 700 page book, my intention was to have something to read during my lunch break for the next couple of weeks. What I didn't expect was to breeze through everything within six days. Koontz grabbed me by the collar after the first couple of pages and refused to let go. The villian in this story is Koontz' most diabolical creation yet. There were several times when I just wanted to reach into the pages and pummel the guy to oblivion. That's a mark of a "good" character. Nevertheless, I was annoyed by a few things. The dialog between the two lead characters was at times cutesy and annoying and the ending seemed rushed. I've noticed from past books, that Koontz tends to paraphrase the fates of his characters in just a few pages rather than fleshing them out. [...] Regardless, this book has reawakened my admiration for Dean Koontz novels and I can't wait to start the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but WAY TOO LONG!
Review: What is wrong with Dean Koontz? He has an incredible imagination and the ability to weave together complicated, interesting plots, but he always seems to fall short in one way or another. Regardless, I feel a sort of compulsion to keep reading him as he was my favourite author as a young teenager. My biggest complaint is that his repetitive characters aren't ever very highly developed, memorable nor realistic. I'm not the only one with this complaint so you'd think he'd work on that a bit. Nonetheless, most of his books are fun to read, and this was no exception. It centres around a small group of closely connected people, most displaying varying degrees and forms of mental illness. If this seems like an odd coincidence, that's because it is, but you don't get any clues about this until pretty far in. To be honest, it wasn't until I'd passed page 200 that it got really good, but to be fair, once it did I honestly could not put it down, and this is not to say that the first couple hundred pages were really boring or anything. The biggest problem is that the novel is unecessarily long, as I mentioned in the title, and 200-300 pages could easily be omitted without taking from the story and make for a more approachable thriller. Still, I would recommend it, and it's definitely a must-read for fans.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous...loved it!
Review: I absolutely loved this story! I am not understanding the negative reviews I've seen, it was simply wonderful. I was really attached to Marty and Dusty. I strongly recommend this book to any fan of the genre! I must admit, as sadistic as the doctor is, there are times when he'll have you laughing out loud!
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