Rating: 
Summary: The Funhouse
Review: I think The Funhouse is written very well. I like it becuase it keeps you on the edge of your seat and it is a very scary book and kind of bloody.This book compared to Intensity is quite different the theme and intensity it more heart pounding and nerve racking.I would say that the funhouse is a good book for anyone who like murder and blood with twists and turns that you can never imagine and you never know what is going to happen next.
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Summary: Can't stop reading !
Review: I am a Freshmen at Lewiston Highschool, in Lewiston Maine.
I was reading The Funhouse for a book report at school.
I have always been a pretty religious person, but when I read this book I saw how over obsessive Ellen Harper was about her religion. I couldn't believe that she had the nerve to treat her perfectly healthy children as if they too were monsters inside. I feel that Amy showed a lot of courage to stand up to her mother the day she told her she was pregnate, but Ellen with the little trust and love she has for her children began to beat Amy as if it were the monster she gave birth to before. This book shows just how lucky some of us are to have supporting parents. I think this book is a must read. It is exciting, but the ending leaves you wondering what happened. This was by far the best book I read and I am planning to read more by Dean R. Koontz.
Rating:
Summary: This funhouse isn't your ordinary funhouse!!
Review: Koontz is my top favorite auther and I collect all his books. For the ones that were not so long (350 pages or less), this is one of the best. Ellen Harper disgusts me a lot of ways. In fact, by the end of the book, I think of her as a villian almost as much as that slime ball baker she married to begin with. And Koontz wasn't exaggerating when he said, "A child she could never love." I've seen mutilated corpses that looked better than that "freak" baby. Ellen really goes into a spiral of destruction for her kids. Joey and Amy are so nice-looking, kind, and peaceful, yet she tortures them beyond words with her ruthless religion. I can't begin to think why she even considered herself to be holy if she ever did. I just get the urge again and again to leap into the book and spill out Ellen's story to her family and make her see what a monster she has made of herself. For cryin' out loud, she calls Amy, her own daughter no less, one of the devil's handmaidens. You call that a mother? As for Amy and Joey, these kids are the most realistic characters in the entire book, Amy more than Joey to be precise. She has it all; looks, heart, spirit, dreams, and all that other stuff, but that total witch of a mother has caused her to hate herself. I feel total sympathy for her, no anger whatsoever, reguardless of what she did. Liz Duncan is a little on the "bad girl" side of the feminine spectrum. She pretty and hot and all that other stuff that looks make a girl, but she's so willing to get laid. And last but certainly not least, there's Gunther, my second least favorite character in the book, Conrad is first, Ellen is third. I would like to know just how he grew up. Rapping and killing girls and women through his years is so spine-tinglingly horrid and terrifying. It makes him a character I just love to hate. For Gunther dying, I say "GOOD RIDENCE!!!" This novel has plenty of sex and rapping, a lot more than I expected, which sort of adds to the twist. That, in fact, is one reason why I enjoyed the book. Finally, the ending is not good enough, thats the only bad writing part of the book. I so much wanted to know what happened afterwards. If I could give Koontz on pointer on this piece of work(which is totally awsome and worth reading to Koontz fans everywhere) it would be "Make the ending a whole lot more fulfilling and securing of the future." Other than that, this book is must-read if you enjoy getting scared. It will keep you on the edge of your seat and scare you to the core!
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Summary: Koontz' take on the CARNY....
Review: Koontz is a magician with words!!! He takes an old idea and makes it a fresh new novel!!!This book is smoothly told, has REAL characters, nice plotting, and a very good ending. This is probably one of his top 10 books out of over 40-plus!! The movie was okay, but this is much better! Koontz doesn't hit a slow spot in this story as it moves along crisply and is pretty concise for a DK novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible
Review: I didn't like this book at all. The writing and character backgrounds are good as always, but the plot was bad to begin with. It's down there with "The Voice of the Night" for me.
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Summary: Koontz's only novelization is a poor example of his work.
Review: In interviews Dean Koontz has stated that as a child he fantasized about running away with the carnival/circus and his obsession with it led to one of his best books, The Funhouse isn't it (I was actually referencing Twilight Eyes). What The Funhouse is is an excellent example of why Koontz makes a poor sell out. Written before his megabestsellers, The Funhouse is a novelization of the Tobe Hooper horror movie. Anyone who has seen the movie knows that the screenplay isn't exactly the strongest of material to build a book with, so Koontz added some background details and the result reads like an entirely different story. Originally published under his Owen West pseudonym, The Funhouse is one best left on the shelf.
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Summary: Don't compare it to the movie
Review: ...the book is great w/ clearly defined characters and a solid plot. If you've were thinking about reading the book and see the movie b4 u read it don't let the movie stop u. i've read the Funhouse 5 times already. well enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: I would have really given it 2 1/2
Review: Okay... I heard Koontz's books were awesome, so I found one at my local school's library... The Funhouse. It was an okay book overall, but if I were Koontz, I would have stuck with the state of mind he was in when he wrote the prologue. The fifteen or so pages before the story actually began were the best out of the whole book. The rest of the book reminded me of the psychotic religious-obsessed mother in Carrie. I admit, the whole Conrad-meeting-his-firstborn-son's-mother's-children plot was pretty eventful, but I would have been happier with a nice Stephen King novel.
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Summary: Killer Carnies Come to Town
Review: The story has it that Koontz novelized this book (under the pen-name "Owen West") from the Larry Block screenplay to the Tobe Hooper movie, but it's simply far too developed and far too good to be one man's novelization of another man's screenplay. One of Koontz's favorite themes is carny life (he wrote of it again later in Twilight Eyes), and he has a penchant for playing with pseudonyms. The Funhouse came out the same year Koontz's first breakthrough book, Whispers, was published, and "Owen West's" Funhouse novelization got more T.V. advertising (something I never saw before and haven't seen since) than the movie itself did. Either Larry Block streamline-adapted Koontz's original novel, or Tobe Hooper altered it and Koontz didn't like it so he had his name removed, but I'm reasonably certain The Funhouse originated as a Koontz novel, not a movie, whatever story Koontz might spread around to the contrary. And even if I'm wrong, it doesn't matter. This is one of Koontz's best books, whatever he may think of it himself. Its only problem is that the finale is a tad bit abrupt for the amount of buildup beforehand. An epilogue would have helped. Aside from that, this story of a father-and-son pair of killer carnies out for some personalized revenge is one of Koontz's best developed novels, with some of his most real characters - not his most appealing, mind, but his most real. The plot is solid, the suspense mounts steadily, the dialogue typically crackles, and the atmosphere is clammy and intense. It's brisk and violent, with enough religious hysteria and monstrous murder to wake Alfred Hitchcock from the grave. Don't let anything the naysayers, or even Koontz himself, might say about this one deter you. If you want a tense and nasty thriller that'll keep you turning the pages and biting your nails, this is the book you're looking for. By the way, the movie has its differences, but it's pretty good, too.
Rating:
Summary: UGH!
Review: Dean Koontz seems rather obsessed with sex, and all of his books have VERY similar topics.
The characters were very phony, to me, I don't think he's especially good at writing a credible female character. The plot was interesting, however, which is why it deserved 2 stars rather than 1. If you're a die-hard Koontz fan, obviously you are going to read it no matter what, but if you're not, and you are just looking for a good read, I suggest you look elsewhere.
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