From the Corner of His Eye

Rating:
Summary: Read the book BEFORE the reviews
Review: I've got to say how upsetting it is to see, in the reviews of this book, so many give-aways regarding WHAT JUNIOR CAIN DID TO HIS WIFE ON THE TOWER. C'mon, you guys are ruining (for others)what I found the biggest surprise a book has ever sprung!

Concerning the book, I never thought I'd rate a Koontz novel with 3 stars, but this one let me down. In the beginning it was fantastic. Several times throughout, I had to stop and cry. It wasn't until near the end that something odd started to happen. I had to force myself to pick it up and continue, and I got grouchier by the hour seeing characters so perfect that I began to feel evil and inferior by comparison. The doodling around in the kitchen, everyone making pies, finally had me gritting my teeth, along with Angel putting her nose in the fridge to count kinds of pickles, and the quantum physics angle seemed to me the musings of a man who can't get a handle on Faith without finding it safely rooted somewhere in science. I was in a crummy mood by the time it was OVER. It brought out the hag in me, and I kind of resented it. The amount of tragedy in this book is unequal to the size of the payoff, pure and simple.

I love Dean Koontz, always will, and lots of people liked this story. Me, I loved little Bartholomew and found him a great character, no complaints (but who is Bartholomew in the Bible, and what was the connection??). Junior was Koontz's best villain yet in my opinion. But like so many, he became for me the most interesting person in the novel. I began skipping over the disasters related by the twins, something I've never done while reading Koontz - skipping parts - I LOVE his use of words, never consider it "overuse".

FALSE MEMORY and LIGHTNING are my favorites. FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE sits at the very bottom. Right above it sits INTENSITY. King is nearly Koontz's equal in my book but Saul depresses me. Eg, I don't read suspense for the supernatural monsters, but the story and terror and the writing. Dean Koontz need not go back to PHANTOMS and the like to please us all. I'm enjoying the gradual shift, despite unhappiness with From the Corner of His Eye.

Rating:
Summary: Good one if you can only read a bit at a time
Review: First I read the book, then I read what the other reviewers had to say. Then I went back and checked the title and the author in case there were two Dean Koontz or two books entitled "From the Corner of His Eye". And then I realized what the problem was... all the reviewers who had downgraded this one were Koontz fans who expected a horror story (which this is not). Since I'm not a regular Koontz reader, I was not so easily disappointed.

But it's okay to cry, guys, I know the feeling well. I've suffered pangs of severe angst when reading Grisham's 'Painted House' to find there wasn't a lawyer in sight; or struggling all the way through 'Skipping Christmas' just waiting for the courtroom scene. Out of genre; out of sync it would seem.

Yet for me, From the Corner of His Eye was a charming, thought-provoking, here-a-smile-there-a-frown book whose only real negative was that it was a bit too easy to put down between chapters... oh yeah, and the twins did get just a bit tedious by the end... oh and I guess I'd have to agree that Barty and Mummy and the whole smiling happy-clan became just a bit too gooey by the end... oh and Cain was wopped too easily when he made his curtain call. Anything else? Not really; it was a good, steady, entertaining read, and I'll be quite happy to buy another Dean Koontz based on that one. So what was the problem, guys... other than Barty and Angel climbing a tree on their eighteenth birthdays when they should have been tucked up in bed?

Rating:
Summary: Maybe the ending is better somewhere else.
Review: My first Koontz book, and very impressed with his talent and the first half. The very noticable drop in quality of the writing in the last half reminded me of my essays in the "blue books" in college when I got off to a great start and about midway through realized I had nothing more to say but kept writing anyway to fill up the book. It did make me eager to try another Koontz, any suggestions?

Rating:
Summary: Dean R. Koontz keeps you guessing!
Review: His books are always great. This one kept me trying to guess how
he was going to tie all the characters together. His imagination
is fantastic from which he weaves his stories. This one keeps
you on the edge of your seat! When you finally get to the end
you wish it had a sequel so you could keep reading about the
characters. One of his best!!

Rating:
Summary: From the Coner of His Eye
Review: I just finished this book and reading it was a heart warming experience. His last two books didn't do anything for me, but this book is different in many ways. The characters are very much alive and with so much detail, they become like your own family. If you have never read any of Dean's books before, this one I highly recommend. The old saying ..."good to the last drop" applies here. Will I read his next book ... you bet.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: As with most authors, Dean Koontz pretty much sticks to the same types of story plots. But this one was a little different. When I started this book I couldn't put it down. It has a great story plot with a heart warming ending.

Rating:
Summary: Best Of Dean Koontz
Review: I could not wait to finish this book because it was so enthralling-yet I did not want to finish it because I didn't want it to end. Simply the best book I have read in years, and I read many authors of different genres. I have read some Koontz and liked most, yet this one soars beyond. Allow yourself to be enveloped in the world of this novel, enjoy its many layers.

Rating:
Summary: Why Bother
Review: With so many loving the work of Dean Koontz and the fact that I dearly love to read led me to try one of his books. Unfortunately, I chose this one. One of the reasons that I chose this one was the fact that the subject matter fascinated me. At times, but only at times, the writing was brilliant. It was during those periods within the book that I told myself to keep reading. Unfortunately, the book never gained altitude. It never flew very far. Also, knowing human nature like I do, during the last several chapters he has the characters doing things that are highly unlikely. What happens to the villain at the end of the book is very unsatisfying. Unfortunately, it reads like he had to come up with an ending so he just wraps it all up with characters doing things that according to human nature they would never do. I will try Dean Koontz again. Hopefully, I'll have better luck.

Rating:
Summary: Catastrophy
Review: English is not my mother-tongue. Nevertheless, I think that I have acquired sufficient knowledge of it, in order to pronounce this book of Mr. Koontz complete failure.
I have purchased it from Amazon.com., allured by some favourable opinions (presented by Amazon.com), and, knowing some other works of Mr. Koontz, expected genuinely good book.
Wham!
Imagine the story where are about a dozen of saints, battling one bad guy. Naturally, my sentiments were on the side of the bad guy, especially because he was named Enoch Cain Jr..?
Original, isnÂ't it?

Shame. KoontzÂ'theory about lives and afterlives is simply laughable, his description of the people that are so saint-like, people that are not believable, so good that .... You know what happens when you eat too much chocolate.

Rating:
Summary: "Fantastic story--until the 'grand finale'"
Review: This was the third Koontz book I've read, and for the most part, the best yet. I was fascinated by the villain, Junior (Enoch) Cain. His role was that of a narcissistic, egotistical, megalomaniac. Throughout the book comments were made about his resolve to be above other men, and actually live in the future, rather than the past or present. He studied a ficticious motivator named Caesar Zedd. Junior felt that he was desired by every woman he came in contact with. After murdering his wife, he felt justified to kill anyone who meddled with his plans. The other key player in the book was a child prodigy named Bartholomew. Bartholomew had the power to visit parallel worlds, and understand complex situations--even at a very young age. A pesky--unrelenting detective, Thomas Vanadium, suspecting that Junior had murdered his wife, rather than watching her fall to her death, continued his vigil. As he watched Junior as he slept, junior used the word 'Bartholomew'. When Junior awoke, Vanadium informed him of his verbal dream. In order to find peace in his life, Junior vowed to destroy this nemesis, the unknown Bartholomew. Many wild twists and turns accompany this tale, most of which I left out. It was great to read that each time Junior killed somebody, he suffered plagues: vomiting, diarrhea, hives, and boils. After killing his wife, he was never at peace, regardless of how much he looked for it. I was hoping all of the families he so recklessly destroyed would have made his life and death more gruesome. I questioned how he located those victims who relocated to southern California so quickly, as well as; where were all the cops during his killing frenzy? On the brighter side, Dean Koontz has such an outstanding literary ability, it makes it a delight to read his books. I recommend this one, and I'm sure I'll read more.