Day one of the challenges and I've got my first book checked off. This has served to bolster my confidence that I'll be able to successfully complete all three challenges in which I've chosen to participate.
Brother Odd by Dean Koontz
Published 2006 by Bantam Dell
430 pages
Reason for reading: 2008 TBR Challenge and because I've always planned on reading the last book.
This is the third and final book in the Odd Thomas series. Out of all the series that I've read, this would make it in my top ten. I have absolutely loved and enjoyed each book.
Odd Thomas seems to be an unlikely hero. He is constantly reminding the reader of his inadequacies and fallacies. Odd has an odd name, he's "only" a fry cook, he's "only" 21, and as Odd said himself, "I don't know anything." I think Koontz chooses to portray Odd in this manner to demonstrate a sharp contrast; to show the reader the wondrousness that is Odd Thomas. Odd clearly shows his wisdom and selflessness many times throughout all three novels but especially in Brother Odd when Odd is faced with the challenge of protecting challenged children from an unknown evil.
My favorite part about the series is the company that Odd keeps. Elvis Presley often visits him in ghostly form. While that may seem worthy of an eye roll, Koontz makes it work without it being over the top.
My favorite passages from Brother Odd are:
"Life you can evade; death you cannot."
And in referring to a disfigured child who had been made fun of by other children:
"In this world where too many are willing to see only the light that is visible,never the Light Invisible, we have a daily darkness that is night, and we
encounter another darkness from time to time that is death, the deaths of those
we love, but the third and most constant darkness that is with us every day, at
all hours of every day, is the darkness of the mind, the pettiness and meanness
and hatred, which we have invited into ourselves, and which we pay out with
generous interest."
These are not the words of someone who knows nothing.
Congratulations on finishing your first challenge book for the year! I think I may have read one sentence in a book today, but that's it. I'm so terrible. We went out the movies and have been running around most of the day, came home and have been watching DVD's. Now it's time for bed. And there's work tomorrow. Ho hum. Oh well. 365 more days to go.
ReplyDeleteI have the first book in this series in my TBR collection and will hopefully get to it one of these days. I've heard great things about it. I am glad to hear that you have enjoyed the series.
Thanks LF. I really irritate my husband when I read a book in a day, lol.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy Odd Thomas when you get a chance to read it.