I love it when I discover the first book in a series and love it...then I have so much more to look forward to. An imaginative hero, a delicious blend of compassion, tragedy, and humor, combine to make an excellent story.

i’ll write a better review later but for right now I AM PISSED OFF AT THAT ENDING

This was odd (pun intended). I think I may have missed a lot while listening to it on audiobook (it's hard to hear in the pouring rain) because I was pretty confused in some parts. Since my dad has the rest of the series on CD, I'll probably listen to another one soon.

I'm still sussing out how I feel about this book. I enjoyed the character of Odd, and he is odd just like his name, which sometimes was very entertaining and other times I couldn't quite figure him out. I found the dialogue particularly tricky to get the cadence of, he often wouldn't answer questions in an expected way which keep me questioning to the if that was intentional deflection or just noticing the world in a different way.

I also enjoyed the premise and his ability to see those who have passed. The story itself ended up being much darker than I expected, which ended up with this feeling much more horror than urban fantasy, although there are strong elements of both. That's how I'm feeling a few days after finishing it, but will continue to think on it and especially think on if I will continue the series.

Overall it was quite good and entertaining, and keep ya guessing, which was nice as well.

I am normally a decisive reviewer, but this book was difficult for me to benchmark. On the one hand, I loved so much about it. On the other hand, I didn't like most of it. Also, the narrator was not good for this book. He turned all the jokes into sad, weird things, when they were hilarious otherwise.

CONTENT WARNING:

Spoiler

Serial killers, rape (detailed and horrific), spiders, loss of a loved one, domestic abuse, child abuse, cancer.

Things to love:

-The humor. It was so good. I was laughing out loud the first chapter, and shared so many quotes with friends that just killed me.

-The dialogue. On a similar note, the dialogue was sharp, fun, and felt like things real people would say.

-The characters. Odd, Stormy, Viola, Terri, Ozzie, Sheriff Porter and the rest, were so much fun. Varied, with no bleed in their personalities or conversation styles, and just really relatable.

-The world. Dead people, crying Elvis, bodachs...it's all interesting and you want to know more. It's also refreshing that Odd is strange, but not unloved, and his abilities are not only not a secret from everyone, but people seem to accept him as he is. That's really cool.

-The mystery. I liked overall how Odd went about trying to figure it out and how much detail went into explaining how he came to the conclusions he did. I really like when the thought process is spelled out for the reader, especially when us readers can at least see why the character would think that, given what we know of them and the situation. It adds a layer of credibility.

Things that made this difficult for me:

-The back stories. Everyone seemed to have a really tragic past and Odd told us all of them, so it was like funny banter followed by devastating revelations that colored the next section. It wasn't poorly done, just changed the tone enough for me that it was hard to get back to the meat of the story.

-The tone. Odd made it clear that he was hurting and just trying to make light of things that left him a wreck, and again it stole some of the humor when you know it's not really gallows humor but something that costs him to joke about.

-The triggers. There were things in here that were just personally hard for me, and there were multiple of them, so it kind of messed me up. That's a good thing, in that the emotional impact and the author's understanding of these things meant that I took them all square on the jaw, but it's not really the kind of thing you want to thank someone for.

-The narrator on audio. I briefly switched to audio, and his complete lack of wry humor totally changed the story into just one long, drawn out tragedy. His voice lingered in my head and I had to fight past it to hear Odd how I imagine him.

So, in a rare move, I think I really enjoyed this book, but don't know that I will continue the series. I've recommended it to several people, and am looking forward to hearing whether or not it's as funny as I think it should have been, had I not had such visceral reactions to certain sections.

If I could give it more stars I would. There’s many good ways to say a book is good, but I don’t have the time. You’ll be in love with this book after the cow explodes, and the last four pages will leave you feeling like you’re the biggest loser in the tank. I’ve never read anything by Koontz before (though I’ve been meaning to for a while) and I’m genuinely surprised how much love I have for the way he writes. It’s a painful and fun book, nothing less than perfection. Read it if you need some feelings.

I liked the movie more but this was good… I knew how it ended and it still made me cry lol. I’m a sucker for a sad ending fr