I watched and really enjoyed the Odd Thomas movie years ago, so I figured this would be an easy win when I found this book in a friend's 'give-away' pile. I didn't end up loving it, although I'm not entirely sure if that was the fault of the book or the fact that I forgot I've never actually enjoyed a horror book. (Excluding Neil Gaiman who I love, but I'm not 100% if his work counts as horror or not.)

What I enjoyed - the characters were all likeable, and even having seen the movie there was at least one twist I didn't see coming. The plot moves slowly but the method of revelation keeps you as confused as the main character for the most part, which I appreciated

What I didn't - the characters are all pretty flat. The perfect, stunningly beautiful girlfriend our main character is inspired by, the main character who is 20 but sounds like a 40 y/o film noir detective half the time, the morbidly obese friend who is never mentioned in the book without an accompanying discussion about how fat he is. The foreshadowing gets to be too much as well - Koontz starts the book by saying it would end horribly, then pretty much repeats that chapter by chapter. Maybe this is a horror trope, but for me it got old.

Overall if you're a fan of horror you may enjoy this. The writing itself isn't stellar but certainly isn't bad, and the plot is fairly solid. I probably won't continue the series but I won't tell you not to read it.