Giving this a star rating was hard because this was a reread for me. In the mid-1990s when I was in my early 20s, I LOVED Dean Koontz books, and I remember this being my absolute favorite, unable to put it down at the time. That was 25 years ago though and I didn't remember the actual plot, just the feelings it gave me, so I decided to reread it to see if it lived up to my memory. Well, reader, it did not.

This book still holds a special place in my heart, but I think at the time I was newish to reading thrillers and a lot of thrillers were definitely not that well written. They were all about a terrifying plot only. I'm also a lot older with more life experience than that "kid" who originally read this.

Koontz has said that at the time the thought was that thrillers had to have these moments of low intensity so you could build up to intense scenes, so he decided to write a book that takes place over only 24 hours where the intensity is ratcheted up to 10 the entire time. He did do that. However, everything is so over the top, plus it's like a slasher film where the villain seems to be unkillable.

The heroine of the book has a back story in which she was so abused and unloved as a child as to be unbelievable. Koontz hits us over the head with the idea: "See, she had a TERRIBLE childhood. That's what makes her so tough now." And the villain is a caricature, just evil for evil's sake with no nuance. And the plot goes on and on. There's also some pretty deranged and violent events, which again are over the top. I get it, bad guy is really bad.

Anyway, I'm glad I tried it again. If you haven't read it and you can go into it thinking, "This is so over the top, like a bad slasher film, where I might actually laugh in parts," then it could be a fun, fast popcorn read. (Then again, some of these Goodreads reviews said it was terrifying, so it depends on your comfort level.)