The City

author: Dean Koontz

name: Wayne

average rating: 3.72

book published: 2014

rating: 3

read at: 2014/09/01

date added: 2014/09/01

shelves:

review:

'The City' by Dean Koontz takes a magical premise, fills it with great prose and ultimately fails to go anywhere with it. As a fan, I loved the writing, but I wanted something more when it was all said and done.



I've loved some of the memorable characters that Mr. Koontz has created like Odd Thomas and Christopher Snow (can we have another Christopher Snow novel, please?), and Jonah Kirk, while not as much an outsider, falls right in with those other characters. And the characters around him, supporting his story, are also memorable and soul-stirring. Early in his life, Jonah meets a strange woman named Miss Pearl who seems to know him and gives him gifts and insights into his life. She may be the embodiment of the city, and I kind of wanted more from her than for her to swoop in at a critical point in the story and then disappear suddenly again. Amalia Pomerantz is an older neighbor girl with a unique way of looking at the world and a quirky younger brother who shares Jonah's love of making music. Mr. Yoshioka, an upstairs neighbor and past resident of the Myanmar internment camp, was my absolute favorite character. His calm in the face of things and friendship with Jonah really are the core of the book.



I spent a lot of the book feeling like it was a set up for something larger, or even a possible lead in to a larger series, but that seemed to be misleading. Nor is this much of a supernatural thriller (or even much of a thriller to be honest). Sure, there is menace, and a pretty creepy woman who threatens Jonah, but it's far from the sort of supernatural fare that Koontz is known for. The book is really more along the straight drama lines. If you know that going in, perhaps you'll like it more than I did. Oh, but the prose at times is just so nice and kept me reading.



I received a review copy of this ebook from Random House Publishing Group - Bantam Dell and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.





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