Ode to Odd

When my sis told me that I should read Koontz, I didn't know where to start. She was kind enough to lend me her Odd trilogy, and that's how I got acquainted with the Odd Thomas.

[STOP READING THIS ENTRY IF YOU HAVEN'T READ ANY ODD THOMAS BOOKS]

And I kinda wanna kill Koontz for killing Stormy. In the first book! I mean, seriously? That one person he could count on? And the only person who truly understands him? Sure there's Elvis but The King doesn't talk in that book so whaddahell?

Before you conclude that I stayed away from the second and third, let me tell you right away that I didn't. I couldn't. Because Odd (rather, Koontz) is that addictive. Because I am a mom who is not good enough just yet to deserve a soul as kind as my son, I felt that Odd Thomas, in a twisted way, is a reminder that I should be kind to my son who I really do not want to see ending up unloved as Odd was while growing up. And I'm glad I didn't get all emotional (of course I did, I just don't want to admit it) just because my heroine was killed much too early to my liking, and picked up the second book the same night I finished the first installment.

And in the second book, I found another character I came to like. The Hoosier librarian whose mother was a concert pianist and an assassin (I haven't finished the book just yet so I'm not too sure which is her day job and which one she did on the side) is one I immediate rooted for - perhaps by the sliver of belief that a guy can have a lousy mom who can't cook and did many mistakes with her first born will turn out OK - and from the first mention I simply refused to believe that he's one of the bad guys.

Apart from lovable characters, Koontz also expresses common terms differently, which I find totally refreshing. His choice of words to describe temporary insanity: "petit madness". How charming is that?

He also describes everyday experiences in very clever manner. Take this sentence: "Baked by bitter cold, half the fluff of the falling snow had been seared away." I love sentences like this, words like 'bake' and 'seared' traditionally involve heat, yet Koontz made it very useful in describing how one feels to be outside in a cold weather that did not bite you in the ass right away, but creeps in slowly that it took some time for the absence of heat to register.

Also in the second book, Brother Odd, I came across sentences that I read again immediately after reading it for the first time.

This particular sentence, "Journalism had come to seem not like a career but like an incarceration." feels like a random stranger who approached you offering you a smile and handshake while you were crossing the street, not expecting your daily commute would be any different from the day before. It was surprising considering that right now I'm not too sure if I would like to keep my job as a journalist, due to many reasons, at the same time reassuring considering that the character in Koontz book, of which the sentence is referring to, also struggled with his job as a crime reporter.

I can't wait to find out what happens. I'm bracing for another sucky ending though (in case Koontz decides to kill someone off again. I can handle that. I'm also a kinder mother now I think, so if Koontz' books played a part in making me sober up into becoming a more responsible-yet-carefree-not-stressing-the-small-things-so-much kinda mom, thanks).