Watchers

Review

I did not realize when I started this book that it was considered Koontz's finest work to date. Immediately the book draws you in. I had no idea what to expect, and as the story unfolded, how Koontz wove all three storylines together into the end was nothing short of masterful.

I loved the quadruple antagonist angle because all four of them were so different. The only thing I was surprised is the television repairman never made another appearance in the story, but, I suspect that was there to make us think that was always a possibility and I did. There was a scene where Travis goes in one of the houses and someone is in there, and you don't know who, and yeah, that anticipation had me gripped.

Given this book was written in the late 80s, there was a lot of nostalgia for that time. Scenes where you were like, why didn't they just check the internet...wait, there is no internet!

I will say one part in the book I didn't care for is when Nora and Travis are trying to communicate with Einstein. Travis is being an asshole and it just didn't feel in place with his character. It felt forced to cause tension in the scene, but I really found it hard to believe he would treat Nora that way. Not with his hand-holding before that point. I get that Koontz was trying to show the progression into normal relationship territory, but it didn't feel natural. Travis was too quick to be melodramatic and say they were wasting their time...but there was nothing else going on that they needed to do.

But all that said, back to the praise, I recently had a raccoon show up in my back yard with distemper. I recognized what was happening to Einstein before we were even told. My experience made that part of the story hit so much harder. I honestly had no idea which way Koontz would go with the story. He kept me wondering all the way to the end, which is how I am going to leave it too.