77 Shadow Street in Bookworm Buddies

Oct 18, 2012 Janie Johnson rated it liked it · review of another edition

The book had a great start. Gets your heart thumping easily! You could feel impending doom. Makes you look forward to plunging ahead. And then it just seemed to become a jumbled mass of confusion. There was so much going on all at the same time I had to keep going backward to familiarize myself with the present character. I was happy to see it slow down a bit and level out for a much easier read and understanding. I did not really feel a strong connection with any of the characters. They did not ...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Lee rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-gr-challenge

I don't even know where to begin with this book. I normally enjoy Dean Koontz, but I found this book a bit of a chore to read. The beginning of the book seemed like a giant mess and gaggle of characters that I couldn't even begin to keep straight in my head. I found myself more confused than anything at the beginning, jumping from character to character and from one time to the next. Just when I thought okay, this has to be the last character introduced, another one would pop up. I felt like I j I don't even know where to begin with this book. I normally enjoy Dean Koontz, but I found this book a bit of a chore to read. The beginning of the book seemed like a giant mess and gaggle of characters that I couldn't even begin to keep straight in my head. I found myself more confused than anything at the beginning, jumping from character to character and from one time to the next. Just when I thought okay, this has to be the last character introduced, another one would pop up. I felt like I just couldn't keep up and it diminished my enjoyment and the pace of the reading because I would find myself having to go back to straighten something out in my head.

I also found the book to be quite wordy. Over explanation of certain things, not enough explanation of other things. I was also quite irritated at the reiteration of certain points or sayings. I felt like even though I was reading the same book, points would be brought back up in later chapters sort of like a recap in a series for a novel that the author meant to be a stand alone book. There were also characters in the book that I felt didn't belong, Shelley and Mac primarily. They weren't in the building during the transition and their conversation about post-humanism didn't really add much to the story in my opinion. We could have gotten the same information from Witness, who I felt should have had a larger role in the book.

Based on the sheer amount of characters in the book, I didn't really care for any of them. I couldn't really get to know them due to a lack of depth. I feel this is because there were just too many of them for the author to really spend any amount of time on a single character. I do applaud Mr. Koontz for Iris, I think that she was well portrayed in the beginning, however, near the end of the book, we no longer got anything from her point of view, only from Winny's point of view as to how she reacted. Having taken the time to explain her and how she views things in the beginning, then have her make such a huge change at the end of the book with none of her perspective felt like a cheat to me. Like the author wanted to give that happy ending to her and her mother with out any explanation as to why she did what she did. I also enjoyed the Cupp sisters, I found them to to be the most entertaining part of the book.

Then there was the ending, that is probably the most anti-climatic ending to a suspense novel I have ever read. I was so disappointed with it, that I didn't even bother reading the novella Moonlit Mind after I finished 77 Shadow Street. I will of course go back and read it, but not right now, for now I am done.

I rated this 3 stars, but it is probably closer to 2.5 stars. I enjoyed the concept of the story, the post-humanism, and the science. There are things that make you go, hmmmm. I just found the read to be a little taxing and a little confusing. Good concept, right idea, bad execution. That is difficult for me to say as Koontz is one of my favorite authors. Maybe you will enjoy the book more than I did. I hope you do.
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