The Bad Place by Dean Koontz

This book was recommended to me by a friend. I had never heard of Dean Koontz before but I was told this story was super weird and creepy, and it definitely ticked that weird little box!

All I had heard about Koontz beforehand was that his writing was a little twisted and I do like a dark, twisted tale. This book ended up being picked from my bookshelf at random by the boyfriend. It was so nice to be told for once 'this is the book your reading next!' It took the pressure of disappointing the other books off of my back! Bookworms you know the struggle is real!

So here we follow Frank Pollard who wakes up in an alleyway not knowing who he is or where he is. All he knows is his name and that he is running from a very 'bad thing'. We also follow husband and wife private investigators Bobby and Julie Dakota as they try to make sense of Frank's past and odd behaviour. Lastly we follow Thomas, Julie's younger brother, who can sense the 'bad thing' is close. Throughout the book Koontz cleverly weaves through each character, and introduces us into other favourable characters, slowly revealing more information about Frank and this bad thing.

So I think I was expecting something else from this book, which I guess wasn't fair. I usually read fiction/dystopian novels. This one was more fantasy horror, set in a normal earthly setting but with strange powers and abilities. I am my own worst enemy as I love things like this in films, but when reading I always feel like these things are excuses and an easy way out for authors. Like there is a mystery and its solved by a completely random magical reason... Sometimes I feel cheated. Anyone else feel like this?! So I know I am being too hard on this story for that reason.

That being said I DID enjoy this! There was one character who I could literally see in full in my mind and was scary as hell. And I became invested in certain characters and therefore reacted strongly to their story lines. The ending I totally didn't see happening, others may have, but I didn't and I found that super interesting. There was also one shock that I was like no way is this happening!! So yeah, it was still a really good read!

Although a fantasy/horror type book I do think most people could read this. Yes there are some disturbing events that unfold but the language is clean, the story is clear and the violence is delivered tastefully. They shock you of course, but more so because of the situation and people involved. I cant see this book offending many people is what I am saying.

Koontz writing was also exactly what I love about reading. Like I said before I could see one particular character so clearly in my mind, Koontz had described him so well that I could easily see his features. This doesn't always happen when I read books which I don't mind, but it definitely created such a complex, layered character for me. But the thing that I enjoyed most about this is Koontz didn't even describe this character straight away for me, I had to keep reading to get more of the features, more of the personality. I really enjoyed piecing things like this together, for this character and for the overall story and the level of detail was on point for everything.

I will definitely read more from Dean Koontz in future, as far as I am aware they do not follow a series or pattern so I guess I will play book roulette for his next book! If anyone can think of any that I should read next from his archive please let me know 😊

The Bad Place by Dean Koontz

Pages - 417

Goodreads Rating - ⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Link

Amazon Link