Innocence: A Novel

I've been pretty disappointed with Dean Koontz's novels for a while now. With the exception of Odd Thomas, nothing has really intrigued me since his earlier writing (Lightning, Watchers, Phantoms...). I hesitated in buying this one, but with it being under $7 on the Kindle and the pretty positive reviews here I decided to give it a shot.Overall, the author's writing style is still quite different from his earlier works. There's much more flowery prose, too many adjectives, and similes and metaphors everywhere. However, the story was pretty good, and I could deal with the over-stuffed prose because the story pulled me in. I won't rehash the plot, but I'll say that the mystery of why Addison Goodheart (please, Dean, please stop with the ridiculous names) could not let anyone see his face had me very intrigued. To a slightly lesser degree, I was interested in the mystery of Gwenyth's social phobia. It was those two enigmas that really kept me turned the page (or pressed the next page button, if you will).The other stuff going on in the novel was interesting. The intense snowstorm, which reminded me of the first Koontz book I ever read (Darkfall), was very well described. The Fogs and the Clears that Addison saw added another mystery, and I was reminded of Odd Thomas here. The possibly haunted marionettes provided some of the scariest scenes Koontz has written in a while...and I was reminded of yet another novel here (TickTock).The flashbacks to Addison's life as a child with his mother and later with the person he called Father lent some background that was interesting but at times distracting from the pace of the novel. I read another reader's review where they said it was like being in a speeding car that was forced to smal on its brakes every ten minutes. I couldn't have described it better.One of my biggest pet peeves with Dean Koontz's later novels is that his characters are either good or bad. The good people are so good that you'd expect them to be wearing halos. I'd sometimes suspect to see sugary syrup dripping from the pages when scenes with them were being described. On the other side of the coin, when the bad people were on the pages, nothing but pure evil comes across. This book is no exception. I will say, however, that some of the scenes with the ultra bad guy, Ryan Telford, were quite disturbing. It was here that I could see some of the Koontz of old. But again, this character had absolutely no good in him, and the reason for his evilness just wasn't explained well.My title for this review states that this was a four star novel with a one star ending. I could get past the flowery prose and characters speaking in riddles because the overall story was pretty good. Plus, the mysteries of Addison and Gwenyth kept me interested. The revelation of why Addison wouldn't let anyone see him and why Gwenyth refused to be touched was decent. I could accept the reasons. If the novel has stopped there, I would have been content with slapping four stars on it and been relatively happy with what I read. But, no, Koontz had to write another seemingly hastily composed thirty pages that just completely derailed any momentum the story had.I won't supply any spoilers, but I can say that the ending left me wondering if I'm going to bother reading another Koontz book. I probably will, but I won't be looking forward to his next one like I used to. I wish Amazon would let us give half stars, because this is a 2.5 star book that could have been four stars. I opted to round up to three only because I liked most of the book. I can't, however, necessarily recommend this to anyone.

I read this book years ago and the main character truly intrigued me. I lost the book and have purchased it again so I can enjoy the adventure all over again!

While I liked Innocence, I don't feel like it was one of Koontz's best. I can remember staying up all night to finish his books. The prose was so tight, the action so compelling, but Innocence was just a little too descriptive to be suspenseful. I enjoyed the book, but found myself able to easily put it down.Addison is a great character. He's a young man who must wear a mask, only coming out at night or people will not only be repelled by the sight of him, but want to beat him until he's dead. Addison learns that the midwife tried to kill him after he'd taken his first breath because the sight of him horrified her.This reaction, including his mother's inability to stand the sight of him for more than a few minutes at at time, leads Addison to the deep woods outside where he learns that the animals are not put off by his looks at all. In fact, they seem to enjoy his company including the fierce wolves that live nearby.At the age of eight, Addison's mother can bear her son no longer and packs a backpack for him and tells him to leave and never return. From there the story continues with Addison finding a friend in an older man who saves him, and living out his life in the shadowy underground of New York City.The premise of Koontz story is amazingly original and uplifting. When Addison meets a young 'goth' girl, he finds another friend and together they try to have a life, while she runs from a man determined to kill her for some reason.The only thing I didn't like about this story was that for me it was overburdened with descriptions, and metaphors, similes and all those artful things that I like peppered into the fiction I read, but not too much or it slows down the pace. Maybe Koontz is spending too much time in his head, and not enough time in the world bumping into real life, something that tends to make you get to the point rather than walking dreamily around getting run over by traffic.He's still a brilliant writer whose work will live on far longer than anything I have to say, so keep writing Mr. Koontz, and I'll keep reading.

This is a strange book. I still can't work it out. Has the author been so ultra-clever that his craft is beyond me, or has he merely penned a book that employs a tangled, confused prose and plot? Are all those 5-star reviews made because those reviewers don't want to be seen as having missed the point? Well, I openly admit it, I don't get much of this novel.First the good points:===============The plot, as far as it goes, had me eagerly turning pages from about 90% into the story. I really wanted to know what happened.I haven't encountered a similar storyline before. So, for me, it is original - although I don't read much urban fantasy stuff.Finally, nearing the end, I found myself drifting into the world that the author has created and empathizing with the main characters. Thus, I acknowledge that the author has engineered a three dimensional backdrop populated with believable (sort of) characters.Now the not so good points:====================The book was a hard, and sometimes a meandering, read. The author seems incapable of telling his story without reams of irrelevant, descriptive detail. At times, I felt that my eyes were trying to wade through a congealed mass of alphabet spaghetti. Quite frankly, a church is a church, I don't need to be told of its architectural detail unless it's vital to the story. I'm just not interested.Some chapters were totally superfluous to the basic storyline - the information given could have been supplied in a single, manageable paragraph.As you might have guessed, I thought the book is way too long. A 30% cut in word count would improve it. When I read a book, I want a pacey story that gives easy entertainment. I don't want the author's musings on why he hasn't identified a character by name until now, 88% into the work.The main mystery of the work, why the protagonist hides himself away from society, just wasn't a good enough hook to engage me. Indeed, I only persisted reading to the end because of the numerous 5-star reviews that this author has. Surely, I thought, there must be a more interesting plot conflict that will be revealed soon? There wasn't.The dialogue was stilted in many places. Real people just don't speak like that.Some of the sub-plots were so contrived that I thought they could've been lifted straight out of a children's book.The author regularly referred to contemporary items and therefore I assumed that it was set in the present. But, so much of the plot just grated with current day reality. Perhaps that was the idea, there is this vast, unseen fantasy world that we are unaware of. Maybe, but to me that's just what it is, fantasy, and I'm not a big fan of the fantasy genre.In conclusion:==========Some people obviously love Dean Koontz, he has plenty of novels that have plenty of 5-star reviews. I'm afraid, I'm not one of them. Judgements are necessarily subjective in this respect and so I'm quite happy to accept that my view may not be shared by his fan's, but I'll not be re-reading this novel any time soon, if ever. I'll also not be buying any more of the author's books. His love of seemingly unending paragraphs of minute and awkwardly worded descriptions just don't do it for me.I rated the book a 3-star because I did want to know what happened in the end - it's just a shame that I had to plod through 300 pages of verbal treacle to get to anything that gripped my attention.

Hmm. Ok I'm a fan of Mr Koontz for the most part, earlier novels for absolute sure, Watchers, Strangers, the unfinished series I won't mention as I still get annoyed that the last book was never written, although I don't blame the author for that sometimes it just doesnt come, I understand that. Still, all brilliant. I re-read these semi regularly and enjoy them every time. Odd Thomas, in the first book, was pretty darn good then went all, well, like the rest of his books, in the same old direction.Lets take "Innocence". It is my first Koontz book for a while that I have taken time to review although I've read a few over the last few years. A friend telling me that this was back on form made me decide I would review it whatever and for the first three quarters of it I was engaged, enthralled, loving the story. Despite some small little bugbears I was expecting to give it a MUCH higher rating than I have. Then the last bit happened. And seriously, I really did throw the book aside feeling quite cross. Which hey, I suppose is in a way a good thing as it evoked strong emotion - something reading is supposed to do!I think that the author has a certain belief system and that belief system is creeping into all his novels so that none of them are about anything BUT that. Despite first glances where they may all seem to be different, ultimately they are all doing the same thing, saying the same thing, in a way preaching the same thing - all roads lead to the same small town . In the case of Addison Goodheart, I did hope for the majority of it that we might have a different destination, a darker, more original Koontz like place on the edge but nope. Back we were, where we've been for a while.Now I'd like to make the point that Dean Koontz still writes beautifully. BEAUTIFULLY. Its not the quality of the writing that I think has changed, it is the quality of the storytelling. I would like him to make my heart pump madly like it did in "Strangers" or make me root for the dog like "Watchers" or scare the heck out of me so I won't go near a fairground for ages like in "Hideaway" and oh so many more that I could mention.Didnt make the cut for me this one. If I was rating it on the first half of the novel alone it would be a 5. Shame really.Happy Reading Folks!

I surprised myself by buying this book as I didn't enjoy the previous DK books I've read, but the review made it sound something different, and it was. I found the quality of writing to be extremely good, very beautiful, brilliantly able to conjure glittering city, the darkness, the lightness, joy and sadness. The use of language was incredibly moving and almost poetic. The story itself was transformed by the writing into something gripping, but uplifting. I was all set to buy the innocence book 2 only to find that it's the same book, that was a disappointment. It doesn't affect the quality of writing, but reflects badly on the person who decided to split this stand alone story into four, for presumably more money.

I'm a huge fan of Dean Koontz and have read everything he has written so I eagerly await each new offering from him. Therefore the mixed reviews I read of this novel did not put me off reading it for myself and I'm sure that will be the case with other Koontz fans as well. However, I have to say the ending was disappointing, especially as I was racking my brains through the whole book trying to think of what was so grotesque about the main character to inspire such murderous hatred from the mere sight of him. When this was finally revealed it was quite an anti climax. Anyway, I enjoyed the story, even though I found some of the plot holes a bit frustrating.

Enjoyable and gripping reading - I enjoyed reading about the life of the young boy/man shunned by society because of the way he looks and the young girl who befriends him. The book kept me wanting to know more. Unfortunately it doesn't get 5 stars because as another reviewer mentioned, the end of the book was a bit of a let down after such a gripping and fast paced adventure. It is almost as if the author had run out of ideas or got bored with writing the book so brought it to, what I felt was, a rather abrupt and 'wishy washy' ending. Left me a little disappointed, but I would still recommend if you like Dean Koontz.