Lornographic Material

Brother Odd is Dean Koontz's redemption piece after the fiasco that was Forever Odd, whether or not the author thinks so is beside the point. He redeemed himself in my eyes. Everything I hated from the second book is thankfully absent from the third, while everything I adored about the first book returns in abundance.

Odd doesn't have to spend 120 pages walking this time around because he's already at the site of the book's action. I have read other reviews that complain about the story line being too far-fetched, but when going into a read about a dude that sees dead people and hangs with Elvis's ghost, I tend to expect outlandish plots and ideas. I refuse to spoil anything this time around because there is much to be given away.

While reading Brother Odd I came to understand why I loathed Forever Odd so much. In Forever Odd, there is almost no character interaction, and what little there is concerns characters I couldn't care less about. In Brother Odd, there's an abundance of quirky characters you can grow to love and worry about. Each one is unique. Most do not even require dialogue tags because Dean fleshes out their tones and deliveries so well. That's what I loved about the first book, the characters. In Forever Odd there are a total of five characters throughout 99% of the book. The villain and her two henchmen, a disabled friend of Odd's so forgettable Dean didn't bother mentioning him in book one or book three, and Odd, himself.

The most remarkable quality of this book, though, is the humor. I received many a strange look from my wife during spontaneous outbursts of laughter. I remember Odd Thomas being laugh-out-loud-funny, and Brother Odd returns to the sarcastic, witty tone of the original. I think I laughed twice throughout the second book, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to laugh where I did.

Read Odd Thomas, skip Forever Odd, and pick up Brother Odd. Trust me, you aren't missing much if you overlook book two.I have no idea what purpose Forever Odd has in the world of Odd Thomas. Though Dean goes into great detail about the happenings of the first book inside the pages of Brother Odd, there is but one mention in one tiny paragraph concerning the happenings of the second book. It's almost as if Dean Koontz's is saying, "Sorry about that. Let's move on."

Dean Koontz's is in rare form with Brother Odd, finally doing Odd Thomas the justice a fry cook deserves.

E.