77 Shadow Street

What is up with my favorite authors and the need to fill what's supposed to be a scary and suspenseful book? The last Stephen King book was so filled with description(800 pages-plus)that I found I could skip huge swaths of writing, and still get the picture. Now Dean Koontz does the same thing with 77 Shadow Street. I really liked the novella-lead up to 77 Street, so maybe Koontz needs to think short, and tight, on his next book.77 Shadow Street is a story about a huge mansion built in the 1800 that has periodic hauntings, and lots of killings, one that drove the owner mad with grieve until he finally killed himself.In 2011, the Pendleton is now an upscale apartment building with lots of interesting tenants, and it's getting ready to rock and roll again with the weirdest haunting imaginable. Being that it's a Dean Koontz novel, the monsters will be frighteningly possible, and there will be hope in shape of something, or someone innocent, a child, a dog, or a wounded hero. An ex-marine Baily Hawks takes the lead in dealing with the horror that threatens the tenants. Hope comes in the shape of young Winny, a boy who wants so badly to be strong, a hero, anything other than his famous dad, a country-western star who has mastered taking the easy way out.Koontz is outstanding at getting into the minds and motivations of his realistic characters, something I always enjoy in his writings. But in 77 Shadow Street, there is so much internal dialogue, and description of the monsters, that it actually made this a somewhat tedious read. Not that I didn't enjoy most of it, but getting to the reason for the monsters took a bit too long for me.Also there were so many characters that weren't that interesting, and in fact, the 2 most interesting characters, the married radio jocks, spent the whole novel in a restaurant talking. I couldn't help wishing they were in the Pendleton fighting the monsters. These two would have rocked the novel.The ending was very satisfying, though ironically, it seemed too short. I wanted to hear more detail because for me, the ending held the entire meaning of the novel.Though this wasn't my favorite Koontz book, he's still a master story-teller and can still scare you socks off with glimpses into a future that is all too possible.

A literally fantastic book. The technologal futuristic horror is absolutely terrifying, especially if you listen to the book read by Peter Berkrot, an outstanding performance 5+ stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐+

Dean Koontz's 77 SHADOW STREET is not an easy book to describe. On the one hand, it's a fairly familiar haunted house tale in which generations of residents at a posh Victorian mansion are sucked into a terrible nightmare. On the other hand, it's Koontz's little jab at the modern world, which he sees as disintegrating around us, leaving us unprepared to combat the ultimate forces of evil. The house itself, once called Belle Vista and now the Pendleton, happens to have been constructed on something Koontz calls a "space-time trapdoor," which opens every 38 years to suck in the hapless people unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. This can be scary, if a bit derivative (you'll be reminded of THE SHINING, 1408, THE MIST, and even the TV series AMERICAN HORROR STORY). There's an evil presence called "One" (who wants ultimate dominion), and another called "Witness" (who will help him achieve it). There are creepy creatures galore, and a few really grotesque happenings. But somehow the novel didn't work for me.The biggest problem with 77 SHADOW STREET is the way Koontz tells his story. There is a huge cast of characters, which are introduced slowly over the first half of the book through a series of vignettes told from differing perspectives. At first it's difficult to keep track of all of them; it's also difficult to get very attached to any of them. Devon Murphy is a security guard still mourning the loss of his mother, Bailey Hawkes is an ex-marine investment counselor, Silas Kinsley is a retired litigation attorney who finds himself researching the history of the Pendleton, Twyla Trahern is a country music composer with a precocious 8-year-old son, Mikey Dime is a hit man with psychopathic tendencies, the Cupp sisters are octogenarian cake-bakers, Sparkle Sykes is writer with an autistic daughter - the list honestly goes on and on (and I haven't even mentioned the characters from past generations of Pendleton residents). It's not that these characters aren't interesting - some of them are. It's just that there are so many of them, and the story jumps from one to the other in little mini-chapters which never allow the reader to become really invested in any of them. This makes it hard to care all that much what happens to them when things go crazy at horror house.Additionally, there is an amazing lack of dialogue in this novel. For almost the entire first half, Koontz's many characters are isolated from each other, each in his/her own apartment. The story unfolds from their many perspectives, with Koontz telling us what's happening, describing events, even summarizing conversations that we never actually get to hear. It's an odd way of telling a story, especially with so many characters involved. It leaves us, as readers, distanced from the core of the action, and kept separated from the characters we're supposed to root for.Ultimately, Koontz's story is interesting, and I can't say the book isn't worth reading. I grew tired of it, however, which isn't what I expected from a Dean Koontz thriller. And by the end, I wasn't invested enough in any of the characters to really care why all this was happening and what we were supposed to learn from it. "This world," one character says, "is a dark place, and hard." That much comes through very clearly in 77 SHADOW STREET. I was disappointed, however. Two stars for the novel; the additional one is for Mr. Koontz, whose books I have loved for decades. I will always be a fan.

I love Dean Koontz. This is an older book of his that I read some time ago. Time has not changed the excellent adventure this man shares with us. So many of his books are so very good, but this one, for me, stands out as one of his best.

I've read a lot of Dean Koontz's novels and would thoroughly recommend most - perhaps not False Memory - as you could do a lot worse than while away a few hours with one of his books, except this one. In a word - terrible. He appears to be exploring the horror genre more fully here and it just doesn't work. The supposedly chilling parts of this book fall flat and I felt that on more than one occasion that is was a book that should have been written by Clive Barker. Together with the plot constantly jumping around between too many characters and an unsatisfying ending combine to make what is undoubtedly his worst effort to date. Do yourself a big favour and pick up one of his others, it doesn't matter which, just avoid this one.

This was just completely average in my opinion. It had its good bits, butit was a bit slow and there were was a lot of character development and background that was left undone. He could have done with fewer characters so the story could go further for the ones that remained. It wasn't bad, and considering he is becoming a bit of a churner now, just churning out book after book it was very readable but nowhere near one of his best. Not even one of his best in the last few years.When Dean Koontz writes well, he is amazing and I end up missing the characters when the book has finished and really wishing I could know more about them. After I finished this I would have been hard pressed to name most of the characters. It's not bad but it's not great either.I really think DK should slow down and put his talents to writing a few, excellent, nail biting, edge of your seat books instead of just rolling out book after book of quite good fiction. It IS worth a read but don't expect former glory to shine in this book.

I have been a fan of Dean Koontz right from his first books and won't hear a word said against him. But sadly I feel somewhat let down at this one- the worst of his I've ever read I'm sad to say. This didn't even feel like it was written by the same hand as books such as From The Corner Of His Eye, the Christopher Snow books etc. Unlike some, I'm actually a fan of his more "wordy" later tomes, but this one stretched even my patience. And unlike Mr. Koontz, these characters all felt very one-dimensional and I couldn't bring myself to care what happened to any of them. Thank goodness I went straight on to read "The City" to help restore my faith in the master. Disappointing read.

Usually sail through Dean Koontz books, this one is taking a bit of time to wade through, halfway there and giving it a rest for a bit, I will get back into it.

In my opinion, Dean overtook Mr King as the master of horror stories many books ago - and 77 Shadow Street only confirms this. Beautifully written and super creepy - highly recommended! Sam x