Darlene's Book Nook: #Book #Review: 3 out of 5 stars for Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz @deankoontz #BantamBooks @randomhouse

Thursday, March 22, 2018

#Book #Review: 3 out of 5 stars for Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz @deankoontz #BantamBooks @randomhouse

TITLE: Fear Nothing

SERIES: Moonlight Bay, Book #1
AUTHOR: Dean Koontz

PUBLISHER: Bantam Books

PUBLICATION DATE: December 1, 1998

FORMAT: Paperback
LENGTH: 448 pages

GENRE: Horror

ISBN: 0553579754

Christopher Snow is different from all the other residents of Moonlight Bay, different from anyone you've ever met. For Christopher Snow has made his peace with a very rare genetic disorder shared by only one thousand other Americans, a disorder that leaves him dangerously vulnerable to light. His life is filled with the fascinating rituals of one who must embrace the dark. He knows the night as no one else ever will, ever can - the mystery, the beauty, the many terrors, and the eerie, silken rhythms of the night - for it is only at night that he is free. Until the night he witnesses a series of disturbing incidents that sweep him into a violent mystery only he can solve, a mystery that will force him to rise above all fears and confront the many-layered strangeness of Moonlight Bay and its residents.

MY REVIEW:

As with most Koontz books, this features a unique premise that could actually happen in the real world...as far fetched as it may be!

Christopher Snow is 28 years old, and he suffers from a rare genetic disorder called xeroderm pigmentosum. Essentially, he has to avoid the sun and even UV rays from lightbulbs because he lacks the enzyme necessary to repair the damage they cause.

At the outset of the book, Chris' father is dying in the hospital. His mother died two years earlier in an accident. After his father dies, his body is taken downstairs to the morgue. Chris remembered that his father wanted to be cremated with his wife's photo in his hands, so Chris goes to the morgue to find his father's body and that's when things get really weird. His dad's corpse is swapped with that of a homeless man, so Chris goes to the funeral home with an excuse that he wants to see his dad one last time before he is cremated. The man at the funeral home tells him that it is too late and that his dad is already cremated.

Things continue to get weirder and weirder. Genetic experimentation was done on animals (and possibly humans?) at a nearby government facility, and Chris is warned to stop digging. His mom had something to do with what is going on, and Chris wants answers. Monkeys attack one of Chris' friend, and a cat leads Chris to an old friend who is an animal communicator.

I would say that this book is the most character driven of Koontz's novels that I've read. He went to great lengths to describe the characters in detail. My favourite character is Chris' best friend, Bobby, who is a surfer dude. Koontz gives us a whole backstory on how Bobby inherited the beach home from a rich ex-businessman-turned-surfer who saw in Bobby what he wishes he would have learned at a younger age. I'm not sure what the relevance is of this whole foray into Bobby's life and what it has to do with what is going on with Chris, but I did find it interesting.

Overall, I liked the book but it's not Koontz's best. It's definitely a strange one, and a lot of stuff is left unexplained so I will continue on with the next book in the series, Seize the Night, and hope that Koontz ties things together. However, according to Goodreads: "This trilogy has currently been on hiatus for over a decade and a half; however, the third and final installment is still officially in development according to Koontz." Here's hoping that at least some things will be fleshed out!

MY RATING: