Let’s Read Good Books

My Thoughts (May Contain Spoilers)

The last thing I’ve read by Dean Koontz was a graphic novel adaptation of Odd Thomas. I liked it. When I saw the cover for his latest novel, The Forest of Lost Souls, and saw that it was part of my KU membership, I decided to give it a try. I didn’t even read past the first paragraph of the blurb. Key words stood out for me: wilderness, young woman, affinity for natures, wolves. I am a fairly simple reader and needed no other information.

I loved the beginning of this. Vida lives in the forest by Kettleton County, alone, making a living selling gems she’s mined from a local river. She is still grieving the loss of her fiancé, Jose Nichelobo, and we learn, in bits and pieces, about the loving uncle who raised her, the fortuneteller whose prophecies haunt her, and the county that’s fallen under a shadow of evil and corruption. All Vida wants is to live her quiet life in her little house, reading the books in her library and teasing the colorful stones from the river.

We quickly learn of secrets buried in her meadow, after the sheriff’s deputy pays a sinister visit. He is an absolute bag of garbage, threatening Vida with dire consequences if she doesn’t submit to him. Vida, too, dislikes this man of violence, who admitted to having his wife murdered for the crime of becoming pregnant. While her solution to Deacon’s predatory behavior got applause from me, it highlighted one of the things I liked least about this book.

As male character after awful male character is introduced to the story, I was appalled by their misogyny, their greed, their lack of morals and ethics. Almost every man in this book lacked any redeeming qualities, and each was more sadistic than the last. And yeah, while I enjoyed Vida’s calm resolution to these incredibly vulgar pests, I found the one dimensional depth that each possessed unimaginative and boring. While perhaps a timely commentary on the greed and excess that crowds today’s headlines, with narcissistic billionaires and the toadies that keep them in power, I didn’t want to spend an afternoon allowing them to occupy space in my head.

My other major issue with The Forest of Lost Souls was the story presentation, which was told in the third person present tense POV. Not my favorite. In fact, next to 2nd person POV, it is my least favorite. The author also had a habit of telling, instead of showing, and was frustrating for me. The book and its message are not at all subtle. Because I wasn’t given the space to draw my own conclusions, I was just irritated by the whole thing. There was no sense of anticipation or tension; I knew Vida would get her revenge, the boringly villainous bad guys would get their comeuppance, and our heroine would have a happily ever after. The parts that added up to that just didn’t feel satisfactory to me.

2.5 stars