The writing was terrible throughout. I will say that the initial part of the book first 5 percent held promise, but Koontz over writes this book to death. A key point is made about these murders occurring every 33 days, and we literally have Guy 1 just spinning his wheels.
And due to Koontz shifting POVs to each of his family members as well as potential victims of the Big Bad and others this book dragged for hours. The ending was ludicrous and that's all in going to say. The book gives an excerpt into a short story about the Big Bad that was just as terrible as the novel so there's that. View all 9 comments. Nov 08, Maciek rated it did not like it Shelves: read-in , reviewed , horror , disappointments. While not as horrible as some of Koontz's latest offerings, What The Night Knows is still pretty bad when compared to his other output, and rather terrible when compared to the output of others.
It actually starts really promising, with an interesting premise and a good opening chapters. I've read them earlier, when they were availible to preview before publication. It turns out after these first four chapters the novel goes downhill and crashes at the end.
There is nothing here that wasn't done b While not as horrible as some of Koontz's latest offerings, What The Night Knows is still pretty bad when compared to his other output, and rather terrible when compared to the output of others. There is nothing here that wasn't done before in the genre and in Koontz's earlier writings. However, it suffers from the dramatic change in tone from scary and tense to sappy and schmaltzy that plagues Koontz's offerings from the last ten years.
The writing itself is not very good. A river of adjectives runs through it, obvious plot points are repeated several times in case someone should miss them with all the exposition going on all of this adorned in horribly clumsy foreshadowing something TERRIBLE is going on!
In line with the great opening sentence, Koontz never specifies the time period or location for his novel. But then he goes onto his own political tangents and has one character talk about Dr.
The characters are caricatures - especially the children. Koontz was obviously never a part in family life, and yet chooses to devote a substantial amount of space to preteen children, and not surprisingly they all are much more mature than their age would suggest, meaning they broadcast author's sentiments - one boy worries about evil dictators in the world an wants to become a marine to protect his sisters from the evil bad guys and he's like 10 years old or less.
In fact, the children never watch television, play videogames, follow ANY trend. I am amazed how someone who has no idea how children think, speak and act often chooses to use them in his novels.
The adults are all two dimensional - the bad characters are really bad, and the only flaw a Koontz will give his protagonist is at most self-doubt. Now, I like to read about devoted heroes even if they are idealized but all of his characters are like that.
It's also rare for anyone in Koontz universe to worry about the allmighty dollar. He can also take two months off witout worrying about his dough. His wife homeschools their three children and is an acclaimed artist, never tired for spiritual sex with her husband, and has STAFF doing things for her around the house.
If you're able to connect to these characters, then good for you. The most human and interesting character is the bad guy. The voice of the narrator is indiscernible between narrator and character and between character and character, and aside from one figure the priest there's no really memorable persona here. The writing is clinical and anemic, devoid of any joy and excitement, and aside from the few lines from the first chapter there are no memorable passages of prose.
The thing is so slowly paced. The family of the protagonist is said to be ideal and extremely close, but when they start experiencing disturbing events they all impropably and conveniently fail to share this crucial information with each other. The novel never builds to any dramatic tension whatsoever. The ending sequences are exhaustivly extended cop-outs composed of incredible coincidences, as in most Koontz novels. I'm sorry, but I can't recommend this to anyone.
What The Night Knows is poorly plotted, derivative think Fallen and badly written every page is obviously carefully composed, but over the years any style or tension has bleached - now it's a cold list of events and dialogues. As it promised a return to Koontz's earlier style, I am sorely disappointed. View all 27 comments. Overall it was an entertaining story but ultimately left me feeling more unsatisfied than satisfied. John is a homicide detective who lost his entire family to a serial killer when he was a teenager 20 years earlier.
He killed Alton Turner Blackwood that night, but Blackwood is back. Using the bodies of less than wholesome people, he uses person after person until his ultimate goal can be completed Revenge on John and his family.
And to finish the kil 2. And to finish the killing spree that he started. I enjoyed the start of the book and how Koontz gradually gave away piece by piece of information. It kept me enthralled through the first few chapters. In fact, the whole book was quite good up until the chapters from the children's point of view. I don't think I have ever heard such poor portrayal of children. All three of them were so completely unbelievable it pretty much turned me off the entire book.
Then some more chapters with the adults point of view would make me forget that I wasn't enjoying it And then the children would have a point of view again And cue the eye rolling.
I did enjoy the diary of Blackwood. It was interesting hearing how he turned into such a monster. I just found it frustrating that every character either had some innate evil, or they were so inherently good.
No character seemed to be in the middle. It had some spooky moments, but overall it was more frustrating than frightening. And what is with all the big words that he uses!?
I'm fairly sure he used his spell-check thesaurus quite a bit while writing this! And when the children started using those big words.. It was just too much for me.
I did enjoy it overall though. The storyline made up for the poorly portrayed characters, and I enjoyed the narrator of the audio version. Would I recommend What the Night Knows? Die hard Koontz and horror fans would probably enjoy it. However I am sure there are better possession stories out there.
For more reviews check out my blog: www. View all 10 comments. Feb 17, Deb Mj rated it it was ok. I used to love Dean Koontz. Watchers still ranks as my all-time favorite book, and I thought Strangers, along with some of his other earlier works, was fantastic.
However, it's been years since I could summon any enthusiasm for his writing. I'm not willing to totally write him off, so I keep reading the new books in the hope that one of them will rekindle the flame. Unfortunately, this offering wasn't able to do that. There are some good parts to this. About midway through, I became quite enthus I used to love Dean Koontz.
About midway through, I became quite enthusiastic The whole Lego thing was just completely bizarre. And why do I feel like Koontz reads a thesaurus before he writes a book?
I always appreciated his descriptive abilities, but now they're overwrought and overblown. Probably not. I continue to hold out hope that I'll one day read the Dean Koontz of old. If that guy is still in there, I'd hate to miss his reappearance. View all 6 comments. Aug 24, Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl rated it really liked it Shelves: challenge , group-reads , read-in , read-in , spring Four years later I read this book again with an open mind and actually enjoyed the story.
It is always interesting to see how books affect us at different times in our lives. What the Night Knows is written well and is very creepy. The children lighten and liven the story and I love the fantasy world element. The one thing that stands out to me the Four years later I read this book again with an open mind and actually enjoyed the story.
Koontz has told similar tales in different books, but I don't think he's ever told the same story over and over in the same book - in this case in the form of a serial killer who just won't die. Bantam marketing team promotes What The Night Knows as: " I'm a huge fan of Dean Koontz and this is certainly not his best - it ranks among my very least of least favorites - almost as bad as Your Heart Belongs to Me. Want to know what the night knows? Here it is don't worry this huge revelation will not ruin the story for you in any way : Everyone was born to die.
Sex was death. Death was sex. Being a predator was better than being prey. Hell must exist because there was an urgent and abiding need for it. The Novella featured Blackwood and is a short, inexpensive read. View all 21 comments. Jan 25, Amy Boukair rated it did not like it. Dean, Dean, Dean I have had been a fan since the beginning, and am sorely disappointed in this one.
I had even sworn you off years ago, but still find myself coming back hoping that maybe, just maybe, this next one will redeem you. Sadly, and again, this is not the case. Sure, you worked in all of your trademark items: 1 Golden Retriever I have one of those , 2 child with a disability I have one of those too , 3 Average Joe fighting the big baddie, etc Dean, Dean, Dean Sure, you worked in all of your trademark items: 1 Golden Retriever I have one of those , 2 child with a disability I have one of those too , 3 Average Joe fighting the big baddie, etc.
This one has a cop, okay - I can imagine that, but he has staff???? The idea of the bad guy was great. The idea of the crimes, and how they were committed then and now, was great. But the end - and I'm not going to spoil it - sucked. Not a very literary word, but it's the best descriptor I can think of at the moment. And even then only IF you take Odd back to his roots, and not as the 'James Bond of the undead' you've since made him out to be.
Did I mention I'm sorely disappointed? Come back to us Dean We miss you. View all 3 comments. Oct 08, Lisa rated it really liked it Shelves: horror.
Jan 15, Nick Pageant rated it liked it Shelves: thrills-and-chills , somebody-got-dead. I have no idea how this ended up on my kindle. I don't remember buying it. I must have been in a one-click frenzy. Anyway, this is not bad, and is one of this author's better books. I liked it and got the willies more than once.
View 2 comments. Oct 28, Laura Jennings rated it it was ok. It's been a long time since I outright DIDN'T hate a Koontz novel; the guy used to be one of my favorite authors and fell from my good graces a while ago. I can air my minor grievances first. It's obvious that Mr. Koontz does not have kids, or understand how ki It's been a long time since I outright DIDN'T hate a Koontz novel; the guy used to be one of my favorite authors and fell from my good graces a while ago.
Koontz does not have kids, or understand how kids speak or even think. I don't have kids either and I know better than him. When I was 8 and 11, Little Women was an insurmountable literary wall, and I read at a highly advanced reading level for my age.
I also found myself annoyed that the kids were all home-schooled; that held shades of "the real world corrupts the innocent". Which leads me to my next point, that the characters appear to be both punished and saved by a particular brand of monotheism. It's not the Christianity I object to, just the overt heavy-handedness with which is was treated. It never seems to occur to any of the characters that any God that would allow a serial-killer and his demon to return to earth to wreak havoc on the undeserving innocent might be missing a few ethical marbles.
It's implied that the main character's fretting over his daughter's sickness provides a demonic invitation; does that strike anyone else as a bit of disproportionate retribution? Although favourite part has to be the ending. When the family realize that they have a polterguist stalking their house. What was one of the most memorable moments of What the Night Knows?
The ending. If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be? A mysterious bone chilling thriller. I first got hooked on Koontz's deft storytelling skill after his novella Black River, and this is another fine release. As with some of his other works, I find myself wanting to hear it faster than it is read - it is so exciting.
Well worth getting! I loved listening to this, many late nights, I found it very hard to turn off!! I really enjoyed this book and the pace. Narrator was fabulous and kept the excitement at all time high. Steven Weber needs to read more books!
We picked this book on the fact that he read it only We are not fans of Dean Koontz and have listened to many of his books :. Add to Cart failed. Please try again later. Add to Wish List failed. Remove from wishlist failed. Adding to library failed. Please try again. Follow podcast failed. Unfollow podcast failed. Stream or download thousands of included titles. Narrated by: Steven Weber. No default payment method selected. Add payment method. Switch payment method.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method. Pay using card ending in. Taxes where applicable. Listeners also enjoyed Horror Supernatural Suspense. Narrator It Falling Win. Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews. Amazon Reviews. Sort by:. Most Helpful Most Recent. Filter by:. All stars 5 star only 4 star only 3 star only 2 star only 1 star only. Connie Tracey Haggerty-Lester Michelle One of the better Koontz books Yes, he's wordy and overly descriptive.
Derek B. Cindy Kiser Koontz is back! Brown Bob He's back What a disturbing book. Linda Dean Koontz is Back! Suzn F Koontz fan Steve Inman One of his best.
Show More. Ian Great Listen I'm still slightly nervous when I hear noises around the house, I finished the book three days ago! Back to all books. Browse Standalones. You may also enjoy Get up-to-date messages from Dean Koontz delivered to your inbox. More About This Book. Page Count: Publisher: Scribner. More by Kathy Reichs.
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