Krishna
Even among those undistinguished pile of recent books, Odd Thomas series must rank at the bottom of the pile. (An earlier book in the series, Forever Odd, was reviewed here earlier.
Now back to the current book under review, Brother Odd.
At least, the first book had some surprises, for instance, in the scene of his meeting Stormy Levellyn at the end. The second one had no surprises and a crappy ending.
Even that book is a complex epic considering this book, especially the denouement, and the “explanation” of the supernatural phenomena that populate this book in the very few real events that happen in the story.
Most of this book is the description of a blizzard or visits by Odd from one place to another, aimless, following his `intuition’. The annoying `Elvis’ comes in all the books and finally, you heave a sigh of relief when he goes away at the end of the book – almost (but not quite) as happy as seeing the role of Jar Jar Binx slashed to nothingness in Part II of the Star Wars or seeing Clippy of Microsoft Word dead in the new versions of Microsoft Word. But your happiness does not last long – possibly a couple of pages or so. Why? Because the following pages suggest that similar torment will continue in later books.
The story is almost nonexistent, but for the record, here it is. Odd starts seeing bodachs again (if you ask what that is, you have been one of the fortunate few who have not read any Odd Thomas series – they are black, smoke-like ghost figures that collect in a place where a huge disaster is about to happen with a lot of deaths) and fears that someone is trying to attack all the mentally challenged children kept in a protected portion of the monastery, where he has take refuge after his tribulations of Forever Odd.
The story is populated with Sister Angela, kids Annamarie and Justine, and a lot of Brothers: The Kit Kat loving Brother Timothy; the huge, sinister-looking, Russian Brother Rodion Romanovich, who was an assassin before taking the robes, Brother John, famous for his amazing cookies that are always served fresh and hot, Brother Knuckles, the reformed gang member whose life was turned around by a children’s story.
Then there is Boo, his faithful dog, protector, that runs away at the first sign of trouble…
Odd meets several ‘amazing’ creatures in this book: “Death” or something dressed just like it, which comes at him flying; bones that morph shapes and kill, skeletal figures that walk with a murderous rage; lots more….
Don’t ask what they are or how they came to be.. the explanation is so pathetic that one suspects Dean writes these books when he has run out of all ideas and still wants to publish a book to keep the momentum going…
Leaves a very unsatisfactory feeling after you are through with it…
I would rate it at a 2/10
— Krishna