While Odd Thomas was a murder mystery and Forever Odd was a psychological thriller, Brother Odd is an odd mix of a religious murder mystery and a 1950's Sci-Fi Horror movie, complete with a mad scientist, a secret laboratory, and experiments that chills you to the bone. This is a perfectly weird combination that makes this book work so much better than it might've otherwise.
In my reviews of the previous two books in the Odd Thomas series I have continually said that these books exist in a genre that I am typically not a fan of. Horror and thrillers are not my cup of tea. They never have been due to my lack of exposure to them growing up. But the Odd Thomas series has made me appreciate both genres more than I had before I sat down to read Odd Thomas less than a month ago.
To be honest Brother Odd actually reminds me a little bit of Frankenstein, both the original novel, and the 1931 movie, to a certain degree. Though in the book, Odd has referred to the villain of the story as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type character, I also see some similarities to Victor Frankenstein (Henry Frankenstein in the movie). A scientific genius who wanted to create life, but inadvertently created a monster that threatens society. In this case a monastery and it's inhabitants rather than a village in older days. Not only that but both characters gave up their fortunes to work on their experiments. So there are definitely some startling similarities between the two stories. I don't know if that was intentional or not as Dean Koontz doesn't say anything about it on his website, but given that he's written books about Frankenstein, I'd say it's likely that he created the villain of this book to be similar to Victor Frankenstein.
This book takes place seven months after the end of Forever Odd and since then Oddie has been a guest at St. Bartholomew's Abbey, using the time to not only deal with Stormy's death in the first book, but also with how wrong his mission to rescue Danny almost went during Forever Odd. While at the Abbey he meets the Russian librarian, Rodion Romanovich, who is more than what he appears to be, as well as the Brothers and Sisters of the Abbey, namely Brother Salvatore, who goes by Brother Knuckles because he'd been a tough guy for a mobster in New York City. Knuckles is Odd's closest friend and ally at the Abbey as he's the one person there who knows the full extent of Odd's special abilities. A few of the Sisters know about Odd's abilities, but he does his best to keep them hidden as he had in the outside world. It isn't long before Odd sees a bodach appear, signaling that something is afoot, requiring Odd to realize that running away from his problems isn't the answer and could just as easily get people killed as impulsively running into trouble can.
While this book doesn't feel as small and intimate as Forever Odd did, the strangest part about this book is that there's a different setting and different supporting characters than there were in the previous two books. While Wyatt Porter, Stormy, Terri and Ozzie are mentioned, but only Ozzie actually appears. So it's almost refreshing in a way, but at the same time a little on the strange side.
Unlike the previous book, I was pretty much at home with this one. Mainly because not only have I seen the 1931 Frankenstein movie but I've also read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley too. Plus I've seen tons of cartoons that homage Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde so when I got to the part where the mad scientist was revealed, I was like, "Yup, I like this". Even before that when the strange occurrences were happening, I'd already been through two really strange books with Odd Thomas and the movie adaptation of the first book, so I knew I was going to be in for a strange ride.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall, I thought Brother Odd was a pretty great book. I think it's a lot better in terms of my own tastes and preferences than Forever Odd was. Also it isn't as introspective and melancholy as Forever Odd is either. There's more humour here than there was in that book too. Almost as if through being at the Abbey and helping them solve the mysterious murders that happened, Odd started to recover from the events of the previous two books. Which was kind of nice to see. I also loved seeing Odd's interactions with both Brother Knuckles and Romanovich. They were the most entertaining interactions between two characters that I've read since reading Odd's interactions with Stormy and Ozzie in the first book. As I continue to read through the Odd Thomas series, I am more and more convinced that the books should be adapted into a TV series or a Netflix series because each book could be a season of Television like how the books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire were adapted into Game of Thrones. I'm giving Brother Odd 10/10 stars.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Odd
No comments:
Post a Comment