Strange Highways

First, a warning. If you buy 'Strange Highways' by Dean Koontz in any other format, you get a 500+ page collection of thirteen stories, two of which are novella-length. If you buy the unabridged audiobook as I did, then you get only the first story in the collection. I mised that detail when I bought the book.

IN A NUTSHELL
A great premise with some very scary moments and an intensely dramatic setting. Sadly, the premise gets buried under a landslide of ideas from a Hallmark version of Catholicism that sweeps it towards a so-sweet-it-makes-my-teeth-hurt Happy Ever After ending and the writing feels clumsy.

Well, I read this all the way to the end. I enjoyed the beginning. Then I became frustrated and finally disappointed as the story show more unfolded.

At first, the frustration came from the prose, which was overwrought to the point that the constant reaching-for-striking-and-only-hitting-clumisly-odd use of language was a distraction.

Then I kept getting thrown out of the story by the not-quite-Catholic views of guilt and redemption that were being used to set up the struggle between good and evil. I found it harder to take seriously when the hero had to demonstrate his faith to save the world save the girl and this turned out to mean that he had to reject Star Trek and Twilight Zone explanations of the strange and fall back on Divine intervention.

I loved the description of the highway that shouldn't have been there, the condemned village built over an abandoned coal mine that was burning out of control and the desanctified church set up for sacrifice.

I started to have my faith in the story tested when one timeslip became several, turning the narrative into an uninteresting mix of video game / Groundhog Day. My disengagement increased as I realised that the purpose of the 'replays' was to teach Joey that he should stop trying to figure out the right thing to do to defeat his brother and simply place his faith in God. As an ex-Catholic, turned atheist, this wasn't a storyline I was ever going to buy.

Then the Happy Ever After ending left me feeling as if I'd stumbled into an episode of 'Touched By An Angel'. (a series that started a year before 'Strange Highways' was published).

I finished the story feeling disappointed. It was such a promising premise and it delivered so little. I kept wondering what Stephen King or Peter Straub would have made of this idea. show less

I do re-read this one mostly in the month of October. Koontz really sings in this short story collection. Maybe he should think about publishing more short stories since even some of his shorts he has written lately have been better than the full length novels that have followed.

All in all the books showcase the good with Koontz. He can spin a sentence and also scare you at the same time. You get some religious musings here and there, but honestly everything in most of the stories works. I kept wishing after I first read this, that Koontz would think about spinning off some of the characters that we meet here. Too bad he never did.

"Strange Highways" (5 stars). The anchor of the collection this one was really good. We follow a man named show more Joey who is in essence a failure. He tried to be an author and is pretty much dead broke. He returns to his hometown in Pennsylvania to attend his father's funeral. His brother is successful and Joey doesn't know why, but he can't stand to be around him. When a second chance has Joey back in the past to fix a mistake that can lead him down a different path. This one had a lot going on with it, but it all works. Most time travel stories make me go hmmm, but Koontz plays with it in a good way and the reveal about what happened to Joey in the past and who was behind it was actually scary. I think Koontz also smartly incorporated the town. We find out this is a dying former mill town (there are lots in PA) and due to that many people had left it when he was a teen, when Joey goes back as an adult you feel like time stopped there. I loved this story from beginning to end.

"The Black Pumpkin" (4.5 stars). An almost perfect Halloween tale. A young boy named Tommy is in a terrible family. His mother and father are pretty awful and his brother is a potential serial killer. When Tommy and his brother get to pick out a pumpkin, his brother picks the black one that has Tommy scared to death. He can sense something evil about it. In the end though there is a definite surprise about the pumpkin. The ending was okay, but just didn't gel with the scares that came before it.

"Miss Attilla the Hun" (3 stars). Among my least favorite in this series. Probably because we get another uber perfect woman for Koontz to fawn over. Mrs. Laura Caswell is a teacher who one day realizes that something funky is going on at her school. A classic alien story which in the end didn't really work for me, probably because it didn't seem quite finished.

"Down in the Darkness" (3.5 stars). We follow a good man (Jess) who is excited about moving his family into their new home. When Jess finds a mysterious door that he doesn't recall being there during the house tour, he realizes that the door is hiding something potentially evil. When we (readers) find out what the door is for and how it comes into play with Jess's background as a former POW it was intriguing. In the end though I thought the ending (pun intended) wasn't that great. I think because it ends up leaving things a a moral question when we see what happens with Jess and the door and I don't think that Koontz needed it to be that deep.

"Ollie’s Hands" (4.5 stars). A sad story but very good. We find out about a man named Ollie and what his hands can do. I had nothing but pity for the character named Ollie when we come to the end of his story.

"Snatcher" (5 stars). This is really a fun and scary story. A man that is a purse snatcher and just all around terrible person has the tables turned on him.

"Trapped" (3 stars). I honestly feel like I read this story before somewhere. A woman and her son are on the run from some scary rats. Not a bad story, but like I said, I think that I read this or a similar idea of it somewhere before. Drove me up the wall because I can't figure out where.

"Bruno" (5 stars). I laughed and always laugh reading this one. No spoilers, I just think you will enjoy a story about a time traveling bear (seriously) and a private eye named Jake. Jake is asked to help Bruno out with catching a time traveling criminal (as one is these days apparently). this is one of the stories I wish we had seen a follow up about since it was so interesting.

"We three" (3.5 stars). Not bad, just fairly short. Murderous triplets maybe ushered in something that will be the end of them.

"Hardshell" (5 stars). So good. Another one I would have loved to see a spin off or larger novel about. We have a LAPD detective chasing a killer. We find out though that neither man are what they appear to be.

"Kittens" (5 stars). The main reason why I gave this one five stars is that for once Koontz didn't back away from a scary/terrible ending. Reminded me a bit of King with the ending and what we realize must have happened as readers. Shudder.

"The Night of the Storm" (3 stars). My second least favorite story in this collection. I can't even go into how boring I found this, but it was boring.

"Twilight of the Dawn" (3 stars). A very preachy Koontz book that also had no horror elements in it so it doesn't really fit with the rest of the book. That said, it works because Koontz manages to draw you in with his writing. The story is about an atheist who ends up being pretty much an asshole to his young son and his own wife when the question of religion comes up. We know why he is that way (he had very religious parents) and doesn't want his son growing up thinking there is a God. When he loses his wife though his son starts to question his father's lack of faith and grows even stronger in his belief of a God. When his son eventually gets diagnosed with a fatal cancer, the question of faith becomes even more of divide between them. I went back and forth on this rating a lot. I eventually ended up with a three since I thought the father character was an ass.

"Chase"(5 stars). This and "Strange Highways" were the longest stories in the collection and this one really packs a punch. It's a good way to end the collection. Benjamin Chase has a complicated history. Returned from Vietnam and having to drink to forget his memories he is welcomed at a dinner for a Guest of Hero thing. I was a bit nonplussed at first since I thought most of the US was terrible to returning vets. Chase is given a new car and while driving ends up saving a young girl who was about to be raped and murdered. This puts Chase neck in neck with a killer who is determined to end Chase. show less

I really like this genre for Koontz -- short stories and novellas suit his style. Strange Highways was excellent; it kept me on the edge of my seat. Chase was also good. The Black Pumpkin made me laugh out loud at the end. Bruno and Hardshell were both funny, clever stories. Kittens was the only one I really could've done without -- maybe We Three as well.

Listened to this one straight through. There are few characters, but they make the point. A suspenseful, scarey "halloween" kind of story. It's got a brother feud and a love interest, nether is resolved until the very end of the book. It's tinctured with time travel and I had fun reading it.

In his novels, Dean Koontz doesn't deal with fantasy that much since his title "Watchers" was published. His words. Not mine. In this collection of two novel-length stories and 11 others, fantasy reigns supreme. We have a few mutants with powers that humanity (nor they) can handle. We have monsters found nowhere else, like the growing thing of phlem, feces, and rotting garbage that takes away a bad, bad man in "Snatcher." I particularly like the story of a man obsessed with the religion of atheism who can not stand others to have faith and who, finally, is led to faith by the spirit of his dead son.

All in all, some of Koontz' finest works are here and it's an excellent read. Try to save the story "Black Pumpkin," however, for around show more Halloween. And if you figure out in the closing novel "Chase" how the protagonist was followed, let me know. I think it's a hole in the bread myself. show less

I have had bad luck with short stories lately. I just don't seem to enjoy them any more. For that reason, I put off reading this one for a while even though it's by one of my favorite all-time authors. I was so surprised that I really enjoyed most of the stories in this book. Of course, I liked the novellas a bit better than the short stories because there is more to them. My favorite was the title story, Strange Highways, which was probably the longest one in the book. I love time travel stories and this one did not disappoint me! There were 2 stories (Trapped & Chase) that were repeats for me from other books.

A wonderful collection of short fiction, an absolute must read for any fan of Koontz and especially a fan of short stories, do NOT overlook this book because its a collection of short fiction and not an actual novel. Strange Highways and Chase are novellas, Chase was an actual novel published back in 1972 but is out of print except here. Other stories that are worth mentioning are Down in the Darkness, Bruno, We Three, Ollie's Hands, and Kittens, the others are good as well, just not quite as phenominal as those are. The best thing about this collection is you get to see all the variety of stories Koontz has to offer in his novels, and this still doesnt cover all of it. But more importantly, anyone who knows Koontz books knows he almost show more always has a happy ending that is perfectly wrapped up and explained. A lot of these stories will have either a sad/unhappy ending, or it will just be ambigous and open ended, much as Stephen king book endings can be, this is a major plus for me. I still have 2 stories left to read as well as a novella(Strange Highways), and will update this review as well as give it a rating when they are complete. For now though, these are my individual, short reviews for each story:

Kittens- A very short story of only 5 pages, straight to the point and awesome, while its very simple, the ending to it is absolutly twisted. A pretty unexpected turn of events for a Koontz story to say the least.

Bruno- One of my favorates, a story about traveling through multiple alternate realities, worlds that are the same as our own, but different, such as Walt Disney being a gun producer and Smith&Wesson being a fast food joint. This opens the door for lots of silly humour, which Koontz is always exceptional at. Its a very neat and interesting tale with humour to put a nice spin on things that the other stories lack.

Snatchers- A story with a good moral to it, its about a purse snatcher who ends up stealing a purse that will end up coming back to bite him in a big way, this was a good story but probably my least favorate so far.

We Three- Another of my favorates, its a story about triplets who have a lot of supernatural powers like telepathy, telekenisis, etc. Has a great ending but i dont want to spoil it for you.

Down in the Darkness- A story about a POW Vietnam veteran who buys a new house with a myserious and supernatural cellar in it. It taps into his darkside and unleashes pent up darkness from back in Vietnam, another one with somewhat of a good moral behind it. A short story that offers a lot of character depth.

Chase- This is a REALLY good one, because its long it has a completley fleshed out character, a pretty good one might i add. Its a straight up psychological thriller with no supernatural and a bit of a "who done it" aspect to it. A very fun read, one of the best ive read so far.

Miss Atilla the Hun- This one is my favorate so far, it is a bit of an invasion of the body snatchers type of alien story. But what i like the best about it is that it takes several points of view, a few characters as well as the alien itself.

Night in the Storm- Somewhat of a sci-fi story about a world where humans are supposidly extinct and robots rule the world. Its about robots who basically need help in keeping their life interesting, and a group of them go on a trip into the woods to go hunting and end up finding more than they can bite off. Has a nice twist to it at the end, the different robots and their different personalities are fun, and overall its a neat concept. However with that said, its probably my second least favorate so far, it goes to show how good this collection is as i still liked it quite a bit, and the ones i have left to read are said to be amazing, so i dont expect this one to move up anymore than it has already.

Black Pumpkin- This was basically an all out horror story with a touch of a moral value in its ending. There really isnt much else to say about it, but i would consider it right around the middle of the stories so far as far as how good it is.

Hardshell- Another not that great but still good story in the collection, but the twist at the end was completley unexpected and really made the story for me. Its basically about a murdering shapeshifter with a cop who is after him, very short and simple concept, but as i said, the twist at the end makes it worth reading.

Ollie's Hands- The first story i read in the collection and definitly one of my favorate, top 5 so far. Its a novel of Koontz where a character has powers, as some of his novels are, his powers are neat, but its a pretty emotional story imo, and that made the story for me, as well as the ending which i really enjoyed, one of my favorate endings in the collection.

Trapped- Very similar to Watchers, which is an amazing novel btw. Drug enhanced rats that are VERY smart are on the loose coming after a Mother and her Son, while the lab employees are trying to contain the situation. A cat and mouse chase kind of suspense in the mix to go along with it all. For a short story is was a pretty in depth plot altogether, one of the better stories in the collection for sure.

Twilight of the Dawn- Excellent story, one of the best in the collection, definitly top 3 or top 5. A pretty powerful story regarding a man who is extremly athiest and the major heartbreaks that he suffers in order to regain that faith. Some of the scenes with him and his son were very moving, sad, and at the same time, heartwarming. You know you have a talented author when they can do all of that in one scene.

Strange Highways- The second novella in the collection, which is named after this novella obviously. I saved this one for last and it was definitly well worth the wait, thats for sure!

You get a little of everything in this collection, people with powers like in Odd thomas, moonlight bay series, Twilight Eyes, and the vision. All out horror like Phantoms, Midnight, etc. Government conspriacy stuff like Watchers and Sole Survivor, humour like Ticktock and Life exptency, some sci fi like most of Koontz older out of print work, psychological thrillers like Intensity, Velocity, Husband, Good Guy, etc. aliens like Taking, Strangers, and as well as different world/traveling worlds like Lightning, From the Corner of his Eye, and One Door Away from Heaven. I will add more when i finish it. show less