The Voice Of The Night

This was a strange one. I'm not sure where it actually falls in publication order within Koontz bibliography, but it reads like an early effort. Maybe it was written earlier than it was published? Everything just feels a little too on the nose, a little too obvious. A coming of age meets sociopath story about 14 year olds with parents/adults (with the exception of the librarian) as unbelievable as they are unbelieving. An abused kid (maybe with antisocial personality disorder) befriends what feels like a lonely and also abused clear Ben Hanscomb/Richie stand in (he even says the same thing about home that Richie says) from a broken and neglectful home in order to try to have a partner in crime. Eventually our Hanscomb clone realizes our show more murdering teen is actually being honest about all the horrible things he's done and with the help of a late acquired girlfriend sets him up to record an admission of guilt. Also some non-fatal gun violence at the end.
Don't get me wrong, I like the pseudo-Ben, but his gullibility is hard to swallow, as is the gullibility of all the adults. There's some hints about the voice of the night, of madness, being something more especially right at the end that could have been played up to be more interesting. We could have had a slower burn than an immediate admission of terrible desires. show less

Read this years ago but didn't remember it. Read it again in a couple of days. A quick read for sure. Not one of my favorite books by Koontz but it was interesting. It it the story of a young teen who has always been an outcast who becomes friend with the wrong guy and the consequences of that friendship. Worth a read but don't expect classic Koontz classic thriller.

I didn't realize that I had read this book many years ago when it was published under the name Brian Coffey. A few years ago I bought it when it was released on kindle under the name Dean Koontz. As I finally got around to reading it, bits and pieces came back to me.

Anyway, Colin is a shy and quiet, friendless, boy who loves to read and watch movies. His parents are divorced and he lives with his mother who is almost never home and does not seem to have much if any time for him.

He strikes up a friendship with Roy, or more specifically Roy chooses to strike up a relationship with him. Roy is a disturbed and twisted individual who enjoys torture and killing.

I would probably have rated this 5 stars if Koontz had not made the mother such a show more senseless flipping moron who would rather believe outrageous stories about her son with no proof and so easily having the wool pulled over her eyes by an Eddie Haskell type fake politeness. Therefore, 4 out of 5 stars from me. show less

A reread as part of a hoped-for book clearance though I didn’t remember this story at all so, first time around, it couldn’t have made an impact and I can’t say it did this time either. As with much of early Koontz it’s a book of its time. The oft sexual violence as imagined by one character is particularly off-putting as it should be but it’s still dated. Oddly, this book breaks a general rule of publishing in that if the protagonist is a child, then the book is for children but there’s no way this book would be for suitable for kids or, as the boys in question are teens, for a Young Adult readership. Nothing to do with the book but it crossed my mind to wonder whether this would have ever seen print these days. Another show more thing that ages the book is a ‘boy’ of Colin’s age would likely not, these days, sleep with a nightlight. I perceived the boys as much younger, maybe 7, 8, or 9, and Colin’s father is particularly devolved. The good parts of the book for me is Colin’s perceptions of the dark, a haunted house, a creature ready to jump out of the shadows having lain in wait for him, wonderfully described. show less

Two teenaged boys, Roy and Colin, befriend each other, but they seem to be polar opposites. Roy is quite extroverted and popular while Colin is withdrawn, bookish, and shy. But Roy takes to him quickly and even overwhelms him with attention, even becoming blood brothers. And blood brothers will do anything for each other and I mean anything, right? And that is where the relationship starts to get complicated. As it turns out, Roy is not who, or what he seems. When he was eight years old, something very bad happened to him that he hasn’t dealt with very well, and when this is revealed - that Roy is dealing with a severe case of post trauma stress- then a whole new dimension is added to the story and it becomes much more interesting. show more But you have to get through 2/3 of the book to get to that point. show less

A Koontz book, but written under a pseudonym. Why do they do that? Are they embarrassed about a work? An unusual Koontz work, this one...the characters are teens, there is no supernatural intervention, and I thought it would be about the usual teen age angst of growing up. But, this book is about Psycho in making... It was suspenseful. That the main [teen] character was able to set up such a complex ending is a bit baffling; it made good reading anyway.

Colin is a fourteen year old boy that moves to a new little town in the 1990's. He soon becomes friends with Roy who is about the same age. The two boys are inseperable. Roy has become Colin's new best friend, which is something Colin has never had. He has always been the outcast at his old school, but now he is friends with the most popular boy in his class. He can't believe this is happening to him. We soon find that Roy has a deep, dark secret that he desperatly wants to share with Colin. First has to test Colin to see if he is trustworthy. When Roy finally feels that Colin is trusted enough, he tells him his awful secret. Roy likes to kill for the fun of it. He wants Colin to help him kill someone to prove their friendship. Colin show more knows he can't possibly kill someone, but he doesn't want to lose Colin as a friend. He decides that their friendship is not worth what Roy wants and he tells him "no" This angers Roy. He decides to kill Colin. But in the end.....

The book was pretty disturbing at times. Roy is a really messed up kid. It's his reasons for being a messed up kid, that will actually make you feel sympathy for him in the end. show less