Tick Tock

This was a funny book, mainly due to the weirdness of some of the characters and not at all what you'd normally expect from Dean Koontz. It's about a man that receives a little cloth doll, it's left on his doorstep and he takes it into his house, which turns out to be the both the biggest mistake of his life, and also a terrific blessing due to the fact that it leads him to find a wonderfully eccentric young lady called Deliverance Payne.

The story is fast moving and the characters are truly memorable. Deliverance was a little too good to be true at times what with her being an heiress and having amazing magical/psychic type powers and all, but was otherwise a favourite.

Tommy's mother was very well done I thought, as was her friend the show more sorceress from the old country. One of the reviews I read of this book said that it had changed her life. It didn't change mine so much as simply reinforce views and beliefs I've held for a very long time, so for that also I'm also grateful.

A very enjoyable little tale set in a wonderfully weird and yet perfectly normal world. I can recommend it as a rollicking, light-hearted and at times thought-provoking read.

oh, and I almost forgot, there's a little twist near the end that was quite well done I thought. show less

Not going to lie, when I first read this years ago I actually loved it. I see the weaknesses now in the re-read though and gave this four stars. Also there is a dog and I just maybe sighed so hard I caused my poor cat's fur to ruffle. Aside: Not my fault she likes to get close when I am reading. Tick Tock actually shows that Koontz has a sense of humor. There are parts of this that are funny though when you find out the why behind this mess you are going to shake your head.

"Tick Tock" has Tommy Phan on the run for his life. Tommy is a successful writer who is dealing with his mother's constant disappointment that he is not a traditional Vietnamese son. Due to his success she is upset that Tommy has forgotten where he has come from. show more Tommy comes home and finds a rag doll on his steps and stupidly decides to bring it inside with him. When the doll turns into something monstrous, Tommy finds himself on the run from it along with a weird woman named Deliverance who seems to know more than she is letting on and her dog she calls Scottie. If Tommy can live til dawn, the rag doll monster thing won't be able to hurt him.

I felt bad for Tommy. I used to get those phone calls from relatives telling me how I forgot about them and now that I am all successful I don't come home anymore. Bah. Tommy pushing back against his mother by eating a cheeseburger was hilarious.

Tommy is worried about Deliverance (Del), but they are both really funny together. I didn't guess Deliverance's secret, and I doubt readers coming into this cold will either. It really does come out of nowhere and you are going to love it. Deliverance is very much a kick ass female heroine in this one. I think many of the reasons it didn't bother me in this book was because everything is being played for laughs. I started to chuckle and outright laughed several times while reading this one.

The writing was really good and I think that this may be the first and maybe last Koontz novel that featured a POC. I really wish that Koontz had followed up on this one, or even put out more lighter fare. This one is not bogged down by being overly descriptive and off the wall like later Koontz books. You are dealing with a horror book with fantasy elements in it and things tie together nicely.

The ending was pretty brilliant and also funny as hell. I don't want to say too much cause just a little bit will spoil you.

One of the main reasons why I didn't give this five stars, Tommy should have put two and two together a lot quicker to realize what was going on. Really again with the dog thing Koontz? show less

I almost stopped reading this, but I'm glad I powered through. The early part with Tommy Phan discovering the cursed doll was a bit uneven. I wasn't sure where the author was going with it. But once Del Payne entered the scene, it was a fun, fun ride and I'm glad I was along for it. Del Payne was a great character ... let's just say unique and leave it at that. The interactions between Del and Tommy keep things lively while they run for their lives from whatever it is they're running from.

I'm having a hard time reconciling this book as being written by the same author that wrote Strangers, Watchers & Intensity. First of all, the racism in this book is shocking. I don't think this book would've been published today with its current content. Setting the racism aside, this book is incredibly boring and absolutely not scary. Del is one of the worst characters I've come across in fiction in a long time. Annoying isn't a strong enough word for her. If you are a lover of Koontz's older works, please skip this one. It will break your heart it is so bad!!!

#107, 2004

This is the first of Koontz' books I've read in about a decade . . . he was one of my favourite authors for a while, but then I started to feel many of his books were a too similar to one another, so I stopped reading him. I read this book because it's the first selection for my new BookCrossing Meet-up book discussion group, which just so happened to meet earlier this evening.

I enjoyed it. Synopsis - a man comes home to find a strange rag doll on his porch. He brings it inside, and it starts to change . . . soon, he finds himself on the run, and in the company of a very unusual young woman who is also (fortunately) pretty savvy when it comes to survival skills. Great characters . . . I liked Tommy (and really couldn't figure show more out what he'd done to deserve what happens to him - it's quite funny, really, when we find out at the end why it all happened), and Del is like a grown-up Luna Lovegood. It was a fast read . . . scary at first, but I felt like Koontz paced the terror well. It was never too intense, and there is a lot of humor. Koontz himself calls this a cross between horror and a "screwball comedy." show less

Dean Koontz is one of my many favorite authors. I haven’t been disappointed in any of his books and this one is certainly no exception. While it doesn’t seem to be typical of Koontz other books…it does have some supernatural elements and a few tense scenes but overall it's not as “heavy” as many of his others. I didn’t care much for Tommy to start with but he does grow on you and before long you find him to be a great character. He’s a Vietnamese-American… a struggling author that finds himself pulled into strange events beyond his understanding and certainly out of his control. The entire book is a semi-scary story with a lot more humor than Koontz fans are accustomed to…but absolutely worth the time to read it.

This book was a crazy ride inside Dean Koontz's wild imagination. When Tommy Phan buys his dream car—an aqua Corvette—he's convinced it's the best day of his life. Nothing could have prepared him for what was coming…like a demonic rag doll and a night of pure terror. Throw in a beautiful, magical girl with a dog who's the most intelligent person in the room, and you have one heck of a wild tale.