Maciek's Reviews > The Husband
The Husband
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Maciek's review
bookshelves: owned-books, own-in-paperback, thriller-mystery-suspense, read-in-2009
Nov 22, 2009
bookshelves: owned-books, own-in-paperback, thriller-mystery-suspense, read-in-2009
Read 2 times. Last read March 1, 2007.
This books contains the funniest simile ever: The man character drives his car and is accompanied by The hobgoblins of wind. Yes, HOBGOBLINS OF WIND.
Okay, so I've read The Husband when it came out and forgot it entirely. Deciding to write a review of it, I grabbed a paperback and began to read.
The Husband is one of those airport books that will keep your attention during the flight, but you can leave them on the plane without feeling any guilt. Character development is practically nonexistant. But it's all about the plot, eh? The book starts with a bang: A gardener's wife is kidnapped, and the kidnappers want 2 million dollars. Obviously, a gardener doesn't have such money, but the kidnappers are serious - they shoot an innocent passerby just to prove it.
It all gets better and better from here. As I was reading I kept saying "hey Dean ,it'sa not bad, not bad at all!". Sure, the characters are bland, the villains are bland, but who cares, it's not a book that you'd read for school. The tension keeps increasing, and our gardener finds himself in situations that neither he nor the reader could have expected.
Until the end.
Koontz has been carefully building his house of cards to impress the reader, but at the very end he gets like "whew, who gives a crap anyway!" and blows the whole thing down. It crashes painfully and ruins the whole experience.
Because there's absolutely no need to even try to explain how the gardener got out of the mess he has made. He committed various things, illegal of course, and there are no repercussions. All we get is "3 YEARS LATER" 1 page epilogue where everyone is happy and sappy. Not one word is devoted to any sort of explanation. Which one might think would come, if there were whole pages devoted to Koontz's philosophy and the whole book was written in his "new" prose, short sentences being interrupted by paragraphs of some new-age bullshit. Yes, describing the inspirational grass is absolutely necessary, but satisfying the reader is not. You're wondering how Koontz will tie up all the loose ends? Here's your answer: he doesn't do it at all.
This could have been an enjoyable beach read, but Koontz decided to write another 50 books that year so he had to call it quits. Shame on you, Dean.
Okay, so I've read The Husband when it came out and forgot it entirely. Deciding to write a review of it, I grabbed a paperback and began to read.
The Husband is one of those airport books that will keep your attention during the flight, but you can leave them on the plane without feeling any guilt. Character development is practically nonexistant. But it's all about the plot, eh? The book starts with a bang: A gardener's wife is kidnapped, and the kidnappers want 2 million dollars. Obviously, a gardener doesn't have such money, but the kidnappers are serious - they shoot an innocent passerby just to prove it.
It all gets better and better from here. As I was reading I kept saying "hey Dean ,it'sa not bad, not bad at all!". Sure, the characters are bland, the villains are bland, but who cares, it's not a book that you'd read for school. The tension keeps increasing, and our gardener finds himself in situations that neither he nor the reader could have expected.
Until the end.
Koontz has been carefully building his house of cards to impress the reader, but at the very end he gets like "whew, who gives a crap anyway!" and blows the whole thing down. It crashes painfully and ruins the whole experience.
Because there's absolutely no need to even try to explain how the gardener got out of the mess he has made. He committed various things, illegal of course, and there are no repercussions. All we get is "3 YEARS LATER" 1 page epilogue where everyone is happy and sappy. Not one word is devoted to any sort of explanation. Which one might think would come, if there were whole pages devoted to Koontz's philosophy and the whole book was written in his "new" prose, short sentences being interrupted by paragraphs of some new-age bullshit. Yes, describing the inspirational grass is absolutely necessary, but satisfying the reader is not. You're wondering how Koontz will tie up all the loose ends? Here's your answer: he doesn't do it at all.
This could have been an enjoyable beach read, but Koontz decided to write another 50 books that year so he had to call it quits. Shame on you, Dean.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
Started Reading
March 1, 2007
–
Finished Reading
November 22, 2009
– Shelved
June 9, 2010
– Shelved as:
owned-books
December 6, 2010
– Shelved as:
own-in-paperback
May 4, 2011
– Shelved as:
thriller-mystery-suspense
June 24, 2011
– Shelved as:
read-in-2009
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Well, Twilight is crap. I'm all for YA and PNR but Stephenie Meyer is just a bored housewife who gets wet thinking about sparkling male vampires who are 17 years old. I mean if she was a man who got a boner for 17 year old sparkling female vampires someone would call the police. LOL!






You're not a Twilght mom (I hope), so most young guys feel safe approaching you because you know you won't pull a Meyer on them and start comparing them to Edward,LOL.

I'm definitely not a YA person. If those young guys know how scary I like my vamps, they're going to shrivel up and run away. I read HARD CORE erotica and horror books with lots of blood and flesh. Besides, I'm more into those giant, thick muscled with huge fangs werewolves, like in the Underworld movies. Those are my ideal werewolves.










Monique, I know this is reeeeeeaaallly late but I just saw your comment; thank you for commenting! His earlier books (from about 1985 to 1995) are much different and while not great they are definitely much better than this one. I have read a lot of them and while it's not anything I would revisit I don't think it was a complete waste of time.

Maciek, you have a stalker.
[spoilers removed]"
Oh Cillian, I hope not! Life is as complicated as it is! :)

