Intensity
by Dean Koontz
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dean KoontzEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-10-31
ISBN: 0553582917
Number of pages: 464
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of Intensity
Book Review: Opens and closes with a bang, and for the most part the middle is pure intensity...
Summary: 4 Stars
`Intensity' is the first novel I've read by Dean Koontz, and in being such it had the great responsibility of either conforming me into a full fledged fan or convincing me that he's not worth my time. My initial response to the first heart pounding chapter was `oh my god, what a thrill' and then I almost immediately became bored as I contemplated where he could really go from here. The action started so quickly, so bluntly that I was confused as to what Dean could possibly have up his sleeve in order to sustain us for the entirety of the novel, and then chapter 6 changed all of that.
The novel shifts focus between two opposing ends of a horrific event. Young Chyna Shepherd is visiting the family of a friend when her whole life is changed and even challenged by homicidal adventurer Edgler Vess, a man who in one swoop tortures and murders not only Chyna's best friend Laura but Laura's parents, leaving nothing but a blood soaked memory. Mind you, this all takes place in the first two chapters. Talk about an impressively `intense' opening. The reader can be nothing but hooked...so where does Dean take us next?
Switching from Chyna's desperate attempts to make Vess pay to Vess and his killing spree the reader may start to drift in his or her interest, especially when Chyna seems relatively safe and out of harms way, but that drifting is short lived for once Edgler Vess makes it to his humble abode and his current victim Ariel is introduced the reader has newfound reason to embrace each brilliantly scribed page. As these two play a game of wits with one another we are brought into their frame of mind, Chyna's tortured victim yet soulful heroine in the making and then there's Edgler's contaminated evil that feels almost too natural. Reading Edgler's motivations and reasoning's starts to feel a lot like Bret Easton Ellis' character Patrick Bateman in `American Psycho', a man who appears nothing short of normal and has reasoned himself into believing he's the only normal one around for miles. Granted, `Intensity' is nowhere close to the sheer literary brilliance that was `American Psycho' but it has that minor similarity.
Now, in all honesty, there are times I wish this were a tad bit shorter. There are a lot of scenes that merely explain the thoughts and feelings and motivations of a particular person and it can be overkill since it can appear repetitive or redundant. This can become apparent in some of the corny descriptions Dean uses to describe the state of mind his characters are in. "She was baking a nourishing loaf of panic, plump and yeasty, and if she allowed herself to eat a single slice, then she'd gorge on it" is something that should never have to be said...and if Dean didn't insist on reiterating Chyna's fear over and over he would have never exhausted all other descriptive options and thus it never would have been uttered. A novella may have been more effective, but then again there are certain chapters and sequences that really elevate the remainder of the novel. It's a bit of a mixed bag at times, a lot of good with some moments of not-so-wonderful.
Some of the not-so-wonderful would have to be the overabundance of flashbacks to Chyna's childhood, longwinded stories that bog down the `intensity' of the situation. Some of the good though falls in the line of dialog, especially between Vess and Chyna, Vess more so. He's a very interesting villain to say the least, and Koontz paints him splendidly.
The final three chapters of the book fly by, and the reader is entranced by doubt and terror and intensity as they pine over what happens next. The final chapter, the final few pages, it left me speechless. So, I'm happy to say that `Intensity' made me want to pick up another Dean Koontz novel, and someday soon I will. He's a good writer, not brilliant, but talented enough to make twenty-four hours fill an entire novel, and while at times it gets too wordy and or too lengthy it's never so much that you want to or, worse yet, need to close the book and forsake the journey. It's truly intense and truly worth the read.
Summary of Intensity
Past midnight, Chyna Shepard, twenty-six, gazes out a moonlit window, unable to sleep on her first night in the Napa Valley home of her best friend?s family. Instinct proves reliable. A murderous sociopath, Edgler Foreman Vess, has entered the house, intent on killing everyone inside. A self-proclaimed ?homicidal adventurer,? Vess lives only to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immerse himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse or limits, to live with intensity. Chyna is trapped in his deadly orbit.Chyna is a survivor, toughened by a lifelong struggle for safety and self-respect. Now she will be tested as never before. At first her sole aim is to get out alive?until, by chance, she learns the identity of Vess?s next intended victim, a faraway innocent only she can save. Driven by a newly discovered thirst for meaning beyond mere self-preservation, Chyna musters every inner resource she has to save an endangered girl?as moment by moment, the terrifying threat of Edgler Foreman Vess intensifies.
A young woman staying as a guest in a Napa Valley farmhouse becomes trapped in a fight for survival with a self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer", and races to warn his next intended victim. Unrelentingly terrifying, this book lives up to its name.
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