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Life after dark

Honestly, before this book, I had no reference point to Dean Koontz. The only thing I’d ever read about him was one line in Walter Kirn’s wonderful take on the life of a regular high flyer, Up in the Air (you will remember George Clooney in the movie version). It went like this — “He’s reading Dean Koontz with a squinting intensity that Koontz just doesn’t call for and must be fake.”

So Kirn’s opinion wasn’t exactly great motivation to start reading 
the novelist, and one you haven’t tried before. Never mind that he’s up there in popularity with Stephen King and Tom Clancy. But any New York Times bestselling author at least warrants one try, so I jumped in. To some welcome relief. Koontz is 
generally billed as a suspense thriller writer, but he is known to tread the supernatural, horror, and science fiction at times, and that is evident in all intensity in Innocence.

For starters, there is nothing “innocent” about Innocence. The 26-year-old protagonist Addison Goodheart is deemed so “exceedingly ugly”, that it causes extreme reactions — from other people and himself. His own mother tries multiple times to kill him, for instance. He chooses to sequester himself away, with the help of “father”, a character quite similar to his. Living in isolation also gives him a different and complex view of reality, and the world we live in. But Addison soon meets kindred soul Gwyneth, in a setting that befits their mutual statuses as misfits of 
society — a deserted library. Gwy-neth is fighting a battle as well, of bringing her father’s suspected killers to justice. But she is also in mortal danger from the same people. She is also the antithesis of Addison in a way, beautiful and captivating. But she has her own oddities — she can’t bear other people’s touch, or even to be around them.

Together, they bond through the tragedies and strokes of life that have scarred them, but only they know something the rest of the world doesn’t… that the hour of reckoning is coming, and soon. In a plot that will lend itself well to a movie, Addison and Gwyneth must survive the next 24 hours facing various dangers, 
before the final catastrophe occurs.

Surprisingly, I also enjoyed Koontz’s turn of phrase. “Through the stillness, snow fell not in skeins but in infinitely layered arabesques… laying boas on the limbs of leafless trees, 
ermine collars on the tops of walls, a grace of softness in a hard world. You might have thought it would fall forever, endlessly beautifying all it touched, 
except for the reminder of the river. When the snowflakes met the undulant water, they ceased to exist. Everything and everyone we treasure in this world comes to an end. I loved the world not for itself but for the marvelous gift it was, and my only hope against eventual despair was to love something larger than the world…”

Innocence is a relative term here — it could be borne from the fact that Addison is born truly good, without the original sin supposed to exist in all human beings. Or that the whole world is blissfully unaware of the fate in store for them. Or even the “innocence” of the reader, as Koontz reveals key details that blindside you with their immensity and timing. The twist is well worth it. The author also makes quite a character out of the city it’s set in — vibrant and cool New York turns memorably moody and haunted by night, blinded by blizzard, and every alley and dim shop is sinister. This is not Final Destination-style horror, but of the angst and fear that exists within us — the conflict between good and evil — brought out in an apocalyptic finale.

Koontz has a knack of combining the nihilistic and dark satire-meets-science fiction styles of fellow American authors Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Choke) and Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse-Five).

Like their protagonists, Koontz’s 
Addison is a lone ranger, a misfit, but an intrinsically good person. Koontz’s narrative flair, and the number and range of his characters make for enjoyable storytelling. So while the reading experience doesn’t particularly possess depth, it is mystery-filled 
and gripping. Read Koontz if you like to walk on the dark side, have a bit of Goth in you, and somewhere in the deep recesses of your mind, an alternate universe of your own creation exists. You’ll find a safe haven in his books, even if it upends you. -marypaulose@khaleejtimes.com