tags: fable, horror, humor, mystery
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
When hometown horrors come back to haunt, friendship is salvation in a novel about childhood fears and buried secrets by #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Dean Koontz.
As kids, outcasts Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer, and Ernie were inseparable friends in the idyllic town of Maple Grove. Three left to pursue lofty dreams―and achieved them. Only Ernie never left. When he falls into a coma, his three amigos feel an urgent need to return home. Don’t they remember people lapsing into comas back then? And those people always awoke…didn’t they? After two decades, not a lot has changed in Maple Grove, especially Ernie’s obnoxious, scary mother. But Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer begin to remember a hulking, murderous figure and weirdness piled on mystery that they were made to forget. As Ernie sinks deeper into darkness, something strange awaits any friend who tries to save him.
For Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer, time is running out to remember the terrors of the past in a perfect town where nothing is what it seems. For Maple Grove, it’s a chance to have the “four amigos,” as they once called themselves, back in its grasp.
It took me a few weeks to rate this book by Dean Koontz. I couldn't decide if it is worth 4 or 5 star or if it is really bad as some of the reviewers on Goodreads think. It is another good versus evil themed mystery but it is very different from previous books by Koontz. I felt it was written for young adults because on the first few chapters he breaks the fourth wall to talk to the reader to explain and define some words or terms which are not that uncommon. Example: in a fugue. People know what it means for sure. Some readers got distracted by the constant explaining. I didn't mind it because sometimes it is funny.
Dean Koontz once again ridiculed everything and everyone which is hilarious in my opinion. There are many many humorous LOL things going on with the three friends specially when they rescued Ernie from the hospital to prevent the mortician from getting to him. It was like Weekend At Bernie's
The book reads like a fable or parable and I think those who rated it a 1 star got offended at the very end of the story, when Koontz compared the evil blob to communists trying to destroy the idyllic town. The blob was defeated by the good blob which was older and bigger than it is. The moral of the fable is, keep the good growing to prevent the evil from becoming powerful.
Recommended only for Dean Koontz fans.
