Christine M. reviewed on + 46 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
As an avid Dean Koontz fan, I couldn't NOT read this book. And I wasn't disappointed. "Intensity" is a good read. Perhaps not my favorite of his, but still very typically Koontz.
This novel starts out slower than most of his novels --- usually I'm entirely captured by the first or second page, he gets right into the guts of the story, but this time he paced the beginning a lot slower.
But in a relatively short time, things start to get --- well, intense.
Chyna Shepherd is staying with her best friend's parents over a school holiday and suddenly her entire host family is dead, and only she remains living. Having always been a passive person, not wanting to get involved in anything frightening or risky (thanks to a very nasty childhood), she suddenly decides this is something she NEEDS to put herself in the middle of, to vindicate her friend.
So she follows the killer. Learning that he has a 16-year-old captive, she vows to rescue her as she was unable to rescue her friend.
At first, the killer has no idea she's there, but when he finds out, things heat up a bit, and there are a few heart-stopping scenes of suspense.
The book takes place in only a 24-hour period, and each moment counts. And, as always, Koontz has a couple of intriguing surprises up his sleeve --- the identity of the killer, for one thing.
"Intensity" follows the story from both viewpoints, the killer's and Chyna's. Chyna's portions are told in typical 3rd person past-tense, but the killer's sections are told in the rarer PRESENT tense. It's a tad distracting at first, but you'll get used to it. My major complaint with this one was that sometimes, things went a little too slowly for me --- especially with a book called "Intensity." Sometimes Chyna seemed a little TOO smart, a little TOO lucky with the ingenious ways she came up with of escaping, and at times the suspense lagged simply because I knew she was going to get out and remain alive by the end of the book, I knew she wasn't going to have any problems. I wanted to see a little bit more of a struggle for her life and her freedom, more at close quarters with the killer. Most of her struggle came when the killer wasn't anywhere near, and wouldn't be anywhere near for hours.
One of the earlier reviews for this book was, I have to say, a tad misleading, because he DOES employ a couple of his usual devices, though not in the same way. There are definitely dogs --- several of them, in fact --- though they don't save the day. And there IS a law officer in this book --- though, again, not in the typical way he uses them. And I'm not too sure about everyone's assertions that the french film "Haute Tension" was a rip-off of Dean Koontz's novel. There also happens to be a french novel called "Haute Tension" that the french FILM is more likely to be based on --- that book was published three years earlier than Koontz's "Intensity." Just because it has a similar set-up doesn't mean it's BASED on this novel --- TONS of films have similar set-ups, especially in the horror genre! And I think it's fairly insulting to Dean Koontz to try and attach his name to such an awful excuse for a movie.
On the whole, "Intensity" was wonderfully written, and exciting to read. Yet another fantastic adventure from Dean Koontz.
This novel starts out slower than most of his novels --- usually I'm entirely captured by the first or second page, he gets right into the guts of the story, but this time he paced the beginning a lot slower.
But in a relatively short time, things start to get --- well, intense.
Chyna Shepherd is staying with her best friend's parents over a school holiday and suddenly her entire host family is dead, and only she remains living. Having always been a passive person, not wanting to get involved in anything frightening or risky (thanks to a very nasty childhood), she suddenly decides this is something she NEEDS to put herself in the middle of, to vindicate her friend.
So she follows the killer. Learning that he has a 16-year-old captive, she vows to rescue her as she was unable to rescue her friend.
At first, the killer has no idea she's there, but when he finds out, things heat up a bit, and there are a few heart-stopping scenes of suspense.
The book takes place in only a 24-hour period, and each moment counts. And, as always, Koontz has a couple of intriguing surprises up his sleeve --- the identity of the killer, for one thing.
"Intensity" follows the story from both viewpoints, the killer's and Chyna's. Chyna's portions are told in typical 3rd person past-tense, but the killer's sections are told in the rarer PRESENT tense. It's a tad distracting at first, but you'll get used to it. My major complaint with this one was that sometimes, things went a little too slowly for me --- especially with a book called "Intensity." Sometimes Chyna seemed a little TOO smart, a little TOO lucky with the ingenious ways she came up with of escaping, and at times the suspense lagged simply because I knew she was going to get out and remain alive by the end of the book, I knew she wasn't going to have any problems. I wanted to see a little bit more of a struggle for her life and her freedom, more at close quarters with the killer. Most of her struggle came when the killer wasn't anywhere near, and wouldn't be anywhere near for hours.
One of the earlier reviews for this book was, I have to say, a tad misleading, because he DOES employ a couple of his usual devices, though not in the same way. There are definitely dogs --- several of them, in fact --- though they don't save the day. And there IS a law officer in this book --- though, again, not in the typical way he uses them. And I'm not too sure about everyone's assertions that the french film "Haute Tension" was a rip-off of Dean Koontz's novel. There also happens to be a french novel called "Haute Tension" that the french FILM is more likely to be based on --- that book was published three years earlier than Koontz's "Intensity." Just because it has a similar set-up doesn't mean it's BASED on this novel --- TONS of films have similar set-ups, especially in the horror genre! And I think it's fairly insulting to Dean Koontz to try and attach his name to such an awful excuse for a movie.
On the whole, "Intensity" was wonderfully written, and exciting to read. Yet another fantastic adventure from Dean Koontz.
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