Name: Strangers
ISBN: 9780425181119

Dean Koontz

A group of seemingly unrelated people experiences sensations of numbing terror and fear and, groping their way toward one another, discover their sinister, shared secrets in a chilling climax that changes their lives forever. Reissue.

Strangers

Sian Wadey

My mum has been going on about Dean Koontz's Strangers for as long as I can remember. I tried to read it a couple of years ago, but got bogged down. So I put it aside promising to come back to it later.
This time around I managed to finish it although it was slow going! The story revolves around a number of strangers, all living in different parts of America. Several of the individuals have experienced nightmares or new phobias since the summer before last. But none of them can remember what occurred over those few days. 
I think the number of main characters was just enough for the reader to follow and remain interested, but not too many that they become mixed up. I enjoyed that each character had a very different background and that they all reacted differently to whatever happened. 
I particularly enjoyed reading about Brendan Cronin. Faith and religion is always something that interests me and Brendan's struggle was really intriguing to me.
I also enjoyed Jorja's character, especially her relationship with her parents, who were frankly, horrible people. I think Koontz is really good at detailing relationships and understanding how people communicate with each other.
There are also a range of supporting characters that provide great humour and balance with the main characters. Although I was a bit disappointed with Colonel Leland and how stereotypical he was.
I enjoyed the first half of the book. Each clue was revealed slowly and for the most part left the reader in the dark. Then as things start to come together it actually seems to go downhill. I felt it lost it's intrigue. I also found the last one hundred and fifty pages very predictable. Once I'd worked out what the mystery was, the whole thing lost it's magic. Plus the introduction of the military disappointed me a little too. 
I just felt that the mystery had so much potential, and by the end it was all a bit of a let down. I felt like Koontz was trying to make a point about the human race as a whole, and it became very sentimental.