Welcome back to Books With Cause. Let’s dive straight into my latest review.
It’s time for another pick from Goodreads’ Horror Aficionados, and it’s the turn of Dean Koontz. To date, I have read numerous Koontz offerings, including the entirety of his Jane Hawk series, as well as his novelisation of the 1981 movie The Funhouse. But my favourite Koontz novel to date has to be Lightning, in which Nazi scientists are zapped into 1984 with the intention of using knowledge of the future to change the outcome of World War II. I read that book long before I set up this site, so I haven’t written a review of it, but maybe that’s one I need to revisit before long.
After having mostly positive experiences with Koontz novels, I was pleased when Watchers was picked by Horror Aficionados and was looking forward to reading this one.
At the beginning, we meet Travis. A former Delta Force operative who goes hiking on his 36th birthday. While out hiking, he meets a stray dog. A golden retriever that won’t seem to leave him alone. The dog seems way more intelligent than the average canine, and warns Travis of something dangerous lurking in the woods. The duo survives, and the dog comes home with Travis – he doesn’t give Travis a choice in the matter. Travis names the dog Einstein, due to how smart he is.
Later, Einstein and Travis befriend Nora – in fact, they save her from a nasty man who is harassing her. Travis, Einstein, and Nora quickly form a tight bond. They work together to try to work out why Einstein is so smart. Meanwhile, there is a deadly assassin who is tasked with tracking the three of them down. It turns out, they know more than they’re supposed to. The journey they’ve inadvertently embarked on may be dangerous. Can all three of them survive?
Although this was another book picked by Horror Aficionados, I wouldn’t personally have labelled it as a horror book in the sense that I wasn’t ever scared. Wikipedia labels it as a suspense novel, and I’d say that is a more accurate description, with elements of science fiction too.
This book is deceptively long, and it took me longer to read it than I’d have guessed ahead of time. It’s 500 pages but didn’t feel particularly thick – certainly not in comparison to King Sorrow, which I read earlier in the summer. But I did think the font in this copy of Watchers was a little small, so maybe it could’ve been 1000 pages in a different edition.
Travis, Einstein, and Nora are at the heart of the story, and I enjoyed every scene they share together. However, it took a bit of time for them to meet each other, and therefore it felt like the story took a bit of time to get going.
The copy I had included an afterword from Koontz where he talks about Watchers being the book that his fans seem to love the most and it also being one that they request a sequel for the most. While this wasn’t a book I loved upon first reading, I’d certainly be open to rereading this one. I enjoyed spending time with Travis, Nora, and Einstein, and I can also see why the fans would love to see them again in another book.
My Goodreads Rating: ★★★★☆ (4 stars)
