#BookReview 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz

77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am the One, the all and the only. I live in the Pendleton as surely as I live everywhere. I am the Pendleton’s history and its destiny. The building is my place of conception, my monument, my killing ground. . . .

The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Gilded Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon’s dream home. Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse. But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace. For its fortunate residents—among them a successful songwriter and her young son, a disgraced ex-senator, a widowed attorney, and a driven money manager—the Pendleton’s magnificent quarters are a sanctuary, its dark past all but forgotten.

But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths. With each passing hour, a terrifying certainty grows: Whatever drove the Pendleton’s past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again. Soon, all those within its boundaries will be engulfed by a dark tide from which few have escaped.

Dean Koontz transcends all expectations as he takes readers on a gripping journey to a place where nightmare visions become real—and where a group of singular individuals hold the key to humanity’s destiny. Welcome to 77 Shadow Street.

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77 Shadow Street is one of those books that in the end just didn't live up to my expectations. I listened to the audio version of prequel novella The Moonlit Mind before I tackled this book and found The Moonlit Mind to be great. So, I was really looking forward to this book. However, firstly it is way too long. Towards the end, I noticed that my mind started to drift now and then especially during some of the characters parts. Particularly when the One was speaking. Secondly, too many characters, too many uninteresting characters. And, more were added during the process of the story and I just felt that they were not that memorable so I kept forgetting who was who. Thirdly, having the TVs and monitors saying EXTERMINATE during the story just felt like they were fighting Daleks (which actually would have been pretty cool).

On the plus side, the story was interesting, I found that I wanted to know the truth about the building and I found that the conclusion, the truth about the One was refreshingly new and unexpected. I just wish that I had formed a closer bond with the characters, as it is was I more worried about the cats than any of the people. Also, I kept on expecting the characters from The Moonlit Mind to show up, but that never happens. That disappointed me. Still, there were some cool scenes and I would like to read more books in the series.

A bit too long, but in the end and OK book!