Book #28 for 2022: The Taking by Dean Koontz
The Taking by Dean Koontz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book opens in a fashion worthy of a John Wyndham novel, with bizarre meterological phenomena, including luminous rain. At first, it seems like a cautionary tale about climate change.
But after that, it turns into an alien invasion story that feels like a combination of Night of the Living Dead and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as more bizarre events occur, including living corpses.
The main characters are Molly and Neil, who feel quite well-rounded, and have backgrounds that are described in detail, particularly the fact that Molly's father is a child murderer, and inevitably he returns into her life.
This was a book that felt apocalyptic in tone and scale, but which kept me guessing what was going to happen next. It felt like there was a lot of imagery from the book of Revelation in the Bible (the dead getting up and walking definitely made me think of some of the Biblical writings, although I am not sure if that was deliberate).
The book's ending wasn't what I was expecting, and felt like it raised more questions than it answered, but it seemed fitting, particularly in a book that felt at times like it was in danger of becoming cliched. It made me realise that I need to read more of Dean Koontz.
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