For thirty-five years, Bruno Frye has lived in the shadow of his adopted mother who made his heart beat with constant fear. And even though she died five years ago, the whispers still haunt him in the dark…enough to make him kill—and kill again.
Hilary Thomas is one of his intended victims. And she’s about to learn that even death can’t keep a bad man down…
Whisper: Horror Novels Review Blog
I am familiar with Dean Koontz, by way of reputation. As a youth, when talking about scary or horror books with peers, his name was often uttered, alongside Stephen King of course. I was familiar with some of Koontz’s film adaptions including Hideaway, Watchers, Phantoms, and the more recent Odd Thomas – none of which I was much of a fan of despite Phantoms holding my interest for a good portion of the film until the reveal which took me out of the story. It was a kind of, sort of, almost hit the nail on the head type of movie in that if it had been this way instead of that way, it could have worked, for me at least.
Needless to say, I was never compelled to read any of Koontz’s books, that is until I looked into my collection of books and realized that I already had a few of his books on my shelf: Night Chills being one of them. The other was Whispers whose synopsis read:
For thirty-five years, Bruno Frye has lived in the shadow of the adopted mother who made his heart beat with constant fear. And even though she died five years ago, the whispers still haunt him in the dark…enough to make him kill—and kill again.
Hilary Thomas is one of his intended victims. And she’s about to learn that even death can’t keep a bad man down…
This synopsis was not much to get me going. Nevertheless, it intrigued me and piqued my curiosity. It was an interesting read in that the book took its time to get me engaged although not sully. Some of Koontz’s writing, especially the dialogue among the characters was a little, how shall I put it, cringe-worthy and a bit lengthy at times. Can you say, exposition is overkill? Not only did I roll my eyes in more than a few instances but being that there was a good bit of romance in this novel, the sappiness was just so damn “yucky“! Not gross in the way that scenes were graphic nor gratuitous but just down-right corny and sappy – again, the dialogue. Not to mention that the book was, on the whole, predictable and I found myself answering questions for the characters and trying to telepathically steer these fictional characters in the right direction.
Speaking of the characters – ask me if I cared for any of them. Go ahead, ask.
Nope!
OK, OK – I know I may be complaining much about Whispers, but to be honest, I still kind of/sort of enjoyed the book. It had lots of minuses and a few pluses, and to be honest I would be hard-pressed to give this one a recommendation. Will I ever read it again? Absolutely not and I’m sure I will erase it from my memory to make room for more important things, like anything else! There was a definite 90’s vibe that I got from reading the book, and as I read it played out like a late-night Lifetime TV movie of the week if those even existed. And that ending. Man, there was a point where I was like, OK, this is going to be good! And it explained “the whispers”! It was kind of an Aha! moment. It garnered a positive reaction from me and then, POOF! Just like that, it was gone and cheesy 90s TV drama reared its ugly head again. I was completely taken out of the story. Unfortunately, this happened at the very end. Literally, the very last sentence of the book! And just like that, it was over, abruptly. That redemptive ending never came. Again, to sum it all up, Whispers was an OK and a fairly quick read but being that this was my first Koontz novel, it didn’t do much in selling me on wanting to read his other works. I went in thinking this would be more horror but I got a crime/mystery/thriller instead – not that there is anything wrong with that, I was just hoping that this introduction to the author would send shivers down my spine.
Nope!
Not even close. That’s not to say that I won’t give his other works a shot but this one, unfortunately, didn’t leave me hungry for more.