Lightning

Back in August, my book club decided that it might be fun to try reading a love story since that was a little different type of novel than what we had been reading (and no--I'm not talking like a trashy romance novel). So, we pulled out our handy smart phones and did some Googling. One of the girls found a list of "Best Love Stories for Book Clubs"; seemed like a pretty good place to start, right? One of the first novels on the list was Lightning by Dean Koontz. If you are thinking "so what?", then you have clearly never read any Dean Koontz. I, however, went through a serious Dean Koontz reading phase (we'll ignore the fact that I was in late middle school/early high school and the books were probably waaaay inappropriate), and was shocked that one of his books would be on a list of best love stories. One of the other girls echoed my sentiments, and because curiosity got the better of us, we decided to give the book a shot.

While I will definitely agree that the book has a "love story" element, everything else about it is very typical Dean Koontz--lots of thrills, suspense, science fiction/fantasy, and a few murders for good measure. And while Dean Koontz may not be typical book club fare, we did actually have a pretty good discussion about the book's approach to fate/destiny. I don't think anyone regretted that we read this book--although I'm not sure we'll be rushing back to read more Dean Koontz anytime soon.

As someone who has read and enjoyed lots of Dean Koontz, perhaps my recommendation to read this book (or anything by him) should be taken with a grain of salt. It definitely isn't going to be one of those books that changes your life and sticks with you for a long time (in fact, about halfway through, I realized that I had in fact read this one in my adolescence, but had pretty well forgotten all the major plot points. Although some of that may not be a reflection the book but rather a testament to the fact that I used to speed-read like a madwoman), but if you've never read any Dean Koontz I definitely think he is a writer that has a very unique "flair" to his novels--something that everyone should try at least once.