Dean Koontz's book Odd Thomas, like Koontz's other books, is a gripping read. This book is particularly concerned with violence and the grotesque, however, and the emotions they evoke. Violence is depicted in places and only alluded to in others, but there is a thick atmosphere of violence and terrorism throughout the book. The bohachs are the harbingers of violence, and when Odd sees them following Fungus Man, the reader spends time waiting for the other shoe to drop. There is a sense that evil and violence always present in the book.
The grotesque is a theme in the book that Koontz uses to create atmosphere, but it also reflects the grotesque and twisted character of human nature as a whole. Fungus Man is grotesque not just in appearance but in his very being. There is something inherently evil, twisted, and misshapen about his soul, and his physical form merely validates what the reader already feels about him.
The emotions associated with the grotesque are disturbing. As the reader follows Odd and Fungus Man, as well as the other characters, the violent and the grotesque seem to be lurking constantly behind the scenes and obtruding every so often into the storyline to remind the reader that they are still there. There is something disgusting about the grotesque, as it violates the usual rules of form and acceptability, yet there is also something that makes it fascinating. The reader senses emotions of disgust, compassion, fear, wonder, and an array of others in the face of the grotesque, and by the end of the book, these have all dissolved into just one emotion(grief.
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