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Considering there's a worldwide epidemic, and add in the fact that I suffer from anxiety issues, the last thing I should be doing is reading a book about a man-made virus, but that's exactly what I did after I noticed author Dean Koontz was making online headlines with his 1981 thriller The Eyes of Darkness. It seems readers were saying Koontz predicted the COVID-19 virus, which if you've actually read the novel, then you would know it's a false claim.
The Eyes of Darkness was published in 1981 under the pseudonym Leigh Nichols. The story centers around Tina Evans, a grieving mother whose son, Danny, died in a bus accident along with several other boy scouts nearly one year ago. With her marriage now over, she has put all her time and energy into producing the show Magyck! at the Golden Pyramid in Reno. Very slowly, she has been picking up the pieces and moving on with her life. Well, that's until she finds a strange message on the easel-chalkboard in Danny's bedroom.
NOT DEAD
With help from her new lover, Elliot, Tina learns Danny is alive and is using his new supernatural powers to contact her from afar.
Final Thoughts
After hearing about the plot's similarities to the COVID-19 virus, I went through my Dean Koontz collection and found the paperback, which I had never read before. Originally, I was just going to flip through the book with no intention of actually reading it. Then late one night, thanks to a mixture of anxiety and insomnia, I picked up put the book and started reading it.
I'm not for sure what I was expecting but I got a completely different story than what I had heard about. The plot centers around a grieving mother who begins to suspect that her son is somehow alive. It turns out the government was experimenting with a man-made virus called Wuhan-400. One of the scientists accidentally gets infected. Instead of telling his bosses what had happened, he leaves the facility, goes into the woods, and runs into a group of scouts. The government eventually finds out what has occurred and cleans up the mess by faking a bus accident. Only one scout, Danny, happens to be immune to the virus, and for the past year, the scientists have experimented on him over and over again!
Overall, The Eyes Darkness is an intriguing read. It starts out a bit slow for the first half and then the latter does pick up a bit. In the end, it feels a bit uneven. It's like there are two different stories in one. There's the grieving mother who's haunted by the death of her child and then there's the whole government X-Files-like conspiracy with the virus.
Did I like it?
Sure!
Is it overrated?
Yep!
(Warning: Spoilers!)
I'm not for sure what I was expecting but I got a completely different story than what I had heard about. The plot centers around a grieving mother who begins to suspect that her son is somehow alive. It turns out the government was experimenting with a man-made virus called Wuhan-400. One of the scientists accidentally gets infected. Instead of telling his bosses what had happened, he leaves the facility, goes into the woods, and runs into a group of scouts. The government eventually finds out what has occurred and cleans up the mess by faking a bus accident. Only one scout, Danny, happens to be immune to the virus, and for the past year, the scientists have experimented on him over and over again!
Overall, The Eyes Darkness is an intriguing read. It starts out a bit slow for the first half and then the latter does pick up a bit. In the end, it feels a bit uneven. It's like there are two different stories in one. There's the grieving mother who's haunted by the death of her child and then there's the whole government X-Files-like conspiracy with the virus.
Did I like it?
Sure!
Is it overrated?
Yep!
I was looking online for opinions of this book because even though I have a love of Dean Koontz books, I just can't get into the book. I have tried but I just find it rambling. I don't need lengthy descriptions of what the hotel in Las Vegas looks like. I really want to read it but I can't.
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