Synopsis:
When hometown horrors come back to haunt, friendship is salvation in a novel about childhood fears and buried secrets by #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Dean Koontz.
As kids, outcasts Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer, and Ernie were inseparable friends in the idyllic town of Maple Grove. Three left to pursue lofty dreams―and achieved them. Only Ernie never left. When he falls into a coma, his three amigos feel an urgent need to return home. Don’t they remember people lapsing into comas back then? And those people always awoke…didn’t they?
After two decades, not a lot has changed in Maple Grove, especially Ernie’s obnoxious, scary mother. But Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer begin to remember a hulking, murderous figure and weirdness piled on mystery that they were made to forget. As Ernie sinks deeper into darkness, something strange awaits any friend who tries to save him.
For Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer, time is running out to remember the terrors of the past in a perfect town where nothing is what it seems. For Maple Grove, it’s a chance to have the “four amigos,” as they once called themselves, back in its grasp.
Review:
Thinking back about all the Dean Koontz books I’ve read over the years, I feel like I’ve enjoyed about 85% of them. Many have been a cracking-good time, but a handful I’ve struggled to figure out how I felt about them. I’d say in general, that’s about how I felt about Going Home in the Dark, Koontz’ latest novel. I liked the three main protagonists and I did enjoy the narrative structure of the book (I’m sure this easily turned some people off), but overall, there were a few things that I didn’t quite love, but I’m really glad I read it.
I still remember my first Koontz book. I was in high school and found Dragon Tears on the bookshelf at my local library. My mom tried to steer me away from those black, dark Stephen King covers, but this one was silvery and didn’t at all give away that it would be one of the scariest books I’d read up until that point.
Koontz has published a lot of books since that 1993 thriller, but he still has the chops to craft a well-told story. I think some people would point to his 2019 book deal with Amazon (Thomas & Mercer imprint), as the point where Koontz could just turn out lazy writing for an easy paycheck and guaranteed readers through Amazon’s Kindle Marketplace. The guaranteed readers might be true — I borrowed the book through Kindle Unlimited and the audiobook automatically downloaded to Audible simultaneously — but I really enjoyed Going Home in the Dark. Is it as good as what he was publishing 20-30 years ago? Perhaps not, but I still had a great time with it.
Enough about background — the story is about four friends who have a shared childhood trauma that none of them can remember. When Ernie falls into a coma, the other three — Bobby, Spencer, and Rebecca — all return to their hometown to deal with the aftermath. What happens next is a bit of a madcap combination of IT, Weekend at Bernie’s, The Stepford Wives, and Little Shop of Horrors. There is more than a little humor to the action as the three friends try to figure out what happened to their “Fourth Amigo” without letting him die.
There are a few nitpicks. The omnipresent narrator breaks the fourth wall (maybe the fifth and sixth at times as well), and while I liked the different tone than you would find in most books, I know some people don’t like as much humor in their “serious” horror or sci-fi. Also, due to the narrator, there are a lot of explanations and info dumps. Now, the narrator points that out and fully acknowledges it when it happens, but it happens nonetheless. If you can put up with that, I think you may have a really good time with a book by a master in the genre.
Dean Koontz will be turning 80 years old this year, but he still understands horror and pop culture. No matter his age or who his publisher is, I still really enjoy picking up a book from him like I did this week with Going Home in the Dark.
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