The following are just a few sentences from the first chapter of "[b:The City|256683|City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)|Cassandra Clare|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309277410s/256683.jpg|2267189]," by [a:Dean Koontz|9355|Dean Koontz|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1341717803p2/9355.jpg]

"...I loved the city...", "The streets weren't paved with gold...", "Not all the young singers or actors, or authors, became stars..."

This is not your typical Koontz, but this novel contains a burst of style, imagination, and the human spirit. Can a City be a woman?, Will a town have an embodiment? The answer is yes.

Although the beginning of this wonderful read was a little slower going for me, once I really "got into the vehicle" of the story, there was no stopping until the end.

This is a tale of a city in Michigan, told from the point of view of a grown man, with a name longer than his arm. Jonah, an old eight year old prodigy, who grew up under the tutelage of loving grandparents who were always there, a dedicated mother, good friends, and wisdom of a "City" personified. His father was mostly absent.

I love how the writer was able to see these things, move back through time, and put this fantasy to ink; it may only be fiction, but probably not.

There are good and evil people we love, hate, and merely share space with, but if a person has lived long enough, one is aware that not everything can be explained.

Greedy, evil people are out there, and their heinous acts separate them from humanity, and then you have those good humans, who just do the best they can. Those with a special spark, often have that uniqueness squashed; the children cry, "why?," and observers try not to fathom what has occurred.

In my opinion, this story is well worth reading, but don't expect the same type of story. It is not lessened by the evolution of the writer; Dean Koontz.

A special thanks to Bantam Books and NetGalley for the ARC e-book. I will treasure this for a long time to come.

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I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

"The City" is a captivating novel, narrated by Jonah Kirk, as requested by his best friend Malcolm Palmerantz, to tell his story. In doing so we are whisked back in time to the 1960s, where we meet the people in his life that has shaped him into the person he has become. We learn about everyone; from his mother the songstress, to Mr. Yamioka, the eccentric Japanese neighbor on the 5th floor. Jonah Kirk was a great main character, his courage and strength far surpassed his 10 years. He has many ups and downs, yet through it all he was able to persevere.

I wasn't sure what to expect since I hadn't read a Dean Koontz novel in quite awhile. I was, however, happily surprised. This novel is written as a memoir of sorts, and not the mysterious creepiness that is in the usual Dean Koontz novels. There are lots of Christian references in this one which really surprised me. It did, however, have some paranormal aspects which stayed true to Dean Koontz's books. This was a great page turner, as long as you read it with an open mind and don't expect to read the Dean Koontz of old. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this story, it's a new side of Mr. Koontz I hope to see more of. ( )

I usually try to summarize the book before I write what I think about the book. This book...you know what...For a moment, I failed to see the point with this book. Eh anyway, I will give it a try; Jonah is a young black boy, a musical prodigy that thanks to visions and a woman called "Miss Pearl" will try to stop a criminal gang.

This book was not easy to read and it's not easy to write about, mostly because I found the books story lacking. It wasn't badly written, just not interesting. It's the kind of book that takes a longer time to read the unusually because part of me just found the book dreary and instead of reading I do other things, even the other books I'm reading at the same time suffers because of it since my mood to read is low.

I still don't understand why "Miss Pearl" is helping Jonah. I mean there must be many violent crimes committed in the city, why him? Is she often helping people, or is it just him? Damn it, I don't understand Miss Pearl and neither did I found her that interesting. It would have been better if he just would have stumbled on the criminals without visions and help from "Miss Pearl". Then it would, at least, have been an ordinary thriller instead this weird book with a hint of paranormal.

So this was not a happy read for me and I will just let Commodus finish this review:



1.5 stars!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review! ( )

So I didn't enjoy this book as much as most Dean Koontz books. I honestly think I just wasn't in the mood for this particular genre at the time though.

The story was well written and thought out like most of his. I think my hiccup was 1, this is the first book his books I've listened as an audiobook. And 2, I didn't appreciate the goofy humor inside the thriller as much as I usually do.

The story itself is about a young boy named Jonah and the odd events of his life. He begins by telling you, the reader, all about his friend Malcolm and the oddities of this friend. By the end of the story he explains exactly why his friend does the odd things.

He also tells about how he began his pathway towards a great and prosperous life. It really is very interesting. I would recommend it to any who love Dean Koontz. I would also recommend it to those who like humor mixed in with some crazy and dangerous schemes. ( )

Well I enjoyed Dean Koontz's The Neighbor which was a prequel to The City. I think that this book manages to bring in enough old school Koontz mixed with some of the elements that we know that Koontz can do well (set up a story) and make it all flow together nicely.

Told in the first person by Jonah Kirk he tells his story to a tape recorder prompted by his best friend Malcolm (from The Neighbor) and we find out how Jonah comes to know 'the city.' Jonah is 8 at the beginning of this book. An 8 year old African American piano prodigy being raised by his single mother and his grandparents. We know that this story takes place in the late 1960s but we are pretty unclear on where the city is that is mentioned in this book.

I thought that Mr. Koontz wrote Jonah very well. I recall in one of his short stories writing as a teenager (Strange Highways) and I don't recall him writing as a child before in any of his books. Or at least not having a child be the primary narrator through the whole book. It really does work in this story and I found Jonah to be an intriguing and sympathetic character.

The writing was very much improved, probably because we didn't have a lot of Koontz-isms in this book, no one talking in rhyme, or Odd speak, people actually having dialogue with one another, and though there are fantasy elements, Koontz keeps everything pretty realistic throughout the book. Yes there are no golden retrievers in this book, thank goodness.

There are secondary characters in this book like Jonah's grandfather, mother, and his neighbor Mr. Yoshioka that were so well written that I wish that we could get short stories told from their points of view. Mr. Yoshioka and Jonah's grandfather I found to be fantastic.

The only reason why I did not give this a full five stars was because though I did like this book, it did drag on a bit in a lot of places. And I thought that Koontz kind of hand waved away a lot of issues that Jonah would have experienced or thought about as an African American pre-teen. Koontz does bring up real world events, but the way it is written they could be happening in another time and place.

Also we never do find out where this city is. Maybe he kept the city a blank space on purpose so no one could say there is no way that so and so could have been in that time and place because of X. I thought it was kind of a cheat myself but since i enjoyed the book as a whole I just ignored it. ( )