Hello Creepy Readers,
Just to mix things up, I’m going to talk about one of my recent reads: Hideaway by Dean Koontz. I’ve read a handful of Koontz books before and found them a bit hit-and-miss. This one wasn’t much different, but at only £1 in a local charity shop, I had to pick it up!
Published in 1992, Hideaway follows Hatch Harrison, who dies in a car crash (he’s clinically dead for 80 minutes) before being resurrected by a brilliant doctor and a team of specialists. After his return, he begins experiencing visions and images that seem to come from a killer calling himself Vassago.
As the story progresses, the connection between Hatch and the killer grows stronger, and Hatch becomes convinced that Vassago is coming for his family. Especially when people linked to him and his wife Lindsey start to turn up dead!
Of all the Koontz books I’ve read, I found the concept here genuinely interesting, and the characters are reasonably well fleshed out. The pacing works too, as we switch between key characters often enough that the story doesn’t ever feel like it’s dragging.
One of the standout chapters, in my opinion, is the one that reveals how and when Vassago first killed someone at the age of 12. Because it’s written from the perspective of a child, it feels incredibly unsettling and really amplifies the horror.
There are also lots of references to religion and religious iconography. Having been raised Catholic, much of it felt familiar to me, though some readers might need to do a little digging to catch all the nuances. Still, I don’t think it detracts from the story or its impact, so if you have NO knowledge, you’ll be fine.
That said, the last few chapters felt really rushed, and the ending was, in my opinion, incredibly anticlimactic and the resolution was a little cheesy and made my eyes roll. It was quite disappointing after what had been an otherwise solid read.
I’m giving this one 3 out of 5 skulls because I did enjoy the majority of it, it was just the ending where it fell flat.
Have you read it? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so why not comment below.
Stay spooky!
👻SG👻
☽ SpookyGee ☾ 