Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

[Bloody Angel]

Published about a year ago (Oct. 2005), Life Expectancy is a brilliant book I feel like suggesting to those who enjoy Koontz's novel.
This one has a specific recurrent nightmare or phobia crawling out of the closet: an evil (though human) clown. A very homely book, ironically told in first person, filled with suspense and psychological aspects.
I really enjoyed reading it: sheer leisure.

About the book.   (from the author's website)
Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it.
As a violent storm rages outside the hospital, Rudy Tock spends long hours walking the corridors between the expectant fathers' waiting room and his dying father's bedside. It's a strange vigil made all the stranger when, at the very height of the storm's fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the frist and last time since his stroke.

What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson--five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face.
Rudy is all too ready to discount his father's last words as a dying man's delusional rambling. But then he discovers that Josef also predicted the time of his grandson's birth to the minute, as well as his exact height and weight, and the fact that Jimmy would be born with syndactyly--the unexplained anomal of fused digits--on his left foot. Suddenly the old man's predictions take on a chilling significance.

As the novel unfolds, picking up Jimmy's story at each of these crisis points, the path he must follow will defy every expectation. And with each crisis he faces, he will move closer to a fate he could never have imagined. For who Jimmy Tock is and what he must accomplish on the five days when his world turns is a mystery as dangerous as it is wondrous--a struggle against an evil so dark and pervasive, only the most extraordinary of human spirits can shine through.

[Dark_Sumerian]

It is amusing how clowns are the symbol of evil and fear for so many children and adults around the world.  They send chills down the spines of so many, it is a wonder they are even employed anymore.  I personally never had a problem with clowns as a child but never found them all that appealing either.  My friend insists they are evil and is consumed with dreadful fear at the sight of one and he is a grown man.  So many good books and movies have come out with clowns as the bad guy.

what brings about this fear of clowns?

[Bloody Angel]

It is amusing how clowns are the symbol of evil and fear for so many children and adults around the world.  They send chills down the spines of so many, it is a wonder they are even employed anymore.  I personally never had a problem with clowns as a child but never found them all that appealing either.  My friend insists they are evil and is consumed with dreadful fear at the sight of one and he is a grown man.  So many good books and movies have come out with clowns as the bad guy
what brings about this fear of clowns?

Too much dramatic make-up, maybe? I dunno, though I'm not a big fan of clowns. Neither of Robert Smith, actually. 

[Dark_Sumerian]

John Wayne Gacy, that serial killer, would dress up as a clown and target young boys.  Did you ever see Brian Dennehy's portrayal of that maniac in the movie he did?  Disturbing...to say the least.  Also, thought not necessarily a clown, Jack Nicholsons portrayal of the Joker in Batman was pretty well done as well.

Alright you got me Bloody Angel, I will have to pick up this book now.  I wonder how it will stack up to Stephen Kings "it" in my eyes.  I have only read a couple Koontz novels, Phantoms and Darkfall.  I enjoyed both very much.

oh yeah...did you ever see "Killer Klowns from Outer Space"?  So bad yet so good!   

[Bloody Angel]

Alright you got me Bloody Angel, I will have to pick up this book now.  I wonder how it will stack up to Stephen Kings "it" in my eyes.  I have only read a couple Koontz novels, Phantoms and Darkfall.  I enjoyed both very much.
oh yeah...did you ever see "Killer Klowns from Outer Space"?  So bad yet so good!   

Well, you got me on the movie... never even heard of it!
By the way, Koontz's novel is very very different from King's It. I love both, though King used to be my favorite author back then. What I like about this novel is the irony. He has a damn good sense of humour (of course the "dark" side to the novel is not missing at all)

[Trex]

I read that book about the Tock family!  I liked it!  The book twisted and turned so much I was thinking, "What the heck is next?"  Clowns are weird, I agree.  For anybody that has not seen the movie "Killer Klowns", here's a trailer:

http://www.horror-stew.com/KillerKlowns/

Gacy was a sick human being who preyed on children in the guise of "Pogo" the clown, visiting sick children around Chicago at hospitals.  Certainly doesn't help the clown reputation, does it?!?!