The Door to December by Dean KoontzAlthough Dean Koontz has written several novels, The Door to December is the first one I have read by him. He started out as an English teacher and started writing books in his spare time. He has used several pen names such as Aaron Wolfe and David Axton. Most of his novels are now published under his name though.Door to December takes place in Los Angeles, California. It is a very suspenseful fiction novel. It has a mix of horror, mystery, and science fiction in it.Melanie is now nine years old. Her father kidnapped her when she was three. He has tortured her. When she is found naked walking in the street, she is put under the care of her mother, who is a psychiatrist. Because of the torture she has endured, she is now pretty much autistic. Laura described her as being in a “cationic” trance. When asked about what is wrong with her, she will say, “Please. No.” or that the door to December is opening.Laura is Melanie’s mother. She is so happy that her daughter has been found. She has looked for her ever since she was kidnapped. She is sick over all the trauma that her daughter has endured and is determined to help her in anyway that she can.Lieutenant Dan Haldane is a homicide detective. He is investigating all the murders that start happening after Melanie is found in the streets and her father is found dead. Murders keep happening. Dan likes Laura and Melanie. He vows that he will do everything in his power to keep them safe. When her father kidnaps Melanie at age 3, Laura looks everywhere for her. Laura gets a call telling her that her daughter has been found and that Melanie’s father has found dead along with another unidentified man. The bodies had been beaten badly. Laura looks through the house with Lieutenant Haldane. They find a gray room, which has a sense-deportation chamber and an electric chair in it. By going through Melanie’s father’s notes, Laura finds that they did experiments on Melanie using the equipment in the gray room. Melanie has been much tortured and has not left the house in six years. A man is found dead outside the hospital and was beaten badly. Lieutenant Haldane thinks that he was going to try and kill Melanie. One by one everyone who has been in the gray room is found dead. The victims are beat so severely that every bone is broken and the body is unidentifiable. The killer wants more than death and Lieutenant Haldane thinks Melanie will be next.The theme of the story is that you should not hate yourself. Melanie hates herself. When Laura first tries to work with her, Melanie starts hit herself. Melanie threw a fit. This little girl hates herself and it is not even her fault. All the way through the book Laura is just trying to tell her that someone does loves her.I liked this book, because of the suspense. It had more violence than I would have normally read and kind of sad in some parts. Overall, it was an okay book.Page Count: 511Genre: Horror/Mystery/Science Fiction
เพิ่งเคยอ่านงานของดีน คูนท์ซ ครั้งแรก ตอนที่หยิบมาไม่ได้ดูอะไรเลย อ่านโปรยหลังผ่านๆ ดูท่าทางน่าจะสนุกก็หยิบเลย อยากบอกว่า 40 หน้าแรก หดหู่มาก มันเศร้าสะเทือนใจแต่ก็สนุก อยากรีบๆเปิดอ่านว่าจะเป็นยังไงต่อไป เราเอาใจช่วยหนูน้อยเมลานีมากเลย อยากให้เธอเติบโตมามีชีวิตที่ดีงาม โอ๊ย...ชอบอ่ะ หลอนๆ จิตๆ ติดหนึบไม่อยากวางเลย แอบชอบความโรแมนติกนิดๆ(ไม่รู้อ่ะแต่รู้สึกว่ามันมีความรู้สึกหวานๆซึ้งๆระหว่างบรรทัดระหว่างพระเอกกับแม่ของเมลานี) ชอบๆ สมัครเป็นสาวกดีน คูนท์ซเลย ปล.เราชอบความกวนๆของพระเอกด้วยและจบด้วยแง่คิด "การลืมคือจุดเริ่มต้นของการเยียวยา"
Another worthless Dean Koontz novel full of the usual Koontz crimes against writing: awful dialogue, characters with no complexity, and a "surprise" ending that I knew was coming on page 30 of this over 500 page novel.This is supposedly a mystery/suspense story focusing on the efforts of police officer Dan Haldane to unravel a weird case that revolves around forced sensory deprivation of a nine year old girl. As usual in the Koontz formula, Haldane falls in love with the girl's mother and there is a ridiculous romantic subplot in addition to the asinine regular plot. Also extremely amusing was Haldane's interaction with his police superior. Supposedly Haldane is some kind of no-nonsense crime solver while his boss is a ladder-climbing, politically minded person that care more about his reputation than solving crimes. But when you read their conversations, it's really hard to tell which character to dislike more, though the boss does seem more willing to compromise and try to work together. Detective Haldane is a real jerk that does not deserve to be on the force, that much is clear.Also, it was written under a pseudonym in the mid-eighties then re-released later under Koontz's name, always another bad sign when dealing with this author. There's really nothing to redeem this book, and it should be avoided at all costs.
—Brett
Afterword by the author, delving into the use of pseudonyms. It is Koontz' belief that writers of literary fiction consider the publication of a work that satisfies the audience is ad hoc proof that said work is utterly worthless (p. 514). "Door" was originally published in June 1985 under "Tivhstf Paige".Ten protagonists systematically killed by Melanie's astral being spirit entity. After completion, Melanie's astral being will then kill her physical presence. She is saved by Dan, a good guy cop.
—Tom Mueller
Pretty well written, typical Dean Koontz style. I was able to predict the ending about 60 percent of the way through, but that didn't ruin the book for me at all. Dated in its views on autism and the technology, but overall a very fast, engaging read!As an aside: For those who have written reviews lambasting the author for his uninformed view on autism in this nearly-30-year-old book: get a grip, please. If you were using this book as a research tool on autism, then you would have every justifiable right to criticize him. But if that IS the case, might I suggest using NONFICTION and that is from the last five years? The fact that some have gotten so offended as to leave a one-star review is indicative of a hey-I'm-searching-for-things-to-offend-me mentality.For shame.
—Jesse S. Greever
