This book is far from being a detective story, but it depends as much on the element of surprise, so it would be unforgivable to give away too much of the plot. It can, however, safely be said that it grips, and that its strength lies in the understanding of human behaviour that underlies the unexpected twists and turns, each one of which moves from romanticism to credibility in a bracing way, so that the book’s charm resembles that of a building such as Brighton Pavilion: engagingly fantastic in appearance, but structurally sound. As an example: those (to me) offputting names, Morwenna and Corwin, turn out to have been bestowed on the twins in a fit of ironic pique by their sulky mother. Their father wanted to call them Anne and James. In retreat from a devastating loss and crushing injustice, Katie lives alone in a fortresslike stone house on Jacob’s Ladder island. Once a rising star in the art world, she finds refuge in her painting. Koontz is obsessed with rampant crime; his writing in this book reminded me of my Trump loving relatives who swear Democrats are literally burning entire cities to the ground. And his evil gangsters have suspiciously foreign sounding names. It’s not a giant conspiracy. Her parents and daughters were the victims of a random mass shooting. One of the perpetrators is the son of a senator who is apparently so powerful (how you ask? Why? Just trust me bro) that all bets are off, and there’s some garden variety corruption. There’s also some deranged musings about the government protecting drug gangs (yup, really). Oh, and can’t leave out the countless references to them of course.

Koontz went on to write like this for many years, he was "BRILLIANT" especially if you are a true fan of the way this mans mind works.Gallagher, Brian (April 22, 2011). "House at the End of the Street Gets February 2012 Release Date". MovieWeb. Watchr Media. Archived from the original on January 8, 2014 . Retrieved October 6, 2011. I mostly listened to this book (ebook at night) and always wanted to keep going. Short chapters, lots of edge of your seat suspense, otherworldy witchy happenings. I was completely swept up! Katie and Libby captured my heart - strong, capable and self-sufficient. The film was shot on location in New York City, Phoenix, and Schomberg and Toronto in Ontario, Canada. a b Ray Subers (September 23, 2012). "Weekend Report: 'End of Watch' Narrowly Beats 'House,' 'Curve' ". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 2021-09-11. The audience skewed young (70 percent under 25) and female (61 percent), and it was also predominantly Latino (52 percent). They gave the movie a "B" CinemaScore.

It is at this point that THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD really begins to soar and never comes down to earth again. It calls to mind some of the novels that Koontz penned as a fledgling writer --- mostly sci-fi works composed under various pseudonyms or his original nom de plume, Dean R. Koontz. Similar plot devices can be found in such Koontz titles as WATCHERS, THE SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT and LIGHTNING. Not only does the book very deftly combine sci-fi and horror thrills, which is why I must keep the source of the darkness here a secret, it also includes a special young person who teams up with Katie and may be a key to the events that are taking place around them. Audio was 10 hours/ 22 min and excellent narration from Natalie Naudus (she also narrated my last book Talk Bookish to Me) Koontz is a wordsmith and his latest effort is blessed with precise prose, colorful and descriptive paragraphs that engage the imagination, compelling similes, and the use of full compound sentences, a practice that many writers of late seem to have abandoned. His one bad habit? A tendency to ask readers to suspend their disbelief just a little too much. Some scenes of extraterrestrial entities fusing with and distorting human forms are almost too grotesque to be taken seriously. It’s a small complaint, however, and an author like Koontz — whose works frequently describe paranormal elements – can be forgiven for challenging our perception of what evil, unleashed, just might look like.Now, I don’t like to let an author’s politics influence how I view a book because I don’t want to be lumped in with the idiots who cry about woke indoctrination because there was a non straight, non white character in a novel. In this case though, I actually felt like I read an entire book about the author’s political views masquerading as a horror novel, so I feel like it’s a valid point to bring up. For some reason I’ve never read anything of Koontz’s before, but I felt like reading something suspenseful and The House at the End of the World delivered on that. Unfortunately, everything surrounding the suspense was bullshit. main character owns an AR-15 “which only people who know nothing about guns call an assault rifle”… prime #shitamericanssay material Dean Koontz is a complex writer, and so are his books, featuring the best of humanity as well as the worst. In THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD, he continues his much-repeated theme of a valiant individual fighting against the government and/or a science experiment gone awry. Here we meet a woman, Katie, who has retreated from society because of a horrific wrong done to her. She and her peaceful way of life on her isolated island are in jeopardy due to a mysterious entity that escaped from a government laboratory that also threatens the world as we know it.

Principal photography and filming mostly took place at Algonquin College located in Ottawa, Ontario, in Metcalfe, Ontario and Carp, Ontario from August 2, 2010, until September 3, 2010. [5] Release [ edit ]

The next day, as the intruders prepare to sacrifice Adriane, Andrew escapes the cabin and retrieves his gun from the car. He kills Adriane, but during a struggle with Leonard over the gun, Wen is accidentally shot and killed. Devastated, Leonard allows himself to be tied up by Eric and Andrew, but he says that Wen's death has not stopped the apocalypse because she was not a willing sacrifice, and Eric or Andrew still must die. Eric has begun to wonder if the story is true and has visions of flies that lead him to turn on the TV, which shows an outbreak of bird flu. Andrew insists the disasters are coincidental and the visitors were anticipating pre-scheduled news broadcasting. Sabrina describes how she and the other visitors were led by their visions and compulsions to find each other online, execute details of their plan such as creating their weapons, and to continue forward when they wanted to resist. She decides that, after Wen's death, she wants to abandon her task. Sabrina kills Leonard and offers to lead Eric and Andrew to Redmond's car. The TV shows seven spontaneous plane crashes taking place around the world, seemingly fulfilling the prediction of the sky falling. Taylor, Drew (21 September 2012). "Review: 'House At The End Of The Street' Is Like 'Twilight' Meets 'The Devil's Rejects' (And Totally Awful)". IndieWire. originally supposed to be a collaborative horror movie, written and directed by "Donnie Darko" filmmaker Richard Kelly and Jonathan Mostow A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

It's a harrowing story that elicits current times with UFOs looming overhead and the duplicity of our government. If I was to try and sum up The House at the End of the World it would be – You might want to shut your eyes, but Koontz prises it open with hooks, and the terror is forced upon you without any escape plan. This is a mystery, sci-fi, and suspense novel. It's a fast-paced book, although events were happening too slow (some parts were unnecessary.) To be informed, this was my first time knowing about Dean Koontz. He was a successful author with many published works, and it's even more sad if we take it into consideration because he STILL ended up with this trash. Mind you, I'm not alone on this hate. Many of the author's dedicated readers were finally giving up on him because of this novel. I know their resignation has got to do more on the author falling out of his glory by getting much political and inserting questionable personal opinions/influences to his later works...but that doesn't excuse why this book was dreadful. In addition to his typical paranoia and obsession with guns, Koontz now bashes the following in this book: Sosa, Alejandra (July 11, 2012). "2012 Directors Guild of Canada Awards nominees announced". PR Newswire (Press release). Cision. Archived from the original on December 26, 2013 . Retrieved January 7, 2014.That is the scene, established with authority by an obviously gifted writer. The plot is set in motion one evening, when the twins’ father, coming home late from an evening at the pub, where he often plays his violin, falls to his death from the top of a cliff. The events that follow are complex and cover many years. A Home at the End of the World (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media . Retrieved March 13, 2018. Katie is everything that we might hope to find in a superhero. She is intelligent, strong, clever and good with weapons, yet also kind, compassionate and principled. She has lost everything to something not named at the beginning of the book, and we know she is living her life because of an also mysterious "Promise" she made to someone. However, we don't find out about either of these until we have read much of the novel. Koontz delivers this information sparingly and in dribs and drabs so as to keep the suspense building.