Book Review: The Frankenstein Series by Dean Koontz

Frankenstein Series Books 1-5 by Dean Koontz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love retellings of classic books. When I started this series, I thought that's what this was, but it's not. I would refer to this series as an "add-on". When I say "add-on" I mean that this story picks up after the events of the original Frankenstein and continues the story in modern day. Having said that, I think this series as great! I enjoyed through all 5 books. Dean Koontz is a master story teller and it comes through in this series.

The plot is fantastic. I would say that it incorporates action/adventure, suspense, thriller, and sci-fi genres all into one nice package. Often times with series of this size there are books that are a let-down along the way (usually book 2 or 3). Not so with this series. They are all page turners. The plot starts us off in New Orleans in the modern day. This is a great location due to the mystery that comes with New Orleans all by itself. It makes the idea of a battle between Dr. Frankenstein and his original monster seem somewhat plausible. I don't like to go into the plot too much because I don't like spoilers in my reviews. But, the gist of the series is the battle between Dr. and monster. It is worth the read, I promise. The plot moves very well in these books and is rich in depth. There are the twists, turns, and surprises that us Koontz fans have come to know and love. There is also some darkness to the plot that can bee seen throughout most of his books.

The characters of this series are wonderful. Some authors make the mistake of trying to cram too many people into the story so that they can fill the content of this many books. Not so with Koontz. There wasn't any time through the series that I had to go back and remind myself of who someone was or what they were doing in the story. He does a good job of keep the core characters at the core and bringing in support characters as needed. It is wonderfully balanced throughout.

The readability of these books is great. They are page turners from start to finish. There aren't any parts of the book where you are willing your way through it so that you can get to the next "good" part. It flows very naturally and makes for any easy read.

The readership of this book would probably be high school and up. It's not that the language is hard to understand or that there are difficult words to get through, but there are some themes that run throughout the book that would make it suitable for an older audience.

Overall, this series was very enjoyable for me. I would put it in my top 10 series of all time right now. It's on the low end, but in the top 10 for sure. Well crafted and well worth the read, especially if you are a Koontz fan.

Overall rating: 5/5



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