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“Watchers” by Dean Koontz: strange but amazing

Recently, I joined a book club with some old friends. The first book we read as a group was “Watchers,” by Dean Koontz. This book was definitely amazing, but also very hard to review. Nevertheless, I really wanted to get this title out there, because I could not put it down, and it’s just one of those books you wish would go on forever! The main characters consist of an unhappy man named Travis, a mousey woman named Nora, a Golden retriever named Einstein (who speaks to the humans through scrabble pieces!), and a hideous beast called “The Outsider.”

Now, I must warn you, my review may be a little weird, because, well, the story is a little weird. The story begins with Travis finding Einstein on, oddly enough, his quest to kill himself in a beautiful forest. The dog gives him hope and inadvertently saves his life.

Travis soon finds that Einstein has an uncanny ability to sense danger, which is where Nora comes into the picture. She is being attacked by a shady man, and Einstein jumps in and saves her, and then she and Travis fall in love. A good portion of the story focuses on their evolving love, and Nora’s extreme naivety.

As the book goes on, we find out that Einstein escaped from a government facility, where he had been an experiment of military intelligence. Einstein has human-like emotions and can also communicate, though not verbally.

We find out that Einstein is terrified of a beast called “the Outsider,” which is another experiment from the same government facility. “The Outsider” is hideous and brutal and was formed to be a killing machine for the military. “The Outsider” grew up resenting Einstein and has made it his goal in life to kill the friendly dog. Throughout the entire story, “the Outsider” is on a rampage in search of the dog, always one step behind it, leaving a bloody trail behind him.

This book, although slow at times, is really a great read. It sounds really cheesy, but it’s actually pretty intense at times. This book has everything to satisfy dog lovers, romantics, horror fanatics and those with low self esteem. The underlying message in the book is extremely powerful, and I even got a little tear at the end! Definitely a great book to consider this summer!