Phantoms

by Dean Koontz

Book Overview

"They found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred and fifty were dead, 350 missing. But the terror had only begun in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425181103
• ISBN13: 9780425181102
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 4.2" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Deserving of Horror classic status.

One of my first full horror novels I read as a preteen. It's just as unnerving to read as an adult. It's almost Eldritch horror, but never fully leans into that territory. The setting from early on is ominous and the terror is real. In the top 3 of his bibliography without a doubt, diamond tier Dean Koontz.

Passing down the legacy of Phantoms!

I read this book about 30 years ago and it remains one of my all time favorites. I have just ordered a copy for my daughter and am excited for her to read it!

Quite Simply, one of the Most Entertaining Novels I have Ever Read

I love Dean Koontz, and this is one of his best novels. In fact, it is one of the best horror/suspense novels ever written, period. PHANTOMS is an old fashioned monster novel, where a group of characters are under attack by a supernatural being in a deserted town. This story may sound familiar, but Koontz makes it come alive by the sheer talent of his writing. This is an old-fashioned roller coaster ride of a novel, where you're constantly on the edge of your seat. I was smiling as I read this book, because I had such a good time reading it. If you're new to Koontz, this is a very good novel to start with. PHANTOMS is pure fun from start to finish. Ignore the movie based on this book, which is quite bad and does not do the novel justice. Koontz has admitted as much on his website, despite the fact that he wrote the screenplay himself. If you like PHANTOMS, I recommend reading the following novels by Koontz: WATCHERS, INTENSITY, VELOCITY, and ODD THOMAS.

The Best Type of Horror

I avoided Dean Koontz like the plague since the day some years ago when I attempted to read his novel "Mr. Murder." I found that book so formulaic and tedious that I swore never to read another of his books. I did not even finish "Mr. Murder," a rarity for me because I always strive to finish any book I pick up. When I recently decided to cast my nets a little wider into the vast seas of the horror genre, I looked for something by Koontz that other readers praised. Repeatedly, I found that his book "Phantoms" came highly recommended by nearly everyone who read it. So, with my sense of smell ready to detect the slightest hint of staleness or boredom, I dove right into this 1983 Koontz novel. My analysis: of the many horror novels I have read over the years, "Phantoms" may be the best of the batch, ranking right up there with Stephen King's "It" as one of my all-time favorites.The author wastes little time getting right into the story. Dr. Jennifer Paige and her little sister Lisa are driving to Jennifer's house in Snowfield, California. Jenny was never close to her sister due to the rigorous demands of medical school and the headache of establishing a practice in the small town. When their mother dies suddenly, Jenny steps in to take care of Lisa. The poignancy of this action quickly shatters when the two arrive in Snowfield. The town appears to be completely uninhabited. Jenny and Lisa realize that no one is walking around town and that no cars are on the streets. An even ruder shock overwhelms the two women when they find Jennifer's housekeeper dead on the kitchen floor. Even eerier is the condition of the dead body, which has uniform bruising over every inch of the skin. At first Jenny surmises that a disease could be the culprit so the sisters decide to pay a visit to the neighbors, a visit that produces more questions than answers. Jenny and Lisa begin a mad dash through town, finding corpses everywhere they go. In some houses, they discover that the residents have simply disappeared without a trace. It quickly becomes apparent that something sinister has occurred in Snowfield, and it is up to Jennifer and Lisa to find out exactly what happened before they become victims themselves.Enter the Sheriff's Department of Santa Mira, a town just down the road from Snowfield. Unaware of the unfolding terror in Snowfield, Sheriff Bryce Hammond and his deputy Talbert Whitman are questioning a murder suspect named Kale about a gruesome double homicide. Koontz uses the Kale interrogation to give us some background on Sheriff Hammond, revealing that this cop is a brilliant investigator and a great man in a crisis but that he lost his wife in an automobile accident and his son to a coma. Very quickly, Hammond gets a call from Jenny in Snowfield about the strange events in that doomed town. The sheriff sets off with a handful of deputies, most of whom Koontz describes in sufficient detail for the reader to care about what happens to them, and the book start

Where'd Everybody Go?

If not Koontz's best, at least in his top five, and my personal favorite. I've read this one so many times I've lost count, and I enjoy it every bit as much each time.A doctor and her kid sister return to the doctor's mountain resort community to find everybody in town missing - sort of. Some of them are still there, but in pieces. Or crushed. Something seems to be watching from the shadows. Someone is singing in the sewers. The nearest town sheriff and his men find scrawled on the mirror of a locked and empty bathroom the names "Timothy Flyte," and "The Ancient Enemy."And the book is off to the races.The menace and dread in this book are palpable and unrelenting. It's essentially a sci-fi murder mystery, with an entire town the victim of...something. Dean's writing is at its best. The story is a great, sprawling epic, centered on one tiny mountain town. The less said about it the better, for those who haven't yet had the pleasure of reading this great horror classic.The movie is actually much better than other reviewers have given it credit for. It's nowhere near as involved as the book, but it really couldn't be, and in some ways it improves on the original source material (Koontz produced and wrote the screenplay himself). But if the movie put you off, you'll still enjoy the book. And if you liked it, you'll probably like the book even more.

Dark Evil Things

Phantoms is a well-written story. Dean Knootz can write a novel and you can imagine the whole book in your mind second by second. The two main characters in the book, Jennifer and Lisa, are traveling to Jennifer's Home in Snowfield. When they reach there, everything looks empty and quiet. But they explore the town a little bit more and realize something evil has taken over the town. Jennifer calls the local police, but this is a situations the police can't handle. So a team of scientists are called to fix this evil. The characters in this book are well described and developed, and everything that happens in the book is described with such detail you can picture it clearly in your mind. The only truly bad thing to this book is that it had to end. Even though it is a strange book it is very entertaining and keeps you on your feet. This book should be read by all Dean Knootz fans, or any thriller/horror fans. But if you are lazy and don't want to read the book, you can rent the movie. The movie was good, but the book takes the movie and elabortaes more than the movie and takes you on a ride you hopefully will never forget.

Movie was a bomb...book is the bomb!

Although the movie was a bomb the book is an excellent read. I was hesitant to watch the movie since most movies tend to ruin a great book. I should have followed my instinct and declined the movie. The movie did so badly at the box office that most people would steer clear of the book. A very bad decision.The book was longer than an average Koontz book but progressed wonderfully. Koontz is great when it comes to throwing a reader directly into the story. He doesn't deal with the extensive characterization until it's absolutely necessary. Unlike some authors that will take up 300 pages of a 350-page novel to introduce characters who usually die shortly after.If you've seen the movie and it has left a bad taste in your mouth please give the book a chance. The movie did absolutely nothing for the book so don't base your opinion solely on the movie. Make sure you have plenty of time to sit down and read Phantoms...once you start it will be nearly impossible to put it down.