A review of The City by Dean Koontz

The City is the fascinating tale of Jonah Bledsoe Kirk, musician and ten year old, who lives with his mother in New York City during the 1960's. Jonah learns to play piano in a way most don't and never will, being the grandson of the famous Teddy Bledsoe. His experiences at 10 years old are unlike many that he knows, having divorced parents, being fearful that his father , who doesn't truly want him, will kidnap him just to hurt his mother, but Jonah tries to handle these things "as the man of the house". Unfortunately, he gets himself into trouble being nosy with a tenant of his building by the name of Fiona, who truly wishes him harm. Jonah, however, enlists the help of a quiet Japanese neighbor named Mr. Yoshioka, with whom he forms a bond that is more father-son than any he ever had with his own father. During this time, Jonah meets a woman he names Miss Pearl, who claims to be the City as a flesh being. Miss Pearl gives Jonah advice, sends him visions and tries to help him as much as she can. Jonah lives through some terrifying experiences, but comes out on the other side, because he believes he will. The thing I enjoyed most here, being a fan of Dean Koontz, was not the slight supernatural flavor the book possessed. It was the beautiful language and true sentiments of understanding that the most important thing we have is out connection with other people, that is what defines us, encourages us and helps us to carry on. I throughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it highly.

Among the Unseen by Jody McIsaac

A terrific end to the trilogy showing Cedar once again doggedly trying to help others. In this case, it's the Unseen- those otherworldly races such as the Merrow, the selkies, and dwarves, who are suddenly stricken with a disease and are dying. There is a long history to the reason why, accompanied by a spell set by Brighid, of all characters, and even a few scenes with everyone's favorite anti-hero, Thor and his decidedly insane father Odin. What I like about Jody McIsaac's stories is how human Cedar is, although she isn't, and how she pokes fun at the belief in these mythical characters and creatures, while still painting a story with lots of travel and action, and tension between characters. The author killed off quite a few secondary characters, I won't name which ones, before ending her trilogy, which was unsurprising, and not at all unexpected given the deadly disease. In all, I enjoyed this story as I did the previous two. ARC provided by NetGalley.