Strange Highways

Written by Dean Koontz

Joey Shannon, an alcoholic whose life has been going nowhere for 20 years, returns to his hometown for the funeral of his father. As he leaves town, he gets a mysterious second chance to relive the night in 1975 when his life began its downward spiral: to both literally and figuratively take the road that he didn't originally take. On this road he is supremely tested by conflict with his successful and charismatic older brother P.J., by conflict between his cynicism and his lost faith, and by conflict between the ultimate good and evil.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Mar 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781480574267

Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz is the author of more than a dozen New York Times No. 1 bestsellers. His books have sold over 450 million copies worldwide, and his work is published in 38 languages. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania and lives with his wife Gerda and their dog Anna in southern California.

Reviews for Strange Highways

[Patrik · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really love Koontz books, but this was not for me, I felt it hard to really get captured by this story, but it kept my workday going faster so..

[blazingice0608 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful collection of short fiction, an absolute must read for any fan of Koontz and especially a fan of short stories, do NOT overlook this book because its a collection of short fiction and not an actual novel. Strange Highways and Chase are novellas, Chase was an actual novel published back in 1972 but is out of print except here. Other stories that are worth mentioning are Down in the Darkness, Bruno, We Three, Ollie's Hands, and Kittens, the others are good as well, just not quite as phenominal as those are. The best thing about this collection is you get to see all the variety of stories Koontz has to offer in his novels, and this still doesnt cover all of it. But more importantly, anyone who knows Koontz books knows he almost always has a happy ending that is perfectly wrapped up and explained. A lot of these stories will have either a sad/unhappy ending, or it will just be ambigous and open ended, much as Stephen king book endings can be, this is a major plus for me. I still have 2 stories left to read as well as a novella(Strange Highways), and will update this review as well as give it a rating when they are complete. For now though, these are my individual, short reviews for each story:Kittens- A very short story of only 5 pages, straight to the point and awesome, while its very simple, the ending to it is absolutly twisted. A pretty unexpected turn of events for a Koontz story to say the least.Bruno- One of my favorates, a story about traveling through multiple alternate realities, worlds that are the same as our own, but different, such as Walt Disney being a gun producer and Smith&Wesson being a fast food joint. This opens the door for lots of silly humour, which Koontz is always exceptional at. Its a very neat and interesting tale with humour to put a nice spin on things that the other stories lack.Snatchers- A story with a good moral to it, its about a purse snatcher who ends up stealing a purse that will end up coming back to bite him in a big way, this was a good story but probably my least favorate so far.We Three- Another of my favorates, its a story about triplets who have a lot of supernatural powers like telepathy, telekenisis, etc. Has a great ending but i dont want to spoil it for you.Down in the Darkness- A story about a POW Vietnam veteran who buys a new house with a myserious and supernatural cellar in it. It taps into his darkside and unleashes pent up darkness from back in Vietnam, another one with somewhat of a good moral behind it. A short story that offers a lot of character depth.Chase- This is a REALLY good one, because its long it has a completley fleshed out character, a pretty good one might i add. Its a straight up psychological thriller with no supernatural and a bit of a "who done it" aspect to it. A very fun read, one of the best ive read so far.Miss Atilla the Hun- This one is my favorate so far, it is a bit of an invasion of the body snatchers type of alien story. But what i like the best about it is that it takes several points of view, a few characters as well as the alien itself.Night in the Storm- Somewhat of a sci-fi story about a world where humans are supposidly extinct and robots rule the world. Its about robots who basically need help in keeping their life interesting, and a group of them go on a trip into the woods to go hunting and end up finding more than they can bite off. Has a nice twist to it at the end, the different robots and their different personalities are fun, and overall its a neat concept. However with that said, its probably my second least favorate so far, it goes to show how good this collection is as i still liked it quite a bit, and the ones i have left to read are said to be amazing, so i dont expect this one to move up anymore than it has already.Black Pumpkin- This was basically an all out horror story with a touch of a moral value in its ending. There really isnt much else to say about it, but i would consider it right around the middle of the stories so far as far as how good it is.Hardshell- Another not that great but still good story in the collection, but the twist at the end was completley unexpected and really made the story for me. Its basically about a murdering shapeshifter with a cop who is after him, very short and simple concept, but as i said, the twist at the end makes it worth reading.Ollie's Hands- The first story i read in the collection and definitly one of my favorate, top 5 so far. Its a novel of Koontz where a character has powers, as some of his novels are, his powers are neat, but its a pretty emotional story imo, and that made the story for me, as well as the ending which i really enjoyed, one of my favorate endings in the collection.Trapped- Very similar to Watchers, which is an amazing novel btw. Drug enhanced rats that are VERY smart are on the loose coming after a Mother and her Son, while the lab employees are trying to contain the situation. A cat and mouse chase kind of suspense in the mix to go along with it all. For a short story is was a pretty in depth plot altogether, one of the better stories in the collection for sure.Twilight of the Dawn- Excellent story, one of the best in the collection, definitly top 3 or top 5. A pretty powerful story regarding a man who is extremly athiest and the major heartbreaks that he suffers in order to regain that faith. Some of the scenes with him and his son were very moving, sad, and at the same time, heartwarming. You know you have a talented author when they can do all of that in one scene. Strange Highways- The second novella in the collection, which is named after this novella obviously. I saved this one for last and it was definitly well worth the wait, thats for sure!You get a little of everything in this collection, people with powers like in Odd thomas, moonlight bay series, Twilight Eyes, and the vision. All out horror like Phantoms, Midnight, etc. Government conspriacy stuff like Watchers and Sole Survivor, humour like Ticktock and Life exptency, some sci fi like most of Koontz older out of print work, psychological thrillers like Intensity, Velocity, Husband, Good Guy, etc. aliens like Taking, Strangers, and as well as different world/traveling worlds like Lightning, From the Corner of his Eye, and One Door Away from Heaven. I will add more when i finish it.

[andyray_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In his novels, Dean Koontz doesn't deal with fantasy that much since his title "Watchers" was published. His words. Not mine. In this collection of two novel-length stories and 11 others, fantasy reigns supreme. We have a few mutants with powers that humanity (nor they) can handle. We have monsters found nowhere else, like the growing thing of phlem, feces, and rotting garbage that takes away a bad, bad man in "Snatcher." I particularly like the story of a man obsessed with the religion of atheism who can not stand others to have faith and who, finally, is led to faith by the spirit of his dead son.All in all, some of Koontz' finest works are here and it's an excellent read. Try to save the story "Black Pumpkin," however, for around Halloween. And if you figure out in the closing novel "Chase" how the protagonist was followed, let me know. I think it's a hole in the bread myself.

[ladybug74 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have had bad luck with short stories lately. I just don't seem to enjoy them any more. For that reason, I put off reading this one for a while even though it's by one of my favorite all-time authors. I was so surprised that I really enjoyed most of the stories in this book. Of course, I liked the novellas a bit better than the short stories because there is more to them. My favorite was the title story, Strange Highways, which was probably the longest one in the book. I love time travel stories and this one did not disappoint me! There were 2 stories (Trapped & Chase) that were repeats for me from other books.