Book Review: The Vision by Dean Koontz

‘The Vision’ is an early novella by Dean Koontz that follows a psychic, haunted by traumas, long-repressed from her childhood. Due to the nature of the story, this story could prove deeply triggering, and contains rather explicit depictions of animal abuse, sexual assault, sexual abuse, molestation and manipulation. If you do intend to read this, please tread carefully, and be mindful of your limits.

Mary, her husband Max and her brother Alan travel the States assisting various police investigations, however, after a rather jarring case, in the lead up to Christmas, she finds herself haunted by what she can only assume is a poltergeist. After all, as a clairvoyant, anything is possible.

There were exciting elements to the book, trying to unravel the mystery with Mary, but also some of the circumstances that befall her during these hauntings.

The story was a quick and easy read, and although I was reasonably confident I had worked out the plot twist before the reveal, the nature of it was something else entirely. This book is deeply chilling, stomach turning at points.

I would not recommend reading this book. Although I liked ‘The Darkest Evening Of The Year’, ‘The Vision’ did not have the same appeal. The story, although easy to follow, got very disturbing. I was repulsed by the content of the pages and wanted nothing more than to abandon the story, but was adamant I wouldn’t DNF the book in the last handful of pages, no matter how repulsed I was. Had I read this book first, I would not be considering more of Koontz’s work. I do hope that this book is an outlier. I hope that his newer works resemble ‘The Darkest Evening Of The Year’ instead of ‘The Vision’.