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Rating: 
Summary: Lives Up to Its Name
Review: Dean Koontz's novel Intensity is a fine bit of suspenseful writing that hits the mark completly. The story involves a woman named Chyna Sheppard who is caught in the middle of a gruesome killers murder of his best friend and her parents while she is visiting. Miraculously and somewhat implausably she avoids detection by the killer and stows away on his RV. What ensues is a relentless and and driving thriller that doesn't let up. The novel is truly an intense read. Their is about 15 pages of calm before Koontz dives into the action. Some reviewers have said this book is boring, but I have a hard time seeing how this book is boring. Even the part where she is in his house and we get development of her character is not boring, but expertly handled. Koontz uses the age old suspense building technique of waiting to drive the reader crazy with suspense. The most memorable scene in the novel is when Chyna takes care of Vess's dogs. I'll remember that one for a long time. The only negatives I feel the book has is some rather convient set of circumstances that allows Chyna to get on the trail of the killer. Not terrible but somewhat implausable. Overall this is a first rate thriller and the best Koontz I have read.
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Summary: Dean Koontz--Intensity (1995)
Review: One of the simpler stories conceived by horror-suspense great Dean Koontz, "Intensity" is a rip-roaring, overpowering, do-not-read-alone-during-the-night tale that solidified him as one of the best of his time. Chyna Shepherd is ready to move on with her life, forget the past, and begin anew as a strong, dedication woman. While spending the weekend with her best graduate school friend, Chyna can not sleep and feels as if something is just not right. Past midnight, the family is tormented by an evil killer who proceeds to slay everyone but her. First driven by absolute fear, Chyna hides inside the maniacal sociopath's trailer--realizing that the only way to survive is to fight back. While hiding from the hideous Edgler Foreman Vess (it even sounds scary!), Chyna learns that her friend's family were not the only victims he planned for the near future, for a young girl is trapped inside a realm of darkness and at the brink of being Vess's prey--brutalized and slaughtered. The tough protagonist searches deep down into her soul for the strength to in hopes defeat this unbearable evil, only to eventually find herself in Vess's home and in a hell that she could never foresee. Chyna Shepherd is arguably his most developed character, weaving her in and out of horrors while brilliantly connecting her troubled past with the dedication and resolve to try and sacrifice herself for the life of someone else. Edgler Foreman Vess is equally as effective as the enemy as Chyna is the heroine. He is a homicidal adventurist who lives only to satisfy his gruesome needs of intensity, sensation, and death. The moments throughout the novel when the readers learn the thoughts and motives of Vess are truly horrific and disturbing, mainly when Koontz uses innocence as the victim. "Intensity" is perhaps his most authoritative novel, pouncing on the audience within the first few pages, increasing the shockingly readable twists and turns with every chapter. It is a work that is hard to read, even harder to comprehend the iniquity that Chyna is up against; but it is a masterful illustration of perseverence, insistence, and strength. A certain all-nighter of a tale, "Intensity" will rock you.
Rating:
Summary: vintage Koontz
Review: The title of this novel says it all. This story is intense! It's because of novels like this that Dean Koontz is called the master of suspense. This whole story is basically like one endless unbroken chase scene. It's quite possibly the most suspenseful novel I can remember ever reading. David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"
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