Tommy Phan is living the American Dream. He was a reporter, now he’s a self-employed detective novelist working from the comfort of his home. With his new, larger salary, he is able to buy a corvette and fulfill his childhood dream. Although Phan is Vietnamese by birth, he thinks of himself more as an American. He actually wants to be just an American. However, Phan’s desire to “Americanize” himself doesn’t sit well with his family, especially his mother, since they live according to simple Vietnamese tradition. Phan’s stubborn mother feels that the typical American lifestyle, full of fast cars, wild women, and greasy burgers, will kill Tommy if he doesn’t change his ways.That night, after taking his corvette for a spin, Tommy returns home to find a strange doll sitting on his doorstep. It’s covered completely in white cloth, except for the eyes and mouth, and the area over the hearts, which are marked by black stitches forming an X. Perturbed, he takes it inside. Later that evening, as he sits down to edit one of his novels-in-progress, he hears a strange ripping sound and turns to see the doll, which he had laid on his desk, writhing, as if it were alive. The stitches over its heart begin to break and the fabric begins to tear. As Tommy watches, something terrible emerges from within the doll; something absolutely horrible that hunts Tommy wherever he goes, and can’t be stopped. He doesn’t know what it is. What he knows is that it’s after him and it wants his soul. He knows that if it catches him, he will experience something infinitely worse that death.As he flees for his life, running from place to place and trying to stay ahead of the monstrosity that tracks him, his only friend is a waitress. She is the epitome of strange, and she has an unnerving amount of lifesaving intuition, but, nevertheless, she an ally in a time of need. For reasons he can’t understand, she helps him skirt death at the hands of a supernatural being without a second thought. So many questions need to be answered, but time is running out for Tommy. For the evil, and extremely clever little doll left a message for Tommy on his computer screen: The deadline is dawn.
This book Tick Tock by Dean Koontz is a pretty thrilling book that is about a Vietnamese man named Tommy who lives alone with his dog named Del who got visited by a small rag voodoo doll right on his doorstep. The doll had a crossed black stitches for its mouth, eyes plus the heart and entirely had a white cloth on, he was curious whether to keep the doll or not. What he didnt know was that the rag voodoo doll is evil, the mission for the rag voodoo doll was to follow and kill Tommy as soon as possible. When he found out the rag voodoo doll is not just a simple doll, he tried to find clues and reasons why the rag voodoo doll is out chasing him and why it's trying to take his life, he started meeting new people like, the Waitress that he later on love. Both him and the waitress and also his dog Del were scared out of their lifes. Tommy had only small time to live because according to the rag voodoo doll's message that was shown in his computer screen, the deadline is dawn and time was running out. He didnt know what to do and didnt know what the rag doll wanted from him but at the end Tommy's dog Del died and the rag voodoo doll was destroyed by the help of his mother and his mother's friend who he thought was the cause of all the trouble that he went through with the doll.
What do You think about Tick Tock (1996)?
"Tick Tock" by Dean Koontz, was one of my favorite books to read. It is also an adult level book so if your someone who likes to read books that are a higher reading level this is the book to pick. I am one of those people who love's suspense and this is deffinetly one of those books. I first started reading Dean Koontz books when I was in 6th grade, and in 7th grade I had read this book and I never wanted to put it down. I think that if you are someone who likes books that can catch your eye and makes you not want to put it down till you get to the end you should read this book. It doesn't only leave you wondering what will happen next, but it also want's to make you pick up another book by the author Dean Koontz. If I were to rate this book I would give it a five because I liked it so much, and I think that you will enjoy this book very much! You should all give it a try.
—Kirstin
I don't recall having read anything by Dean Koontz before. As far as I'm aware, he is regarded as a second-rate version of Stephen King. I am fairly sure I got this impression from my mother, for whom I picked up a copy of Ticktock from a second hand store. Anyway, reading the cover caught my interest and I decided to read it before handing it over.My initial impression was that Koontz over-described everything. You could cut this 300 page book down to 200 pages and not skip a beat. I've since been told that this is somewhat of a trademark for Koontz. It got a little tedious at times, but it wasn't that bad.Despite that, I liked the story. The characters were likeable and while perhaps an evil doll coming to life is a standard in horror, the pace was nice (despite being wordy) and the story kicked off right from the beginning and kept moving. It pains me to say that around mid-chapter eight I got a sense of the end coming and I knew it was going to be bad. The story of the devil doll wrapped up nicely but there is a section thereafter concerning the protagonist and his love interest and well... It was just that bad. I did enjoy reading Ticktock overall but the ending was horrible. It's a damn shame, too.
—Matt
Fortunately, this wasn't my first Dean Koontz book. If it were, it would be my first...and my last. Normally, I can count on Koontz to provide me with a chilling story, a taut plot, and unforgettable characters. Now, I just want to forget this whole thing.By his own admission in the introduction, Koontz wanted to do something different with this book. He sought to meld together a variety of genres and write a light-hearted, romantic, horror story. If that sounds a bit strange, that's the perfect explanation of this book. Just strange.Tommy Phan is a first-generation American, trying desperately to forget his Vietnamese heritage. He buys a Corvette and goes home to find a doll on his porch. The doll turns out to be a demon that tries to kill him. He tries to escape, wrecks his Corvette, and is rescued by a waitress with paranormal powers.A bizarre plot sequence. The mix in genres was unsettling to me and the book never really got any better than just "okay". Because I know what a master Koontz is, I'll have to research better and not read any more of his literary experiments. "Tick Tock", for me, meant watching the clock drag by as I tried to finish this story.
—C.C. Thomas
