Name: In Odd We Trust
ISBN: 9780345499660

Dean Ray Koontz

Queenie Chan

Odd Thomas, a fry cook from Pico Mundo, California, must use his talent to communicate with the dead to solve the murder of a young boy whose killer may now be stalking a second child.

In Odd We Trust

Colton Ray

Somehow I liked this adaptation better than the novel.

This is a graphic novel that is a prequel to a popular book series, Odd Thomas. In my opinion, the first book of the series had some great ideas, but fell flat due to annoying writing quirks and unrealistic characters. 

I'm not sure I understand why it was adapted in this style. Nothing about Odd Thomas ever screamed "manga" to me, but apparently it got the author's blessing. I've never really loved the manga style, but the illustrator here showed restraint in that there was a minimal amount of the cliche things usually present in manga novels. There are still lots of sweat drops, exagerrated facial expressions, and overly cute faces, but it was nothing too unbearable. Thank God it's not printed in the usual backwards style like most manga I've seen, as that's practically unreadable. 

The story is a simple one in which a killer is on the loose, and Odd has to stop him. It moves pretty quickly and is interesting, if not particularly incredible. The villain is just your standard psycho with little motive beyond being evil for evil's sake. I think the story could have ended a little quicker when our heroes had the killer literally trapped in his own van with a police officer mere yards away, yet they choose to just... let him drive away? I don't know, that plot point kind of bothered me, as they could have easily apprehended the guy but just didn't.

The smugness that was so off-putting to me in the novels is hardly present here. Odd no longer comes off as weird for the sake of being weird. Here, he's just an average guy who's good with little kids and has an unerring sense of duty. Now, Stormy is not only Odd's "soul mate", she's his "destiny." Agh, I just can't take this kind of dialogue seriously -- Odd and Stormy may very well love each other, but the words put in their mouths still make me want to gag for want of cheesiness.

Overall, this is a quick read. If you liked the novels, you'll likely be interested in this short prequel. It's not a waste of time. It's fairly average.

Megan McGuire

Rhiannon Mansfield

Tim Pennington-Russell

Dean Koontz

The first graphic novel from Dean Koontz, featuring the famously well-loved character of Odd Thomas.