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Tuesday, December 31, 2019

#ATBR2019 Review: The Forbidden Door by Dean Koontz @jessmapreviews #bravethebacklist #fallintomybacklist

The Forbidden Door 
by Dean Koontz


Publisher: Bantam
Publish Date: September 11, 2018
Hardcover
467 Pages
Series: Jane Hawk #4
Genres: Thriller, Suspense

“We’re rewriting the play, and the play is this country, the world, the future. We break Jane’s heart, we’ll also break her will.”
She was one of the FBI’s top agents until she became the nation’s most-wanted fugitive. Now Jane Hawk may be all that stands between a free nation and its enslavement by a powerful secret society’s terrifying mind-control technology. She couldn’t save her husband, or the others whose lives have been destroyed, but equipped with superior tactical and survival skills—and the fury born of a broken heart and a hunger for justice—Jane has struck major blows against the insidious cabal.
But Jane’s enemies are about to hit back hard. If their best operatives can’t outrun her, they mean to bring her running to them, using her five-year-old son as bait. Jane knows there’s no underestimating their capabilities, but she must battle her way back across the country to the remote shelter where her boy is safely hidden . . . for now.
As she moves resolutely forward, new threats begin to emerge: a growing number of brain-altered victims driven hopelessly, violently insane. With the madness spreading like a virus, the war between Jane and her enemies will become a fight for all their lives—against the lethal terror unleashed from behind the forbidden door.
My Review:
OH Koontz.... I'm still unsure whether I prefer his standalones or his series.  His Odd Thomas series and Jane Hawk make me fall in love with these characters but sometimes I wonder if it's dragging out just a *little* too much.  Yes, I fall into that category sometimes with thrillers where the standalones almost feel rushed for the story they're trying to tell... SO, I adore that Koontz is giving us the full on story of Hawk.  But unfortunately like with most series, some fall short where others really leave you hanging.
Book three really gave me an OMG, NOW WHAT feeling when I finished and now here we are, at book four, setting us for what I believe is the final installment in book five.  We still get that go go go feeling where Hawk has to leap frog through various obstacles to take one more step to get where she needs to go. And listen, NOTHING WILL STOP A MOTHER FROM GETTING TO THEIR CHILD.  Especially ones with the skills Hawk has. 
My absolute favorite parts of this book were the chapters with Travis (Hawk's son) and Cornell.  Oh my heart. This is where Koontz shines.  And yes y'all, dogs are involved - as they are with most of his books and I don't care - I LOVE IT ALL. 
What can I really say?  This one feels a bit like a filler book like book 2 did... but much better executed.  I do highly recommend these are read in order or you will be lost.  I am definitely involved with this whole story line and am rooting for Hawk in her endeavors.  Luckily I have book 5 on my shelf so I can finally see how this whole shin dig goes down!
★★★☆
Jessica's Review:

This is book four in the Jane Hawk series from Dean Koontz and I highly recommend starting with book one in this series (The Silent Corner) because there are a lot of details that you’ll need as well as character development to be able to follow along the best. Going into this I was thinking book four might be the final book in the series, but with the events that happened there is definitely going to be at least one more.
Jane Hawk is back and just as fierce and bad ass as she was in the rest of the series. I think she really is the best part of the series – I know the events are suspenseful and crazy because (at least in book one) the events felt entirely possible. Trying to fight an all-powerful society that is putting out mind-control technology is still after her. Going from a respected FBI agent to the most wanted fugitive, she has her work cut out for her. She’s still on the run and continues to hit more obstacles in her quest to bring down this society before they can release a virus (similar to the 28 days later virus).
This series seems to have been hit or miss for me – I loved book one, book two was my least favorite (upon further review and going back to the book) and felt more like filler to get us to the next book, and book three was really good! This one seemed to have a lot more detail that didn’t completely progress the story but it was still a read that kept my attention. I’ll be curious to see where book five goes and if it will end up finishing the series!
3 stars

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