Wilderness

This short piece is very well-written and captivating. Eight-year-old Addison is so physically grotesque that his own mother can't bear to be around him and he so frightens a hunter, the only other human being to see him as he is wandering in the woods, that this man wants to kill him. This is a quick read, really only an introduction to Addison more than anything else, and a segue into Koontz's full-length novel, Innocence. Nevertheless, the progressive pacing and the mystery behind Addison's physical features to enrage others has you on edge. You also are wondering the whole time how monstrous Addison must appear that they can't bear to look at him.

This is one problem I had with the story--Koontz never shows us what Addison looks like. I found that a bit frustrating as he never does in the subsequent novel either, which makes the experience a bit confusing and hard to fully appreciate. Also, this short piece is so full of adrenaline so that when we get to the ending, that tension is so abruptly cut away from that we are left a bit in bafflement--not a good way to end the story. But the writing style and character development is stellar.