Tick Tock (Jessica Rollend)

Title: Ticktock
Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: Bantam Dell
Pages: 335

I chose to read this book because it’s by Dean Koontz, and he’s my favorite author. I love his writing style and science-fiction comedy books. The summary on the back of the book sounded really interesting, and that’s why I chose this particular book out of all the Dean Koontz books I own.

In the book, Tommy, a Vietnamese-American, is finally achieving his greatest American dream: buying a new corvette. A mysterious doll is found on his doorstep the same day he achieves this goal, and he brings it inside. When Tommy looks away, the doll becomes animate and leaves a message on his computer screen that says, “The deadline is dawn. Ticktock.” After swallowing a bullet from Tommy’s gun, the doll runs off and starts to feed on animals and humans, taking their form and growing bigger each time. When the doll destroys Tommy’s new corvette, Tommy runs for his life, or rather, runs right into Deliverance Payne, a quirky, mysterious girl with a funny name, that he met only hours ago in a diner. Can she save him, or is she just a raving lunatic that happens to know everything about demonic dolls? Either way, Tommy needs to stay alive until dawn, or the demon-doll will kill him for sure.

This book is written for young adults and adults that are interesting in science-fiction, but love to laugh at awkward romance and family situations. It’s a science-fiction comedy and has some basic information in it about the Vietnam War that you would need to know to fully comprehend the main character.

Dean Koontz’s writing style incorporates a lot of action-based analogies. For example, when Tommy is fighting the demon-doll, Koontz writes, “It would catch him, climb his leg and his back with centipede-like quickness, bite the nape of his neck, slip around to his throat, and burrow-for-chew-at-tear-out his carotid artery while he flailed ineffectively—or it would scramble straight over his head, intent upon gouging out his eyes,” (73).

One part of the book that really made me laugh was when Tommy and Deliverance went to a convenience store to find something to fix her van’s window. Even though they were being hunted down by a demonic doll, Del randomly kept insisting that Tommy needed to buy some tofu to keep his prostate healthy, even though he might not survive the night. He’s a writer and usually has something witty to say, but with her, she always keeps him on his toes and he never gets the chance to say anything to refute her. After Del tells the cashier that Tommy worries about his prostate, Tommy thinks to himself that he, “would have replied instantly, and with a playful witticism that would have charmed her…[He] blinked stupidly at Del, racked his brain, but could think of nothing to say,” (120). After this part of the story, more comedy is included and you know that Tommy is falling in love with Del, even if he thinks she’s crazy.

Another part I like is when Tommy is talking to his stubborn mother. She’s a traditionalist, and is disappointed in Tommy for trying to be American when he was born in Vietnam. Tommy tries to tell her about his new corvette, but the conversation ends up going like this:
“‘Mom, I bought a new corvette!’
‘What’s this corvette?’
‘You know, Mom. A car. A sports car.’
‘You bought sports car?’
‘Remember, I always said if I was a big success someday--‘
‘What sport?’
‘Huh?’
‘Football?’” (7).
I like this part because it’s funny, and shows that Tommy is more willing to adapt to American culture than his mother is. It also shows the reader the trouble Tommy has with his family.

Another part that I like in the story is when Del shows Tommy her paintings that she made of him. He freaks out because they had only met the night before and had been together since then, so she wouldn’t have had time to paint them. He asks her when she painted them and she says, “Over the past two years. That’s how long I’ve been having dreams about you. I knew you were the one, my destiny, and then last night you just walked into the restaurant and ordered two cheeseburgers,” (329). I like this part because it’s a comic-relief sentence. It’s funny and the all-too-seriousness of the story dissipates fairly quickly and reminds you of how quirky Del is.

I believe that the theme is to have an equal balance of everything in your life. Tommy is really striving to conform to Americanism, but his family is disappointed in him for not honoring his Vietnamese roots. If he had a balance between the two, he would have his family’s trust, and still have a corvette that wasn’t trashed by a demon. Deliverance is a good example of someone who’s balanced. She was born into a wealthy family, but still works at a diner to resume a typical life like everyone else, even though she doesn’t need the job.

I would give Ticktock an A+ because it is now my favorite book and is by my favorite author. I would recommend it to many people because of the wide range of genres that can be found in the book. Its science fiction, comedy, and a love story all tied into one, and it’s written really well. I read it in two days because it’s fast paced and exciting. It’s hard to stop reading because there’s always that paranoid feeling that you get when the demon-doll hasn’t been mentioned for a few pages. You never know when to expect it’s presence, and this makes you want to keep reading.