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Your Heart Belongs to Me
From the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense comes a riveting thriller that probes the deepest terrors of the human psyche—and the ineffable mystery of what truly makes us who we are. Here a brilliant young man finds himself fighting for his very existence in a battle that starts with the most frightening words of all…
At thirty-four, Internet entrepreneur Ryan Perry seemed to have the world in his pocket—until the first troubling symptoms appeared out of nowhere. Within days, he’s diagnosed with incurable cardiomyopathy and finds himself on the waiting list for a heart transplant; it’s his only hope, and it’s dwindling fast. Ryan is about to lose it all…his health, his girlfriend Samantha, and his life.
One year later, Ryan has never felt better. Business is good and he hopes to renew his relationship with Samantha. Then the unmarked gifts begin to appear—a box of Valentine candy hearts, a heart pendant. Most disturbing of all, a graphic heart surgery video and the chilling message: Your heart belongs to me.
In a heartbeat, the medical miracle that gave Ryan a second chance at life is about to become a curse worse than death. For Ryan is being stalked by a mysterious woman who feels entitled to everything he has. She’s the spitting image of the twenty-six-year-old donor of the heart beating steadily in Ryan’s chest. And she's come to take it back.
From the Hardcover edition.
At thirty-four, Internet entrepreneur Ryan Perry seemed to have the world in his pocket—until the first troubling symptoms appeared out of nowhere. Within days, he’s diagnosed with incurable cardiomyopathy and finds himself on the waiting list for a heart transplant; it’s his only hope, and it’s dwindling fast. Ryan is about to lose it all…his health, his girlfriend Samantha, and his life.
One year later, Ryan has never felt better. Business is good and he hopes to renew his relationship with Samantha. Then the unmarked gifts begin to appear—a box of Valentine candy hearts, a heart pendant. Most disturbing of all, a graphic heart surgery video and the chilling message: Your heart belongs to me.
In a heartbeat, the medical miracle that gave Ryan a second chance at life is about to become a curse worse than death. For Ryan is being stalked by a mysterious woman who feels entitled to everything he has. She’s the spitting image of the twenty-six-year-old donor of the heart beating steadily in Ryan’s chest. And she's come to take it back.
From the Hardcover edition.
364 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
553 people are currently reading
6254 people want to read
About the author
Dean Koontz
906 books39.6k followersAcknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.
Dean, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.
Facebook: Facebook.com/DeanKoontzOfficial
Twitter: @DeanKoontz
Website: DeanKoontz.com
Dean, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.
Facebook: Facebook.com/DeanKoontzOfficial
Twitter: @DeanKoontz
Website: DeanKoontz.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,366 reviews
August 20, 2023
I’ve read more DK novels than I can count. I stopped some years ago, and threw myself back in again fairly recently—rereading his brilliant classics, as well as visiting his new material.
I really wanted to like this one. I think the premise is fascinating and the villain seems formidable. But by about halfway through, I seriously had to doubt where the author was going. It completely fell off after that, and turned into some weird subliminal message about "subtext" that made zero sense. The main character's girlfriend comes off as a complete asshole.
I enjoy DK's libertarian streak, so seeing this veer into an anti-capitalist rant (the man is fighting for his damn life, wtf) was supremely disappointing.
The ending is godawful. I won’t spoil it for others, except to say that the conclusion is his worst ever. As in, makes zero sense. Basically, after all that…that?!?
Unless you're a masochist, avoid this like the plague. He has so many other selections that are absolutely worth reading. This is not one of them.
I really wanted to like this one. I think the premise is fascinating and the villain seems formidable. But by about halfway through, I seriously had to doubt where the author was going. It completely fell off after that, and turned into some weird subliminal message about "subtext" that made zero sense. The main character's girlfriend comes off as a complete asshole.
I enjoy DK's libertarian streak, so seeing this veer into an anti-capitalist rant (the man is fighting for his damn life, wtf) was supremely disappointing.
The ending is godawful. I won’t spoil it for others, except to say that the conclusion is his worst ever. As in, makes zero sense. Basically, after all that…that?!?
Unless you're a masochist, avoid this like the plague. He has so many other selections that are absolutely worth reading. This is not one of them.
October 26, 2009
Gah! Is someone going to come up with a cure for my compulsion to force myself to finish books that suck? I am a fan of Koontz, but this one is not worthy of a recommendation.
Ryan is a 30 something dotcom phenom. He starts to have heart problems and becomes paranoid that someone close to him is poisoning him, because he has barrels of money. It turns out he needs a transplant. He gets hooked up with a doctor that will get him on the top of the list 'at any cost'. He tells no one about his issues or his plan, save his girlfriend who he phones on the way to get the new heart. We flash forward a year and this is where it all falls apart. He has not talked to his girlfriend in 9 months, but we never get know what happened. Someone is trying to kill him. His parents are a**holes. His girlfriend has published a novel and he keeps reading it over and over hoping to find a clue as to why she left. He keeps thinking about her telling him about writing and using subtext so whatever you are trying to say is implied the reader. This is how the whole damn book is! Nothing is ever said or explained, unless you want to know a 4 paragraph description of the interior of a room or the weather. There is this whole side story of this freak that does assisted suicides and also keeps preserved cadavers in his home for decoration. This part is interesting, but it falls flat because it has no relevance to story at all. In the end, we find who wants to kill him, but it is stupid!
Ryan is a 30 something dotcom phenom. He starts to have heart problems and becomes paranoid that someone close to him is poisoning him, because he has barrels of money. It turns out he needs a transplant. He gets hooked up with a doctor that will get him on the top of the list 'at any cost'. He tells no one about his issues or his plan, save his girlfriend who he phones on the way to get the new heart. We flash forward a year and this is where it all falls apart. He has not talked to his girlfriend in 9 months, but we never get know what happened. Someone is trying to kill him. His parents are a**holes. His girlfriend has published a novel and he keeps reading it over and over hoping to find a clue as to why she left. He keeps thinking about her telling him about writing and using subtext so whatever you are trying to say is implied the reader. This is how the whole damn book is! Nothing is ever said or explained, unless you want to know a 4 paragraph description of the interior of a room or the weather. There is this whole side story of this freak that does assisted suicides and also keeps preserved cadavers in his home for decoration. This part is interesting, but it falls flat because it has no relevance to story at all. In the end, we find who wants to kill him, but it is stupid!
August 1, 2010
Another horrible creation from Dean Koontz. Once one of my favorite guilty pleasures - his books, while flawed, were entertaining. But now? Dissing his new novels is so easy it's not even funny.
Your Heart Belongs to Me (2008) is an attempt at a medical thriller, in the vein of Tess Gerritsen and Robin Cook. The premise is as follows: Ryan Perry, a 34 year old disgustingly rich guy has a heart problem and is in desperate need of a transplant. He recieves one, but soon starts receiving messages from the whoman whose heart beats inside his chest.
She wants it back.
Sounds interesting? Sure it does. Koontz has a great idea, and his The House of Thunder is also a medical thriler which proven to be highly suspenseful, so I expected great fun, But then I remembered that THOT was written in 82.
"Your Heart" introduces two brand new cardboards: Ryan Perry and Samantha whatshername. Ryan is introduced as a millionaire, "richer than most kings", because he created a social networking site called Be2Do. At 34 he's the King of the world, which basically means that he carries a hard on for his girlfriend and carries out insane conversation with her. And he has a corporate jet.
Samantha is a struggling author, though she's able to work the hours she wants, because you see, life is good.
"Now, on this Wednesday morning, he said, “Pumping six-footers, glassy and epic, sunshine that feels its way deep into your bones.”
“I’ve got a deadline to meet.”
“You’re too young for all this talk about death.”
“Are you riding another train of manic insomnia?”
“Slept like a baby. And I don’t mean in a wet diaper.”
“When you’re sleep-deprived, you’re treacherous on a board.”
“I may be radical, but never treacherous.”
“Totally insane, like with the shark.”
“That again. That was nothing.”
“Just a great white.”
“Well, the bastard bit a huge chunk out of my board.”
“And—what?—you were determined to get it back?”
“I wiped out,” Ryan said, “I’m under the wave, in the murk, grabbin’ for air, my hand closes around what I think is the skeg.”
The skeg, a fixed fin on the bottom of a surfboard, holds the stern of the board in the wave and allows the rider to steer.
What Ryan actually grabbed was the shark’s dorsal fin.
Samantha said, “What kind of kamikaze rides a shark?”
“I wasn’t riding. I was taken for a ride.”
“He surfaced, tried to shake you off, you rode him back down.”
“Afraid to let go. Anyway, it lasted like only twenty seconds.”
“Insomnia makes most people sluggish. It makes you hyper.”
“I hibernated last night. I’m as rested as a bear in spring.”
She said, “In a circus once, I saw a bear riding a tricycle.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“It was funnier than watching an idiot ride a shark.”"
I once read that Koontz bases his characters on his real life friends. I don't know who he knows, but he sure oughta make some new acquaintances becuase his characters always talk nonsense 24/7. What's more, Koontz awful descriptions take the cake:
"She was as perfect as a mirage, blond hair and golden form, a quiver of light, an alluring oasis on the wide slope of the sun-seared sand." '
"beauty of a degree that seemed mythological, radiant eyes the precise shade of a green sea patinaed by the blue of a summer sky, golden hair crowned with a corona of sunlight, goddess on a holiday from Olympus."
"The only leaf shadows that touched Samantha's face were braided across her golden hair and brow, as though she wore the wreath of Nature's approval."
"The sun searched her eyes and revealed in them the blue of the sky, the green of the sea, the delight of being in harmony with millions of tons of water pushed shorward by storms three thousand miles away and by the moon now looming on the dark side of the earth."
I once admired Koontz for being able to describe a scene in vivid, almost cinematic detail. But now his writing is so fake, so forced you can literally see how he thinks for hours about every word and where it might be in his collection of thesauruses. He lost the ability to pace the story with natural flow, to use words in a way that appeals to readers; it's a wonder that he doesn't include a footnote saying "Yes. I'm THAT good".
Maybe he has " green eyes in which the striations were like the bevels in a pair of intricately cut emeralds" - yes, that's a quote too.
As the plot thickens, Ryan changes his doctor and subscribes to a International Organ Donor List. After a month (that's crucial) he receivesa heart transplant from a woman who had a crash and is in vegetative state. Ryan goes to Shanghai, gets his transplant, and Koontz skips a year.
We met Richie Ryan and it turns out that even though he's healthy, his girlfriend has left him. Why? Because apparently that's what people do their friends and lovers when they are in need. Koontz spent 200 completely pointless pages of Ryan investigating her mom, dad and dead sister, because he thought that one of them has poisoned him (my guess it was the sister) so maybe Sam learned about it and left him afterwards - who wouldn't?
However, the fun starts here.:
"The approaching swell might have been the arching back of some scaly leviathan, larger than a thousand sharks, born in the deep but rising now to feed upon the sunlit world."
Ryan receives gifts from a woman who claims that the heart belongs to her. I'll skip the unnecessary subplots, because believe me, they ARE unnecessary, and the big mystery is slowly unveiled.
It turns out that Ryan got his heart from a murdered political prisoner in China, a woman named Lily, who was put in prison because she practiced Falung Gong. The woman who haunted Ryan was her sister, Violet. Violet is pissed off at Ryan because apparently he didn't caught the "subtext" (his transplant was way too fast, ya know) and they killed her sister to get him his heart. She's a also a governemnt agent - yeah, really. Ryan, a desperate man who was left with less than a year, was supposed to say "no" to a transplant that would save his life. In his place I'd bought a gun and shot myself in the head. Wouldn't you?
Violet trashes Ryan around, shots him in the foot and goes out somewhere because Koontz just can't kill the main character and has preaching plans instead for him.
Again a year, two, three or ten pass and we see Samantha visiting Ryan in the orphanage he now runs. Samantha of course is a bestselling novelist (as every writer in Koontz's books). It turns out that Ryan gave away all his money, because he felt that what happened to poor Lily was his fault, because he didn't get the "subtext". He urges Samantha to marry someone else, and kicks her out of the orphanage. When you think it just can't get any worse, a golden retriever marches in.
"Your Heart Belongs to me" is not a " riveting thriller that probes the deepest terrors of the human psyche" - it's a joke. Koontz hacks out cliche after cliche, and ends it in the worst of all possible ways - instead of using his money to prevent cases like his from happening, Ryangives it all away hides in an orphanage with Golden retrievers and disabled kids which are supposed to bring him solace. I don't know why; propably he feels guilty, because he's completely innocent. I don't know how Koontz made up this ending since it's a paradox, but I think it had a lot to do with petting his favorite dog.
A tedious, miserable hogwash. I don't know what happened to the old bald guy with a moustache but I'd sure like to see him back, since this new one surely is a miserable writer.
Your Heart Belongs to Me (2008) is an attempt at a medical thriller, in the vein of Tess Gerritsen and Robin Cook. The premise is as follows: Ryan Perry, a 34 year old disgustingly rich guy has a heart problem and is in desperate need of a transplant. He recieves one, but soon starts receiving messages from the whoman whose heart beats inside his chest.
She wants it back.
Sounds interesting? Sure it does. Koontz has a great idea, and his The House of Thunder is also a medical thriler which proven to be highly suspenseful, so I expected great fun, But then I remembered that THOT was written in 82.
"Your Heart" introduces two brand new cardboards: Ryan Perry and Samantha whatshername. Ryan is introduced as a millionaire, "richer than most kings", because he created a social networking site called Be2Do. At 34 he's the King of the world, which basically means that he carries a hard on for his girlfriend and carries out insane conversation with her. And he has a corporate jet.
Samantha is a struggling author, though she's able to work the hours she wants, because you see, life is good.
"Now, on this Wednesday morning, he said, “Pumping six-footers, glassy and epic, sunshine that feels its way deep into your bones.”
“I’ve got a deadline to meet.”
“You’re too young for all this talk about death.”
“Are you riding another train of manic insomnia?”
“Slept like a baby. And I don’t mean in a wet diaper.”
“When you’re sleep-deprived, you’re treacherous on a board.”
“I may be radical, but never treacherous.”
“Totally insane, like with the shark.”
“That again. That was nothing.”
“Just a great white.”
“Well, the bastard bit a huge chunk out of my board.”
“And—what?—you were determined to get it back?”
“I wiped out,” Ryan said, “I’m under the wave, in the murk, grabbin’ for air, my hand closes around what I think is the skeg.”
The skeg, a fixed fin on the bottom of a surfboard, holds the stern of the board in the wave and allows the rider to steer.
What Ryan actually grabbed was the shark’s dorsal fin.
Samantha said, “What kind of kamikaze rides a shark?”
“I wasn’t riding. I was taken for a ride.”
“He surfaced, tried to shake you off, you rode him back down.”
“Afraid to let go. Anyway, it lasted like only twenty seconds.”
“Insomnia makes most people sluggish. It makes you hyper.”
“I hibernated last night. I’m as rested as a bear in spring.”
She said, “In a circus once, I saw a bear riding a tricycle.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“It was funnier than watching an idiot ride a shark.”"
I once read that Koontz bases his characters on his real life friends. I don't know who he knows, but he sure oughta make some new acquaintances becuase his characters always talk nonsense 24/7. What's more, Koontz awful descriptions take the cake:
"She was as perfect as a mirage, blond hair and golden form, a quiver of light, an alluring oasis on the wide slope of the sun-seared sand." '
"beauty of a degree that seemed mythological, radiant eyes the precise shade of a green sea patinaed by the blue of a summer sky, golden hair crowned with a corona of sunlight, goddess on a holiday from Olympus."
"The only leaf shadows that touched Samantha's face were braided across her golden hair and brow, as though she wore the wreath of Nature's approval."
"The sun searched her eyes and revealed in them the blue of the sky, the green of the sea, the delight of being in harmony with millions of tons of water pushed shorward by storms three thousand miles away and by the moon now looming on the dark side of the earth."
I once admired Koontz for being able to describe a scene in vivid, almost cinematic detail. But now his writing is so fake, so forced you can literally see how he thinks for hours about every word and where it might be in his collection of thesauruses. He lost the ability to pace the story with natural flow, to use words in a way that appeals to readers; it's a wonder that he doesn't include a footnote saying "Yes. I'm THAT good".
Maybe he has " green eyes in which the striations were like the bevels in a pair of intricately cut emeralds" - yes, that's a quote too.
As the plot thickens, Ryan changes his doctor and subscribes to a International Organ Donor List. After a month (that's crucial) he receivesa heart transplant from a woman who had a crash and is in vegetative state. Ryan goes to Shanghai, gets his transplant, and Koontz skips a year.
We met Richie Ryan and it turns out that even though he's healthy, his girlfriend has left him. Why? Because apparently that's what people do their friends and lovers when they are in need. Koontz spent 200 completely pointless pages of Ryan investigating her mom, dad and dead sister, because he thought that one of them has poisoned him (my guess it was the sister) so maybe Sam learned about it and left him afterwards - who wouldn't?
However, the fun starts here.:
"The approaching swell might have been the arching back of some scaly leviathan, larger than a thousand sharks, born in the deep but rising now to feed upon the sunlit world."
Ryan receives gifts from a woman who claims that the heart belongs to her. I'll skip the unnecessary subplots, because believe me, they ARE unnecessary, and the big mystery is slowly unveiled.
It turns out that Ryan got his heart from a murdered political prisoner in China, a woman named Lily, who was put in prison because she practiced Falung Gong. The woman who haunted Ryan was her sister, Violet. Violet is pissed off at Ryan because apparently he didn't caught the "subtext" (his transplant was way too fast, ya know) and they killed her sister to get him his heart. She's a also a governemnt agent - yeah, really. Ryan, a desperate man who was left with less than a year, was supposed to say "no" to a transplant that would save his life. In his place I'd bought a gun and shot myself in the head. Wouldn't you?
Violet trashes Ryan around, shots him in the foot and goes out somewhere because Koontz just can't kill the main character and has preaching plans instead for him.
Again a year, two, three or ten pass and we see Samantha visiting Ryan in the orphanage he now runs. Samantha of course is a bestselling novelist (as every writer in Koontz's books). It turns out that Ryan gave away all his money, because he felt that what happened to poor Lily was his fault, because he didn't get the "subtext". He urges Samantha to marry someone else, and kicks her out of the orphanage. When you think it just can't get any worse, a golden retriever marches in.
"Your Heart Belongs to me" is not a " riveting thriller that probes the deepest terrors of the human psyche" - it's a joke. Koontz hacks out cliche after cliche, and ends it in the worst of all possible ways - instead of using his money to prevent cases like his from happening, Ryangives it all away hides in an orphanage with Golden retrievers and disabled kids which are supposed to bring him solace. I don't know why; propably he feels guilty, because he's completely innocent. I don't know how Koontz made up this ending since it's a paradox, but I think it had a lot to do with petting his favorite dog.
A tedious, miserable hogwash. I don't know what happened to the old bald guy with a moustache but I'd sure like to see him back, since this new one surely is a miserable writer.
November 28, 2008
I pretty much read this book in 2 sittings...I was that excited for some new Koontz. I thought it was great too. It's a great example of the new style of writing he has taken on in the past 5 years or so, yet totally unique in a sense that...I guess in a sense that he broke all the rules of classic storytelling. I literally turned page after page just wondering why he was taking the story where he was, and when it was all said and done I was sort of speechless. After finishing the book I felt like someone ought to after investing hours in a story. Read it.
February 23, 2022
Part thriller with elements of horror and the supernatural. The set up was interesting, but the middle dragged a bit. The conclusion was satisfying. Picked this up at our library's semi-annual book sale years ago. I'm trying to work through reading books on my TBR shelves before buying any more books. Wish me luck.
February 3, 2009
Your Heart Belongs to Me is about a 34 year old internet entrepreneur, Ryan Perry. He learns of a terrible medical condition that limits his life to a year if he doesn't receive a new heart. The first thing Ryan does is begin to search for an answer about his condition. Years later, Ryan is visited by a woman claiming that she wants her heart back. And she's willing to use violence to get it.
I loved this book! It had romance, it had drama and mystery. Koontz's use of the English language is AMAZING! I listened to the unabridged version of this book and the reader was incredible as well. The beginning of the book is a little slow, but the relationship that is painted so vividly between Samantha and Ryan is interesting. Their conversations almost always got a laugh out of me! I loved the way that they spoke to each other, and the quick wit between them. This book was not at all what I expected and that is a great compliment. There are a few complexities in the book, so I think that if I read/listened to it again, I might gain even more from it.
I loved this book! It had romance, it had drama and mystery. Koontz's use of the English language is AMAZING! I listened to the unabridged version of this book and the reader was incredible as well. The beginning of the book is a little slow, but the relationship that is painted so vividly between Samantha and Ryan is interesting. Their conversations almost always got a laugh out of me! I loved the way that they spoke to each other, and the quick wit between them. This book was not at all what I expected and that is a great compliment. There are a few complexities in the book, so I think that if I read/listened to it again, I might gain even more from it.
February 6, 2009
This was another Koontz dud to me. A rich, young internet guru suddenly starts having heart problems. But instead of accepting it as just "life sucks sometimes - even for the rich" he gets paranoid & starts thinking someone has done this to him, i.e. poisoning. So he tries to "take control" and find out who is plotting against him. Thus begins his downward spiral. For some reason, I just couldn't connect to this character or even commit to a decision - is he crazy or is he sane? There is very little action in this story - everything is told from his perspective with much descriptive prose. Very little dialogue and when there is finally action (and at last a bad guy) at the end, it was almost like an afterthought. Maybe I'm getting ADD as I get older, but I don't have much patience for all the descriptions & subtexts - just cut to the chase and tell the story! So maybe the problem was more me than the author with this book, but it was definitely not one of my favorites.
January 23, 2009
I have a saying that if you can make it through the first hundred pages of a Dean Koontz book, you won't be able to put it down. This book is a perfect example of that. Though it doesn't have the usual formula recognizable in many of Koontz' books (several different stories that are woven together just in time for a momentous conclusion), it does have the usual Koontz "surprise:" things are not what you thought they were.
In short, this had all of the things that I have come to love in Dean Koontz' works: the verbose descriptions, the painstaking detail that he uses to describe certain events or skills, and the depth that he gives to his central characters. But the best part is how his work reminds you of things in your own life, tragedies survived or triumphs savored, and the continuing struggle in the world of good versus evil.
It is funny how you can start out reading a Koontz book as a kind of escape, and by the end he brings you right back around to think about life, which leads to thinking about YOUR life.
Ryan, the central character, [spoiler alert:] has all of these signs, some would say he got messages. Some of the messages just came through ordinary people, some good people, some not so good, but they were definitely the messages that he needed. I think life is like that at times--we get little hints about what we are supposed to do-- do this nice deed, or avoid being angry or resentful about a certain event.
Dean Koontz isn't for everyone. A lot of people don't like the preternatural elements--- or the far-fetchedness (is that a word?) of his stories. Perhaps they would like one of his books that is more straight forward like The Husband. But fans of Dean Koontz will definitely like this one.
In short, this had all of the things that I have come to love in Dean Koontz' works: the verbose descriptions, the painstaking detail that he uses to describe certain events or skills, and the depth that he gives to his central characters. But the best part is how his work reminds you of things in your own life, tragedies survived or triumphs savored, and the continuing struggle in the world of good versus evil.
It is funny how you can start out reading a Koontz book as a kind of escape, and by the end he brings you right back around to think about life, which leads to thinking about YOUR life.
Ryan, the central character, [spoiler alert:] has all of these signs, some would say he got messages. Some of the messages just came through ordinary people, some good people, some not so good, but they were definitely the messages that he needed. I think life is like that at times--we get little hints about what we are supposed to do-- do this nice deed, or avoid being angry or resentful about a certain event.
Dean Koontz isn't for everyone. A lot of people don't like the preternatural elements--- or the far-fetchedness (is that a word?) of his stories. Perhaps they would like one of his books that is more straight forward like The Husband. But fans of Dean Koontz will definitely like this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 14, 2017
This one gets a star because I needed to rate it something to make a comment. If I could I'd give this one negative numbers...really, Mr. Koontz what were you thinking? Were there some bills due and you needed some quick cash or something?
Mr. Koontz has written some excellent reads...and then there are a few like this one. sigh
-1 star.
Mr. Koontz has written some excellent reads...and then there are a few like this one. sigh
-1 star.
July 10, 2018
Apologies on all of the Dean Koontz reviews today. I am just reading books as I find them in my messy under construction house. This has led me to re-read some Koontz books (really just skim since I have read them before). I forgot how much I disliked "Your Heart Belongs to Me" until my re-read of it. A main character who I didn't care for and a BS ending just made me roll my eyes. Koontz for once didn't have a HEA ending, but the whole book felt seriously out of sync.
A rich man named Ryan Perry has the whole world in his pocket. He has a woman he loves (Samantha) and can do anything he wants. Then he gets sick and gets diagnosed with something that is damaging his heart. If he doesn't get a heart transplant, he is going to die. Then Ryan starts to investigate how something could have caused him to get sick and then starts running scared from an unseen enemy. When Ryan meets with a doctor who promises he can get him on the top of a heart transplant list and damn the cost, the book goes sideways from there.
Ryan sucks. I really didn't like him and when we figure out as readers what happens and how Ryan was "saved" I really despised the guy. I can't recall Koontz ever writing a main character this way before. Ryan and Samantha are finished after his heart transplant and you are left wondering what the hell happened. When the book skips a year later we find out what Ryan has been up to and how he wants to reach out to Samantha again. When someone starts stalking Ryan and telling him that his heart belongs to her I maybe laughed a few times. The woman and the fear that Ryan has is not scary at all. I just felt bored and hoped that the woman ended up killing Ryan so something interesting would happen.
Samantha is perfection in literary form. Does Koontz know how to write women any other way these days? She is also a writer so when she and Ryan ends things, he spends a lot of time dissecting her work in order to read about the subtext behind her words. I hope you like the word subtext. I think it appeared like a billion times (sarcasm).
There are secondary characters I can't even recall or care about too much since in the end they don't matter. We have a red herring character who was just freaking odd and terrible. A mysterious nurse whose name I am blanking on.
I think the biggest issue I have with this book is that I don't think Koontz knows what it wanted it to be. We have Ryan who goes from being happy and in love with Samantha to then thinking she is all femme fatale. It doesn't ring true based on what Koontz shows us and we have to wade through a ridiculous amount of red herrings to figure out what is going on. The book was overly descriptive about things I did not give a damn about. At one point I wondered did I wander into a James Patterson novel (I stopped reading that guy years ago because I don't care to read about the thread count of people's fucking bedsheets) and felt really annoyed.
The dialogue was painful as hell to wade through. No one talks like this and stop it!
The flow was awful too. We just skipped a ton of stuff that I think was necessary to even get a gleam of figuring out what could possibly be happening.
As I said the ending was terrible. Koontz should have just went dark with things and been done with it. Also there are dogs and I maybe screamed a bit about that.
A rich man named Ryan Perry has the whole world in his pocket. He has a woman he loves (Samantha) and can do anything he wants. Then he gets sick and gets diagnosed with something that is damaging his heart. If he doesn't get a heart transplant, he is going to die. Then Ryan starts to investigate how something could have caused him to get sick and then starts running scared from an unseen enemy. When Ryan meets with a doctor who promises he can get him on the top of a heart transplant list and damn the cost, the book goes sideways from there.
Ryan sucks. I really didn't like him and when we figure out as readers what happens and how Ryan was "saved" I really despised the guy. I can't recall Koontz ever writing a main character this way before. Ryan and Samantha are finished after his heart transplant and you are left wondering what the hell happened. When the book skips a year later we find out what Ryan has been up to and how he wants to reach out to Samantha again. When someone starts stalking Ryan and telling him that his heart belongs to her I maybe laughed a few times. The woman and the fear that Ryan has is not scary at all. I just felt bored and hoped that the woman ended up killing Ryan so something interesting would happen.
Samantha is perfection in literary form. Does Koontz know how to write women any other way these days? She is also a writer so when she and Ryan ends things, he spends a lot of time dissecting her work in order to read about the subtext behind her words. I hope you like the word subtext. I think it appeared like a billion times (sarcasm).
There are secondary characters I can't even recall or care about too much since in the end they don't matter. We have a red herring character who was just freaking odd and terrible. A mysterious nurse whose name I am blanking on.
I think the biggest issue I have with this book is that I don't think Koontz knows what it wanted it to be. We have Ryan who goes from being happy and in love with Samantha to then thinking she is all femme fatale. It doesn't ring true based on what Koontz shows us and we have to wade through a ridiculous amount of red herrings to figure out what is going on. The book was overly descriptive about things I did not give a damn about. At one point I wondered did I wander into a James Patterson novel (I stopped reading that guy years ago because I don't care to read about the thread count of people's fucking bedsheets) and felt really annoyed.
The dialogue was painful as hell to wade through. No one talks like this and stop it!
The flow was awful too. We just skipped a ton of stuff that I think was necessary to even get a gleam of figuring out what could possibly be happening.
As I said the ending was terrible. Koontz should have just went dark with things and been done with it. Also there are dogs and I maybe screamed a bit about that.
November 10, 2025
The story starts off well but the conclusion is complete bollocks.
Ryan Perry is a dotcom billionaire who appears to have everything He has a beautiful girlfriend, great house and does nothing but surf, eat nice meals and show off his girlfriend. Then he finds he needs a new heart and sees conspiracies everywhere. He distrusts his girlfriend Sam, his doctors, staff and only trusts his security company and intuition.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Trusting his security company in vetting seemingly expertise was a mistake. Turns out his new doctor had a deal with the Chinese to use live donors! Unhappily for Ryan her sister is a Chinese Bourne Identity super spy. She decides not to execute him for using his billions to get a new heart because he is a bit thick and doesn’t realize where the heart came from. After he recovers and turns over a new leaf he meets his estranged girlfriend. She still loves him but not enough to stay with him. WTF.
Very readable if a bit navel gazing and elements of the supernatural. No dogs killed in the story.
Ryan Perry is a dotcom billionaire who appears to have everything He has a beautiful girlfriend, great house and does nothing but surf, eat nice meals and show off his girlfriend. Then he finds he needs a new heart and sees conspiracies everywhere. He distrusts his girlfriend Sam, his doctors, staff and only trusts his security company and intuition.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Trusting his security company in vetting seemingly expertise was a mistake. Turns out his new doctor had a deal with the Chinese to use live donors! Unhappily for Ryan her sister is a Chinese Bourne Identity super spy. She decides not to execute him for using his billions to get a new heart because he is a bit thick and doesn’t realize where the heart came from. After he recovers and turns over a new leaf he meets his estranged girlfriend. She still loves him but not enough to stay with him. WTF.
Very readable if a bit navel gazing and elements of the supernatural. No dogs killed in the story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 2, 2024
Отново много силна книга на Дийн Кунц. Освен че е оригинална като замисъл, предава и много силно послание, че здравето и живота са много по-скъпи от придобитото парично богатство.
January 4, 2009
This book started out great. I quickly realized that most of the book was never-ending prose about dreams or the weather and very little character story, which is what I really enjoy in a book. And what the heck was with the "yellow... yellow... yellow" paragraph, that was echoed occasionally? Was that *subtext* (you'll get it if you read the book) for cowardice or some rude stereotype about oriental people? Ugh. The thinly veiled Poe references didn't ring true (sorry for the pun) either. Wish I hadn't wasted time on this one.
December 14, 2008
Healthy, wealthy Ryan Perry discovers he has a heart disease that only a transplant can cure. But he starts having feelings of paranoia and after the transplant, odd things, supernatural things, seem to be happening.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't hold together very well in any aspect. Perry is neither a likeable nor dislikeable character. In fact, only a nurse and a security guard are even vaguely memorable and they have bit parts. The book doesn't flow in any one direction and ultimately makes little sense. The story might have been deeper had it been told from more than one POV but Perry wasn't particularly introspective. He was good at doing nerd things - heavily focused on one thing for hours, days, months, but he didn't really connect dots. Though the dots that were eventually connected, didn't form a recognizable picture.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't hold together very well in any aspect. Perry is neither a likeable nor dislikeable character. In fact, only a nurse and a security guard are even vaguely memorable and they have bit parts. The book doesn't flow in any one direction and ultimately makes little sense. The story might have been deeper had it been told from more than one POV but Perry wasn't particularly introspective. He was good at doing nerd things - heavily focused on one thing for hours, days, months, but he didn't really connect dots. Though the dots that were eventually connected, didn't form a recognizable picture.
April 13, 2009
I listened to this book on CD on my car. I can't tell you why I listened to the whole thing but I just kept hoping it would get better. It didn't. I used to love Dean Koontz' books but lately they just don't appeal to me but I keep trying. In this one, a paranoid computer guru has to hae a heart transplant and is totally paranoid both before and after the transplant, obviously, with good reason. Not my favorite book by Mr. Koontz.
January 4, 2010
Until the last 40 pages or so, this felt like the Koontz book that might finally convince me to stop reading his new books. Then it was vaguely redeemed in the final pages. I do mean vaguely, though. The explanation of things is actually not very impressive, we find out that significant information was left out of the earlier story so that the reader can't too easily guess what was happening, and the wrap up is too tidy. The only reason I found it vaguely redeeming was the way it changed the story's overall portrayal of the main character. It took away some of my earlier annoyance.
I suspect my compulsion to keep reading Koontz's new books will continue, though we'll see. The Odd books are the only ones that seem even somewhat inspired anymore. Perhaps not surprising when the books are coming out like clockwork, one every six months, with a writing style that seems to mimic R.L. Stine more all the time (it's noticeable, for instance, when a paragraph is longer than five lines or a chapter longer than six pages.)
Why can't I break my addiction? Why can't Koontz go back to writing the somewhat less preachy and much more compelling, not so by-the-numbers books of his past? And yet, they're still just compelling enough for me to continue reading them. (Or maybe it's just the vague sense of accomplishment I get from pounding them out in a day or two, since they read so fast and easy.)
Anyway, even if you're a fan of Koontz, if you don't have to read all his books, I'd recommend giving this one a pass. It's pretty mediocre and the overwriting borders on ridiculous at times, even for Koontz. And you'll very possibly find yourself wanting to strangle the main character throughout most of it. Don't bother.
I suspect my compulsion to keep reading Koontz's new books will continue, though we'll see. The Odd books are the only ones that seem even somewhat inspired anymore. Perhaps not surprising when the books are coming out like clockwork, one every six months, with a writing style that seems to mimic R.L. Stine more all the time (it's noticeable, for instance, when a paragraph is longer than five lines or a chapter longer than six pages.)
Why can't I break my addiction? Why can't Koontz go back to writing the somewhat less preachy and much more compelling, not so by-the-numbers books of his past? And yet, they're still just compelling enough for me to continue reading them. (Or maybe it's just the vague sense of accomplishment I get from pounding them out in a day or two, since they read so fast and easy.)
Anyway, even if you're a fan of Koontz, if you don't have to read all his books, I'd recommend giving this one a pass. It's pretty mediocre and the overwriting borders on ridiculous at times, even for Koontz. And you'll very possibly find yourself wanting to strangle the main character throughout most of it. Don't bother.
February 4, 2011
After having finished Koontz's "Your Heart Belongs To Me" today on my lunch hour, I found this website after doing a Google search to find out what others thought of this particular book. After having read a number of the reviews for it here, I think it's safe to say that for many, the book didn't live up to their expectations.
Given the short summary of the story to be found on the back of the cover, I think it's easy to get a false impression of what one might be in for with this book. If one is looking for a standard cat-and-mouse thriller (which seems to be what one is promised), this is not the book to find it in. Instead, this is a book that turns out to be a food-for-thought kind of book, which I find much more satisfying. I found it necessary to go back and read the final chapters a second time to make sure I got the full subtext of the story and what Koontz wanted to say with this book. Clearly, he does have something to say, and at the end of the read, I sadly find myself in somewhat the same shoes as the protagonist: somewhat blind to the wonders of mortality, and far too willing to overlook my own selfishness and greed as I march down the lifetime that has been given me, taking too many things for granted.
The book does have a happy ending, but it's not necessarily the happy ending we'd like it to have; what is served up is what the antagonist in the last part of the story is searching for: justice, and for good measure, a nice serving of mercy as well.
I read Koontz not only because he knows how to tell a good story, but also because, with his later works, I find myself uplifted by the end, having been reassured that most people are basically good, and who want to do the right thing (see Koontz's "By the Light of the Moon").
Given the short summary of the story to be found on the back of the cover, I think it's easy to get a false impression of what one might be in for with this book. If one is looking for a standard cat-and-mouse thriller (which seems to be what one is promised), this is not the book to find it in. Instead, this is a book that turns out to be a food-for-thought kind of book, which I find much more satisfying. I found it necessary to go back and read the final chapters a second time to make sure I got the full subtext of the story and what Koontz wanted to say with this book. Clearly, he does have something to say, and at the end of the read, I sadly find myself in somewhat the same shoes as the protagonist: somewhat blind to the wonders of mortality, and far too willing to overlook my own selfishness and greed as I march down the lifetime that has been given me, taking too many things for granted.
The book does have a happy ending, but it's not necessarily the happy ending we'd like it to have; what is served up is what the antagonist in the last part of the story is searching for: justice, and for good measure, a nice serving of mercy as well.
I read Koontz not only because he knows how to tell a good story, but also because, with his later works, I find myself uplifted by the end, having been reassured that most people are basically good, and who want to do the right thing (see Koontz's "By the Light of the Moon").
October 3, 2021
Stephen King once said something like this: "Although Dean Koontz can write like hell, sometimes he is just awful". You said it best, sir. From the Corner of His Eye and Watchers were excellent. But then Ticktock and The Face were awful. Odd Thomas, supposedly one of his better ones, is average at best. And now this one, while it may improve slightly in the second half, is another bad one.
This inconsistently-talented author wastes yet another idea that, while not groundbreaking, could have made a decent thriller. For such an established writer, heralded by half-ass critics of the New York Times as the "master of our darkest dreams," his lack of style and technique can be mind-blowing. I sometimes got to thinking he took the wrong path in life. Dean Koontz should have been a weatherman as that's what half this book (along with the previous mentioned terrible novel, The Face) seems to be about.
Gratuitously winded, dictionary-inspired weather descriptions are one thing at the start of a novel. Don't, you silly bastard, give us that shit in the final twenty pages at the peak of the climax. Storytelling 101: there is a difference between drawing out a reader's anticipation with tense-ridden prose and describing the patterns of the window lattice as the waning sun spills titian splendour through its myriad diamonds while the villain holds the hero at gun point.
I try mostly to be a lenient reader. I know Koontz is always a bit of a lucky-dip writer. His books can totally suck, be awesome, or anywhere in between. In a way, it's kind of what keeps me coming back. There's a "readers' roulette" thing going on. But this is now three and a half strikes against his name for me. I adored From the Corner of His Eye, I really enjoyed Watchers, I occasionally liked Odd Thomas, I disliked The Face, and I loathed Ticktock. Maybe I ought to read Strangers or something next. One of his more popular ones. I don't know how many more times I can tolerate his rubbish books to sift out the rare good ones.
This inconsistently-talented author wastes yet another idea that, while not groundbreaking, could have made a decent thriller. For such an established writer, heralded by half-ass critics of the New York Times as the "master of our darkest dreams," his lack of style and technique can be mind-blowing. I sometimes got to thinking he took the wrong path in life. Dean Koontz should have been a weatherman as that's what half this book (along with the previous mentioned terrible novel, The Face) seems to be about.
Gratuitously winded, dictionary-inspired weather descriptions are one thing at the start of a novel. Don't, you silly bastard, give us that shit in the final twenty pages at the peak of the climax. Storytelling 101: there is a difference between drawing out a reader's anticipation with tense-ridden prose and describing the patterns of the window lattice as the waning sun spills titian splendour through its myriad diamonds while the villain holds the hero at gun point.
I try mostly to be a lenient reader. I know Koontz is always a bit of a lucky-dip writer. His books can totally suck, be awesome, or anywhere in between. In a way, it's kind of what keeps me coming back. There's a "readers' roulette" thing going on. But this is now three and a half strikes against his name for me. I adored From the Corner of His Eye, I really enjoyed Watchers, I occasionally liked Odd Thomas, I disliked The Face, and I loathed Ticktock. Maybe I ought to read Strangers or something next. One of his more popular ones. I don't know how many more times I can tolerate his rubbish books to sift out the rare good ones.
June 27, 2013
Back in 2008 I read the hardcover girl with her nose in a flower edition. The book caused me to be mad at Dean for six months. During those six months I read some earlier great books by Dean Koontz such as Hideaway and Cold Fire etc. The next Summer (2009) I was happy again with Dean because he published three new books that I enjoyed: A Big Little Life, Relentless and Dead and Alive of course that December 2009, I was once again mad at Dean when I read Breathless, but that's a different story.
I have been saying I would re-read Your Heart Belongs to Me and give it a second chance when it was chosen as the group read in Koontzland. The time has come. Your Heart Belongs to Me is the July 2013 Group Read in the Koontzland - Dean Koontz group and I'm currently re-reading it. That one-year gap between chapter 31 and 32 was really something and what a lousy ending!
Koontz has explored similar themes and expressed similar ideas in better works. I would recommend Velocity and Hideaway in lieu of Your Heart Belongs to me.
I have been saying I would re-read Your Heart Belongs to Me and give it a second chance when it was chosen as the group read in Koontzland. The time has come. Your Heart Belongs to Me is the July 2013 Group Read in the Koontzland - Dean Koontz group and I'm currently re-reading it. That one-year gap between chapter 31 and 32 was really something and what a lousy ending!
Koontz has explored similar themes and expressed similar ideas in better works. I would recommend Velocity and Hideaway in lieu of Your Heart Belongs to me.
January 18, 2009
Weird. I think he wrote this one to make money.
I did very much like this ONE sentence: "of the qualities that draw a bright woman to a man, truthfulness is equaled only by kindness, courage, and a sense of humor." Now I could riff on that for a while, and enjoy myself immensely. The rest of the book is pitiful.
One keeps trying to think otherwise, however, since Koontz mentions the roots of violence to be ..."lust, envy, anger, avarice, and vengeance. The tap root is ignoring the truth."
OK he is trying to be DEEP and MEANINGFUL and IMPORTANT but I must report he fails miserably. I hated all his lame references to William Holden, Edgar Allen Poe, etc. and resent very much that he tries to piggyback off of their particular genius.
Not worth a look even, in the last analysis, and I want my time back!
I did very much like this ONE sentence: "of the qualities that draw a bright woman to a man, truthfulness is equaled only by kindness, courage, and a sense of humor." Now I could riff on that for a while, and enjoy myself immensely. The rest of the book is pitiful.
One keeps trying to think otherwise, however, since Koontz mentions the roots of violence to be ..."lust, envy, anger, avarice, and vengeance. The tap root is ignoring the truth."
OK he is trying to be DEEP and MEANINGFUL and IMPORTANT but I must report he fails miserably. I hated all his lame references to William Holden, Edgar Allen Poe, etc. and resent very much that he tries to piggyback off of their particular genius.
Not worth a look even, in the last analysis, and I want my time back!
October 17, 2014
Dean Koontz has managed to deliver a first class waste of time. An exceptional disappointment. The pages in this book feel to be worth less than the notes of the Zimbabwean currency.
It is books like this that make me want to stop reading.
For shame Dean Koontz.... For shame.
It is books like this that make me want to stop reading.
For shame Dean Koontz.... For shame.
June 19, 2019
Fair, weird overall story about a heart transplant. Could not connect with the book at all. Odd (but not Odd Thomas, LOL)
June 27, 2016
I'm not quite sure about this book. Some parts it kept my attention and I wanted to keep reading and then other parts I was soooooo bored and didn't want to keep reading.
May 1, 2022
This was a strange book and not in a good way. The story was intriguing but the dialogue and character interactions felt off and completely false. Still, Koontz has very engaging and entertaining prose and I was set to rate this a 3.5/5 up until the last chapter where the whole thing just shit the bed.
January 13, 2019
2.5 stars
February 7, 2020
لم تعجبني الرواية على الإطلاق ، فقد أحسست أن بها العديد من الفراغات ،فهل يرجع ذلك إلى المترجم الذي يكون قد تصرف في النص الأصلي بالحذف و الإختصار خاصة حين أجد ان معظم الطبعات باللغة الاصلية للكاتب تتجاوز 300 الى 400 صفحة ، لا يمكنني الجزم بذلك إلا إذا تيسر لي في يوم من الأيام إعادة قراءتها دون ترجمة بإذن الله.
January 11, 2022
The content matter within Your Heart Belongs to Me makes me feel the most uneasy on the surface. In my mind, heart problems, heart surgery, and heart transplants make me feel the most uncomfortable as far as problems relating to a particular body part are concerned (except, perhaps, issues pertaining to the man parts), so I could feel a sense of discomfort when they engage in a myocardial procedure that requires they take a piece of the central character, Ryan Perry's, heart for sampling or the preparation of the surgery and transplant. This alone could contribute to me being uneasy about picking up the book after having a sandwich stuffed with cold cuts for lunch, something for dinner that is not necessarily kind to the heart, or half a pint of ice cream for dessert. I expected this going into this book, but took the jump anyway. What I did not like about this book primarily had to do with pacing and direction. This book could have taken shape much quicker, but it slogged itself with a lot of unnecessary and head-scratching occurrences. It also introduced characters and opportunities that turned out being incredible misses while ultimately instilling some of Koontz's signature stamps to complete its package. Some of these left me with things to think about, but not enough for make up for its flaws.
Ryan Perry is a 34-year-old Internet entrepreneur who can just about buy what ever he wants and through what ever he wants. He has a girlfriend named Samantha "Sam" Reach, who is an author working on a book and the two met when she was working on an article about Ryan. While surfing, Ryan begins to feel symptoms of heart problems that escalate during select nights, which leads him to seek medical help. He is diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and is given a year to live unless he is able to receive a successful heart transplant. It is no spoiler that he does get the heart transplant (a la the back of the book) and we now return to him a year later. Things are going well, but he begins to get suspicious gifts, such as candy hearts that all say "be mine." When attending an author event for Sam's new book, he comes across a woman who looks like the donor to his heart and she wants to take it back, willing to engage in what ever measure she needs in order to do so.
As per mentioned, the pacing and the lack of resolve to which this pacing leads is the biggest issue about this book. First off, it takes off until about halfway through the book until the transplant actually occurs. A chunk of the first half involves Ryan being nosy and talking a trip to spy on his girlfriend's mother's living quarters, feeling that she had something to do with his condition, because of what happened to Sam's sister, who died after being in a terminal, vegetative state and assisted in death. In fact, scenes involving that situation, the interactions that people have with one another, and who is really connected to who tend to get blurry and ultimately do not go anywhere. The more important parts of the books: the surgery, the immediate aftermath, the "gifts," and the confrontations between Ryan and the person looking for what has become his heart, are either zipped through or nonexistent. Koontz does make an effort to be impressive by tying Edgar Allan Poe's poetry into the storyline, but that, too, tends to fizzle. The same can be said about what could have been a great opportunity to pick up some crucial information from a crucial source.
As for the characters, one can feel for Ryan on the basis that this is a relatively young subject with a heart problem, has to go through a procedure, and is placed in a whirlwind of the situation afterward. Outside of that, Ryan has only touched the surface of what it truly means to live a life and has been able to rely on money for everything else. Everyone else seems to be a plot device that exists to bounce off of Ryan's character. His parents in particular, though, are two of the most self-centered, immature, substance abusing scumbags one can come across.
If there is a silver lining to this book, or more so a silver string because it only does so much to provide us something that we can leave this book with, it is the idea that there is so much more to life and to living that the chances that we received should be cherished and used to make the world as a greater whole a better place. I feel that this was Dean Koontz's strategy when it came to resolving this book and that even in a world of scumbags and at moments where people do not seek an epiphany, these things happen randomly and the losses are on them and not you.
Your Heart Belongs to Me has the pieces to be an impactful, eerie novel that touches upon a subject not necessarily explored in the horror, thriller, or mystery genres, but it ultimately disappoints in doing so.
Ryan Perry is a 34-year-old Internet entrepreneur who can just about buy what ever he wants and through what ever he wants. He has a girlfriend named Samantha "Sam" Reach, who is an author working on a book and the two met when she was working on an article about Ryan. While surfing, Ryan begins to feel symptoms of heart problems that escalate during select nights, which leads him to seek medical help. He is diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and is given a year to live unless he is able to receive a successful heart transplant. It is no spoiler that he does get the heart transplant (a la the back of the book) and we now return to him a year later. Things are going well, but he begins to get suspicious gifts, such as candy hearts that all say "be mine." When attending an author event for Sam's new book, he comes across a woman who looks like the donor to his heart and she wants to take it back, willing to engage in what ever measure she needs in order to do so.
As per mentioned, the pacing and the lack of resolve to which this pacing leads is the biggest issue about this book. First off, it takes off until about halfway through the book until the transplant actually occurs. A chunk of the first half involves Ryan being nosy and talking a trip to spy on his girlfriend's mother's living quarters, feeling that she had something to do with his condition, because of what happened to Sam's sister, who died after being in a terminal, vegetative state and assisted in death. In fact, scenes involving that situation, the interactions that people have with one another, and who is really connected to who tend to get blurry and ultimately do not go anywhere. The more important parts of the books: the surgery, the immediate aftermath, the "gifts," and the confrontations between Ryan and the person looking for what has become his heart, are either zipped through or nonexistent. Koontz does make an effort to be impressive by tying Edgar Allan Poe's poetry into the storyline, but that, too, tends to fizzle. The same can be said about what could have been a great opportunity to pick up some crucial information from a crucial source.
As for the characters, one can feel for Ryan on the basis that this is a relatively young subject with a heart problem, has to go through a procedure, and is placed in a whirlwind of the situation afterward. Outside of that, Ryan has only touched the surface of what it truly means to live a life and has been able to rely on money for everything else. Everyone else seems to be a plot device that exists to bounce off of Ryan's character. His parents in particular, though, are two of the most self-centered, immature, substance abusing scumbags one can come across.
If there is a silver lining to this book, or more so a silver string because it only does so much to provide us something that we can leave this book with, it is the idea that there is so much more to life and to living that the chances that we received should be cherished and used to make the world as a greater whole a better place. I feel that this was Dean Koontz's strategy when it came to resolving this book and that even in a world of scumbags and at moments where people do not seek an epiphany, these things happen randomly and the losses are on them and not you.
Your Heart Belongs to Me has the pieces to be an impactful, eerie novel that touches upon a subject not necessarily explored in the horror, thriller, or mystery genres, but it ultimately disappoints in doing so.
March 15, 2015
This book was terrible. I had never read a Koontz book before, but I picked this one up because it sounded interesting. A guy gets a heart transplant and then a woman stalks him wanting it back? Sure, I'll give it a try. BAD IDEA. But as bad as picking the book up in the first place was, sticking with it to the end was worse.
There is so much wrong with this book, not the least of which is that this woman who wants the heart back DOESN'T SHOW UP UNTIL 222 PAGES IN. Technically, he glimpses her around page 185 and she plays some tricks to torment him in his house... but he doesn't actually see her face until page 222. Everything before that? Unnecessary side stories and unbelievably excessive detail. It is amazing how Koontz can give so much detail and still say nothing. NOTHING!! Oh the wind, and the trees, and the birds, and the clouds, and the sea... he explains everything at every moment to the point of nausea.
Once this woman finally shows up, the main character, Ryan, still goes on stupid trips to add to the unnecessary side stories that were introduced in the first half of the book. This woman who wants his new heart back BARELY plays a role in the story. She's likely featured for... maybe 60 pages all said and done? With the tricks, the glimpses, the meeting, and the final showdown? Yeah. 60 pages. Pathetic, given that this is supposed to be the main storyline, given the description of the book. Why not just give a blurb saying "Ryan needs a new heart, so he spends half of the book paranoid and following idiotic threads that mean nothing, and building a relationship with a character that leads to nothing, and developing theories about identical twins that lead to nothing... but then he gets a new heart, and yet he's still paranoid, so off on tangents he goes again... oh, and just for fun there's a teeny tiny little bit about a crazy woman who wants his transplanted heart back". It was all just absurd! Terrible, terrible, terrible.
I'm so furious with this book I will never pick up another Koontz title. If this is the type of crap he spits out I have no idea how he became such a popular author. It's evident someone LOVES his thesaurus, but using a variety of descriptive words does not make for a good story. Was he running low on cash? Gets paid per page that he writes, even if it's mind-numbingly awful? I really can't say enough bad things about this story.
I recommend this story to NO ONE and am relieved that I spent no money on this book and that it only came to my attention because I weeded it from my library due to poor circulation.
There is so much wrong with this book, not the least of which is that this woman who wants the heart back DOESN'T SHOW UP UNTIL 222 PAGES IN. Technically, he glimpses her around page 185 and she plays some tricks to torment him in his house... but he doesn't actually see her face until page 222. Everything before that? Unnecessary side stories and unbelievably excessive detail. It is amazing how Koontz can give so much detail and still say nothing. NOTHING!! Oh the wind, and the trees, and the birds, and the clouds, and the sea... he explains everything at every moment to the point of nausea.
Once this woman finally shows up, the main character, Ryan, still goes on stupid trips to add to the unnecessary side stories that were introduced in the first half of the book. This woman who wants his new heart back BARELY plays a role in the story. She's likely featured for... maybe 60 pages all said and done? With the tricks, the glimpses, the meeting, and the final showdown? Yeah. 60 pages. Pathetic, given that this is supposed to be the main storyline, given the description of the book. Why not just give a blurb saying "Ryan needs a new heart, so he spends half of the book paranoid and following idiotic threads that mean nothing, and building a relationship with a character that leads to nothing, and developing theories about identical twins that lead to nothing... but then he gets a new heart, and yet he's still paranoid, so off on tangents he goes again... oh, and just for fun there's a teeny tiny little bit about a crazy woman who wants his transplanted heart back". It was all just absurd! Terrible, terrible, terrible.
I'm so furious with this book I will never pick up another Koontz title. If this is the type of crap he spits out I have no idea how he became such a popular author. It's evident someone LOVES his thesaurus, but using a variety of descriptive words does not make for a good story. Was he running low on cash? Gets paid per page that he writes, even if it's mind-numbingly awful? I really can't say enough bad things about this story.
I recommend this story to NO ONE and am relieved that I spent no money on this book and that it only came to my attention because I weeded it from my library due to poor circulation.
February 26, 2012
If you are familiar with Koontz then most of his writings are pretty much taken for granted. Still some books are better than others. I see a lot of reviewers struggled with this one but it touched me maybe because it had more realism with my life than it did with others. Sometimes Koontz offers more depth than many of his readers can understand because it is in realm they have never experienced (that s not a fault of of the reviewer). Maybe they have not had the experiences that relate to a particular story or struggled with something similar to what the characters have had to struggle with. I find his writings touch a depth even beyond the plot. for instance here are a couple quotes from this book that might help you feel where Koontz is coming from. "...if there's any ultimate redemption, it will be because I passed through your life without scarring you, and did not diminish who you are." Or "...she wept...for the condition of all things and for the way the world could be but is not." This is only a hint of great writing in this book This one will give you chills just reading the synopsis of the book. A person gets a heart transplant and suddenly a woman shows up claiming "Your Heart Belongs to Me." And the ending of this book is certainly worth the tense suspense as your read this riveting thriller.
May 2, 2010
Dean Koontz is hard for me to peg as an author. I've thoroughly enjoyed some of his books, particularly LIFE EXPECTANCY and THE HUSBAND. But there are others that I don't care for. It's like there are two different sides of him -- two authors in one body, typing on the same computer.
This book did not turn me on. It went all over the place. And the pacing was inconsistent.
I do know, however, that he is a very nice man. When my son, Brett Arquette, wrote a novel and contacted Mr. Koontz, asking his guidance in finding an agent, he responded immediately and kindly. And he's a top best seller. How can you argue with such success!
It's just that I didn't relate to this particular book.
This book did not turn me on. It went all over the place. And the pacing was inconsistent.
I do know, however, that he is a very nice man. When my son, Brett Arquette, wrote a novel and contacted Mr. Koontz, asking his guidance in finding an agent, he responded immediately and kindly. And he's a top best seller. How can you argue with such success!
It's just that I didn't relate to this particular book.
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