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    77 Shadow Street
    77 Shadow Street
    77 Shadow Street
    Audiobook14 hours

    77 Shadow Street

    Written by Dean Koontz

    Narrated by Peter Berkrot

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Gilded Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon’s dream home. Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse. But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace. For its fortunate residents—a successful songwriter and her young son, a disgraced ex-senator, a widowed attorney, and a driven money manager among them—the Pendleton’s magnificent quarters are a sanctuary, its dark past all but forgotten.

    But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths. With each passing hour, a terrifying certainty grows: Whatever drove the Pendleton’s past occupants to their unspeakable fates is at work again. Soon, all those within its boundaries will be engulfed by a deadly tide from which few have escaped.

    Dean Koontz transcends all expectations as he takes listeners on a gripping journey to a place where nightmare visions become real—and where a group of singular individuals hold the key to humanity’s destiny. Welcome to 77 Shadow Street.

    Praise for the narration of 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz, performed by Peter Berkrot:

    “Narrator Peter Berkrot opens the creaking door and invites listeners inside with a gentle, unassuming voice. Ignore that dark thing you saw out of the corner of your eye—it’s just a trick of the light. Berkrot performs with skill and assurance as strange voices, eerie sights, and inexplicable things take over the posh mansion.” —© AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateDec 27, 2011
    ISBN9781441818515
    77 Shadow Street
    Author

    Dean Koontz

    Dean Koontz is the author of more than a dozen New York Times No. 1 bestsellers. His books have sold over 450 million copies worldwide, and his work is published in 38 languages. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania and lives with his wife Gerda and their dog Anna in southern California.

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    Reviews for 77 Shadow Street

    3.5/5

    370 ratings43 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Very good book, riveting actually. I enjoyed enormously. Thank you

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Great as always! One of my favorite authors to read! (OR hear;)

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The imagination is amazing. The descriptive writing made me feel as if I was living in the building with the characters. Brilliant!!

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Great haunted house thriller! Classic Koontz, lots of characters and action nonstop!

      2 people found this helpful

    • 3/5
      It was OK but I didn't have any attachment to any of the characters. It's more a horror story than anything else.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Quite a waste of time. This is probably the least exciting book by Koontz.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Etwas Science-Fiction, ein bisschen Horror und zu viel philosophisches Geschreibsel. Die ersten zwei Drittel ziehen sich endlos wie Kaugummi, erst im letzten Drittel kommt etwas mehr Action auf und die Geschichte wird ein klein wenig interessant. Das Interesse wurde vielleicht aber auch nur durch die Vorfreude auf das Ende des Buches geweckt ...

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I got lost sometimes. But it was ok. Need to read it again
    • 4/5
      Started off as a haunted house thriller but turned weird.

      I followed what was going on pretty well for the first chapters and from room to room strange things happen, but then it gets a bit muddled and you struggle to understand what's going on...is it a haunted house or something else? Got quite confusing toward the end but a worthwhile listen. Just wouldn't listen again.

      The narrator does a brilliant job with the characterization and sets the tone.
    • 2/5
      I didn't enjoy this book at all. It was supernatural with the future of humanity extinct. Long.
    • 1/5
      I suffered through more than half of this book before giving it up.

      I’ve read almost everything DK has written and he’s been my favorite author for years.

      I wasn’t a huge fan of What the Night Knows, but I did finish it.

      This felt like a poor retelling of it, and just … overboard with the descriptions.

      I’ll still try his books, but, sorry Mr. Koontz; this one didn’t work for me.
    • 4/5
      I could not put the book down.I like the unusual supernatural story. Every 38 years for a couple of days very odd thing and people disappears or come up dead. The residents of the Pendleton deals with madness, mass murder, Shadows, and whispers of things that scarres most humans.
    • 3/5
      Better than some of his recent ones, but still not as good as it could have been. The residents of The Pendleton become aware, too late, that something sinister is taking place in the old mansion house which was converted into a series of luxury apartments. Odd sightings, almost but not quite human shapes, alien creatures, strange blue lights, voices coming from television sets that aren't switched on, all begin to take place over a day or two in early December. Only one resident is aware of the violent history of The Pendleton, with deaths and disappearances happing there every thirty-eight years. But he is too late to stop the cycle happening again and the residents are plunged into a nightmare they could never have imagined. The start of the book was very creepy but as things progressed I found myself wishing for a more straightforward ghost story (the cover states "This is not a ghost story - it's something far scarier") as I think it would have been much better that way. It was difficult at first to really take to any of the characters because they were all a bit predictable and flat. And they had names like Twyla and Sparkle so they seemed like cartoon characters rather than real people.But at least there were no magic dogs in it.
    • 1/5
      BackgroundI'd been looking forward to reading 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz for a while. It was published in 2011, and when I didn't receive it for Christmas that year (my family knowing I'm a big Koontz fan), I was a little disappointed.Well, now that I've read it (from the library), I'm so glad no-one I know spent a single dollar on this book. It was rubbish.ReviewIn essence, 77 Shadow Street is about a building called the Pendleton, built on top of Shadow hill in the late 1800s. Every 38 years, something weird happens on this site - even the Indians knew to steer clear of this place - and it has been the site of murders, suicides, madness and disappearances.Koontz introduces the reader to the current tenants of the Pendleton, and through each of them we experience this round of weirdness as the 38 years is about to kick in and the past, present and the future cross over.Dominating this world is the One:"I am the One, the all and the only. I live in the Pendleton as surely as I live everywhere. I am the Pendleton?s history and its destiny. The building is my place of conception, my monument, my killing ground. . . ."77 Shadow Street has elements of horror as Pogromites pursue and kill the tenants and the One controls everything. I thought this was a weak plot, the horror scenes were gross and frightening but without being engaged with the narrative I found them pointless and wasted.I remain a fan of Dean Koontz and most likely always will, but go on the record as saying 77 Shadow Street is a dud read; don't bother.
    • 4/5
      I love how Koontz gives you so many details, sometimes too many details, even backgrounds on people who are not a big part of the story. In one paragraph you're learning their life story, in the next paragraph they're dead. But, it's details like this that make the story interesting, makes it real. Koontz has a knack for making his characters come alive, for better or for worse. 77 Shadow Street is a very complex book. It is not your typical Dean Koontz story (and I have been a fan for many years). The so many different points of views in this book just added to the complexity of the story. Also, a huge thanks for the building map in the beginning of the book. I repeatedly consulted it while reading to see where we were in the building during the story, trying to keep myself oriented. The only thing I really did not like about this book was the little blurbs of "The One." They could have been left out of this story and we would not have missed them, and in fact, the story would have been better without them. They really did not add anything and you did not learn anything from them. They simply took up space.
    • 2/5
      Not very convincing to me; too many characters and too much skipping from one to character to another character. No character (not even the two children) elicits special reader involvement. The included novella "The Moonlit Mind" compels a bit more reader interest. I will happily pass it along to most anyone who might want it.
    • 4/5
      The book's subtle beginning and slow build-up may suggest to some that Koontz is taking too long to get on with the story. Halfway through the book this was certainly my feeling and I wondered whether my interest would wain before I finally found out what the heck was really going on in this time-fractured building.As the end approached the mystery deepened, as did the tension. By the time the truth was revealed and the dead were counted I was completely hooked. A good gripping read - recommended.
    • 1/5
      Terrible, gross descriptions. I only finished because I was curious about the plot, not worth it.
    • 1/5
      77 Shadow Street started out good, and seemed mysterious and intriguing. I thought it was a haunted house story but it's not.
      However, in the mid-way point, I was tired of the same long winded descriptions of grotesque and nasty things, the same thing over and over. We GET IT, the fungus and mold was gross! The characters seemed cliche', and the story a bit hackneyed. I lost my momentum and found myself putting the book down more easily and not in much of a rush to get back to it. Halfway through, I could care less about ever finishing it again.
      There was a time when Koontz's new novels filled me with such glee, I could barely stay away from them. Now, I don't know... they just seem empty and void. I have again, wished I had not spent money on buying one of them, even though it's just the paperback... maybe next time, I won't. (I've been saying this since The Husband came out.) I'm going to spend my time reading something more worthy of it.
    • 2/5
      not his best. Frankly, if it hadn't been Koontz, I would have stopped reading, 1/3 of the way through. Even with it being Koontz, I was sorely tempted to stop, 2/3 of the way through. The last 1/3 of the book finally picked up. But overall, very disappointing.
    • 1/5
      The house is called the Pendleton now and it was built as the dream home of a tycoon in the 1800’s. The original family was plagued with tragedy and ever since there has been a cycle of tragic events … coincidentally every 37 years. In the 1970’s it was remodeled as luxury apartments inhabited by the rich and famous, the rich and not so famous and the downright notorious. The curse of tragedy, however, seems to have stayed on despite the renovations and now ghostly images, disembodied voices and glowing mold haunt the residents of 77 Shadow Street.

      In my on going quest for a good ghost story I thought of all people Mr. Koontz would deliver. I hate to say this, but not so much! I’ll admit to being a long time Koontz fan, and although lately there have been some hits and some misses I always look forward to reading his books. This one was definitely on the “miss” side of the column. There are so many characters in this book … obviously the inhabitants of a luxury condo building … and the story progresses as each tells a part of the action. Sometimes this works, but in this case it is like watching a movie with too many fast cuts. Instead of adding to the drama and action it actually takes away from it. By the end of the book I didn’t care about the characters and was a little tired of the lengthy reflection on the bleakness of the world and the “darkness” of humankind. Would not recommend this one, even to a Koontz fan.
    • 3/5
      Pretty good, but it got laggy in the middle. Almost set it aside. Overall good haunted house story.
    • 4/5
      A pretty good story. I had a hard time figuring out where Koontz was going with the story but I was pleasantly surprised when it was revealed.

      ** I listen to my books while working at my easel, This was read by Peter Berkrot, who I thought did an outstanding job with the different characters.
    • 4/5
      Yeah, baby, Dean Koontz is back from experimenting with high concept thrillers and unlikeable protagonists. THIS is the kind of book that made all of us fans fall in love with his work in the first place: scary, fast-paced, with lots of interesting characters and a thought provoking premise. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars from me is because of a few unexplained things that happen towards the end, not deal breakers, but could have been done better. I'd give 4.5 if I could. The best part is that now I can recommend to "Koontz virgins" to just read his latest instead of sending them to older works.
    • 3/5
      It kept me reading and I was intrigued by his clear depictions of the Pendelton's ruinous nature. That was the best part of the story, the Pendleton in 2049. Very vivid and I think it'd look good on the big screen.
    • 2/5
      I have read a lot of Dean Koontz over the years, and would call my self a fan, but this one really disappointed me. The first three quarters of the book was a very slow, and to me, boring, build up to a climax that was just not very good.
    • 3/5
      In "77 Shadow Street," Dean Koontz takes on the daunting task of creating and sustaining suspense over the course of hundreds of pages in telling a story that winds through past, present and a dystopian future, while simultaneously juggling the trials and tribulations of several disparate characters ranging in age from a young boy to a very old man (not to mention dead people, killer fungus, an array of freakish monsters, and "The One"). Such a feat would prove challenging for any author, even one of Koontz' well-deserved esteem. That Koontz largely succeeds in crafting a compelling novel from weaving these many elements is to his great credit. That said, it's not the easiest story to follow, given that Koontz leaps unabashedly among characters while time wobbles in a very nonlinear way to tell his tale. The plot is labyrinthine, at times unnecessarily so. Though the dialog he gives them isn't always stellar (and in the first half or so, it's almost nonexistent), the characters themselves are an interesting assortment of well-developed people, ranging from naive to innocent to hubristic to homicidal to purely evil. There aren't many of them to love, but it's fun to dislike a lot of them. Hating a few of them come the story's reasonably satisfying end is inevitable.Regardless of the time period impacting the plot's undulations, the story is set in a massive old mansion called the Pendleton that sits on Shadow Hill's peak, towering over the city below. The clandestine reasons when and particularly where the seemingly luxurious, serene and secure architectural masterpiece was built a century before the book's opening curse everyone unfortunate enough to be lulled into calling the place home. The book owes as much to science fiction as to horror (in the vein of Shelley's "Frankenstein," from which this book clearly draws inspiration) as it reveals why so many people have disappeared so mysteriously, when they're not dying horrifically, every 38 years since the Pendleton's construction."77 Shadow Street" is by no means a great book, but despite its flaws it's a good one. More often than not it's sufficiently gripping keep its pages fluttering through readers' fingers late into the night.
    • 4/5
      Interesting and quick read. It wasn't creepy enough for my taste but had an entertaining twist at the end.
    • 4/5
      The book's subtle beginning and slow build-up may suggest to some that Koontz is taking too long to get on with the story. Halfway through the book this was certainly my feeling and I wondered whether my interest would wain before I finally found out what the heck was really going on in this time-fractured building.As the end approached the mystery deepened, as did the tension. By the time the truth was revealed and the dead were counted I was completely hooked. A good gripping read - recommended.
    • 3/5
      It was a twist on haunted house story. He brought in time travel. Child with autism and other characters who were wonderful. Rooms and building kept changing going from past to present to future.