Bibi Blair has the world before her. Full of expectation and optimism, Bibi strongly believes in imagining what her future will be in order to reach those goals and achieve them. She's happily engaged to a real-life military hero, Paxton, and her writing career is taking off. However, it's what Bibi will later call Day One- the day Bibi's health turned on her as she discovers she is dying. Bibi doesn't give up, and only two days later she's not only cured but off on a quest to find the mysterious ASHLEY BELL. What dangers will await Bibi as she searches to find the meaning behind her cure?

Dean Koontz has long been a favorite author of mine and his gift for eloquence is on full display in ASHLEY BELL. Despite using two of my least favorite plot devices (both being spoilers so I won't reveal them), I still became engaged in Bibi Blair's story. The first portion of the story where we see Bibi's diagnosis and her determination to fight the cancer are heart-wrenchingly poignant.

Unfortunately, there are several elements that kept pulling me out of the storyline. ASHLEY BELL is told through frequent flashbacks and the transitions don't begin to coalesce into an understandable story until many more details are revealed. Some of the oddities that are often intrinsic to a Dean Koontz story seemed a bit too much in the case of ASHLEY BELL. For instance, I had no trouble believing Bibi's carefree surfer-loving parents would refer Bibi to someone like Calida Butterfly, but I couldn't understand why Bibi bought into the concept of Scrabblemancy so easily.

ASHLEY BELL is a complex and richly layered story where every word and every action has multiple meanings. Dean Koontz is one of the masters of the written word and ASHLEY BELL is definitely another eloquently written tale, albeit definitely not one I would rank among my favorites.

Book Summary

The girl who said no to death.

Bibi Blair is a fierce, funny, dauntless young woman— whose doctor says she has one year to live.

She replies, “We’ll see.”

Her sudden recovery astonishes medical science.

An enigmatic woman convinces Bibi that she escaped death so that she can save someone else. Someone named Ashley Bell.

But save her from what, from whom? And who is Ashley Bell? Where is she?

Bibi’s obsession with finding Ashley sends her on the run from threats both mystical and worldly, including a rich and charismatic cult leader with terrifying ambitions.

Here is an eloquent, riveting, brilliantly paced story with an exhilarating heroine and a twisting, ingenious plot filled with staggering surprises. Ashley Bell is a new milestone in literary suspense from the long-acclaimed master.