Intensity (novel)
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| Intensity | |
 Cover of Intensity |
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| Author | Dean Koontz |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Mystery novel |
| Publisher | Bantam Publishing |
| Publication date | 1996 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 448 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-58291-7 |
Intensity is a novel by the best-selling author Dean Koontz, released in 1996.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The book begins with Chyna Shepard (a college student) visiting the family of her friend, Laura Templeton over a long weekend. A victim of a violent, unstable and abusive childhood, Chyna finds at the Templeton house something she has often yearned for: acceptance. But this is all crushed when Edgler Vess, a serial killer, breaks into the house in the night and methodically kills all of the occupants except Laura and Chyna.
Chyna hides under her bed from him and waits until he goes downstairs. She searches the house and finds Laura's father shot and tied to a toilet seat and the mother stabbed to death in the shower. Chyna encounters Edgler on the stairs eating a spider before she sneaks into Laura's room. Chyna finds Laura tied up and raped. Chyna sneaks away, promising to return. Before she can, however, Vess kills Laura and takes her to his motor home. Chyna, not knowing this runs upstairs after hearing Laura screaming and intends to kill Vess with a knife, she sees Vess carrying Laura to his motor home and sneaks aboard the motor home and finds her friend's body. Before she can escape, Vess begins driving. She hides in a back room, planning to escape at the earliest opportunity, until he stops at a gas station, where she sneaks out and heads inside to find a phone. Vess kills the attendants, however, as Chyna watches surreptitiously, and drives away. Before murdering the attendants, Vess boasted of holding a young girl, Ariel, prisoner in his basement, and Chyna thus feels compelled to follow him to help free the girl. Taking one of the attendants' cars, she gives chase. Chyna purposely crashes her car in the middle of the road, as Vess gets out to investigate, Chyna sneaks onboard the motor home.
By the time he has reached the house, Edgler has already discovered that Chyna is on board but, fascinated, he decides not to kill her immediately to see what she will do. Chyna breaks into his house and goes into the basement to find Ariel, locked in a room and catatonic. Before she can think of getting her out, Vess attacks her in the kitchen, punching her unconscious then chaining her up in the kitchen. He taunts her for a while, revealing details about his past and past crimes. Obsessed with the "intensity" of any particular experience, sensory and existential, Vess styles himself as a "homicidal adventurer", and has killed continually since childhood. He holds out an offer to allow Chyna to live if she aids him in mentally torturing Ariel out of her catatonia. He then leaves for work. Chyna manages to escape from her chains by breaking away from the table to which she is chained and slamming her chair into a wall. She releases Ariel from her prison. The danger is not over for them, however, as Vess has trained a pack of deadly Dobermann pinschers to guard his property and kill anyone attempting to get in or out. Chyna finds and uses Vess's dog-training clothing and a spray of ammonia to get through the dogs and into the motor home. She and Ariel begin to escape when they see a police car on the road. She pulls over to signal it, only to discover that the driver is, in fact, Vess himself, who is the local county sheriff. After ramming his police car, causing him to be soaked with gasoline, Chyna manages to burn Vess alive.
The book then picks up a few months later with Chyna adopting Ariel, who has recently began to speak in small phrases.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Chyna Shepherd
Chyna is a college student, still coming to terms with her abusive past, who risks her life to save a young girl from a killer.
[edit] Edgler Foreman Vess
Edgler is a county sheriff who lives a double life as a killer. He takes great delight in what he regards as intense situations and believes that he is invincible from powers gained in killing his victims.
[edit] Ariel DeLane
Ariel is a kidnapped teenager who withdraws into catatonia. She has been held captive by Vess for many months and is regarded as a challenge to Vess as she has taken the longest to crack out of all his captives, Vess longs to see her final breakdown.
[edit] Laura Templeton
Laura is Chyna's best friend, who is killed by Vess.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Intensity was made into a two-part TV movie in 1997 that first aired in America on the Fox Network. It starred Molly Parker, John C. McGinley, and Tori Paul.
The French film Haute Tension also bears a striking resemblance to the plot of Intensity.
