Odd Thomas

Content Warning: This guide contains discussions of graphic violence, extreme violence to women, sexual assault, child abuse and trauma caused by child abuse, child molestation, and death by suicide. The novel also contains depictions of mass shootings and references to terrorism and serial murderers. The novel contains depictions of mental health conditions and sometimes engages in stereotypes about them.

The struggle between good and evil is a central theme in the Odd Thomas narrative. When he hears the unnatural noises from Penny’s shell, he says, “Evil was coming. I wondered whose face it would be wearing” (11). This establishes the idea of good and evil, while influenced by paranormal forces, as primarily human. While the bodachs are a terrifying presence throughout the story, they are not the source of the evil Odd encounters. Odd states as much outright:

When I was a child, I first thought that these shades might be malevolent spirits who fostered evil in those people around whom they swarmed. I’ve since discovered that many human beings need no supernatural mentoring to commit acts of savagery; some people are devils in their own right (48).

The bodachs do not create evil.