Midnight question

As a reader of entirely "inappropriate" material at that age (I managed to get a hold of a copy of Stephen King's "IT" when I was 11) I don't feel I'm any worse off for it. On the contrary, that book is still one of my favorite books to date. The book has a lot of colorful language, gruesome violence, and some very questionable intimate moments. As a young person reading it, I was shocked... and I loved it. It was like getting away with something. I wanted to devour the book, and I realize now that the reason I loved it so much, was because it was HONEST. It was completely raw and real. And in the end, I was still a mild-mannered girl who blushed when she said "shit" under her breath just to know that she had the balls to say it after all. I wanted to post this mostly to play devils advocate as the only "pro" vote for the mildly racy literature, but also to say that a little swearing (that he probably hears 10,000 times a day on the school bus) and mild racy content isn't the worst thing. Having read Koontz myself, some are worse than others. If he is a reluctant reader, Koontz might be a little too much anyway. Try something with a faster pace and shorter chapters like Dan Brown.

I had the same thought when I was last reading a Koontz book about introducing it to my 12 year old. I quickly realized, they generally aren't appropriate. There is violence and fowl language. The main reason however, there are a million other books that are more age appropriate they would likely love more. Try Jurassic Park

Although I love Dean Koontz I agree with Jim. There are plenty of books that are more age appropriate for a 13 year old.
But a lot of Koontz's themes, as a rule, call for some violence and foul language.
Best of luck trying to get your reluctant reader to take it up. I wish more teens would pick up a book these days.

for a reluctant young reader percy Jackson and the Olympians and the harry potter series would be great to start there generally aren't anything bad in these and they are quick reads well at least for me