This is very premature attempt in writing horror book. I dont understand how this book got 'Bram S. Award'? Nothing is new in book and whatever old funda is there, are also not much scary. I suggest to read some old books by old authors. There are lot of books on small town terror/good-evil fight.

Little sets most of his stuff in the deserts of Arizona and the location always works well for him. Like Harry Shannon's "Night of the Beast," (set in Nevada) this novel attacks in quick bursts of frenetic energy and gore and turns a small desert town upside down and plays with Biblical themes while it scares you. This one and "The Summoning" are my faves from Little. Both are a B Movie Blast from the Past.

I never knew that Bentley Little exhisted until one night when I was browsing on Amazon. I read some of the reviews on his books and took a chance and purchased "The Store" and "The Revelation." I plowed through The Store one afternoon and was hugely impressed with Mr. Little's style of writing- I could not put the book down! His character development and settings are nothing short of brilliant. His novels are very descriptive, graphic (more so than many horror authors in my opinion) and the characters are very "real." I immediately read The Revelation after I finished The Store. There was no letdown as I might have experienced with other authors. The Revelation held true to Bently Little's genre-a real horror story with no confusing "experimentation" as so many authors fall in to.

Now about the story.....

The Revelation is an excellent horror novel with a true "good vs. evil" feel to it. I really didn't know what to make of the main character Brother Elias at first. The first assestment of this character is very decieving- is he a good guy or a bad guy?? The conclusion can't really be drawn until near the end of the book. The "evil" or should I say "killers" are terrifying because you really don't know who or what they are. Who and what they are not known by the reader in the first few chapters- not until further into The Revelation it is "implied" who and what they are. Further into the book the reader finally finds out who and what the killers are- which I may add is very disturbing. The question of "why" is evident throughout the story-which is also very disturbing when the answer is known. Unlike many other reviewers, I found the conclusion of The Revelation to be very satisfying. The reader is not left hanging. In all, The Revelation is a very original horror novel that will keep you up all night with the lights on- but you will want more...

I can't wait to read my next novel by Bentley Little!!

I had actually read 3 of Little's novels previously - The Walking (pretty cool), The House (eh),and Dominion (Cheesy but readable). I was not a Little fan, but I could read him in a pinch. His style is mildly irritating (stilted, but readable), and his gratuitousness seems to know no bounds (Dominion, especially). But this collection has actually made me opposed to Little and his work on a cosmic level. I read this directly after reading "Everything's Eventual" and I can only compare the juxtaposition of experience to be like listening to a Britney Spears CD on the heals of listening to the Beatles. I have no idea why this man gets such high praise. It reminds me of horror written by someone who has seen Killer Klowns a thousand times, but has never read The Shining. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. The plots are not just ridiculous, but someone needs to tell him that every quirky idea that enters the brain is not necessarily a good idea for a story.

Little's stories have no heart. Horrifying things happen, and he writes very slickly -- if nothing else, this book will pass the time on an airplane trip with its intensely readable prose, and I must give him credit for that. But it left me feeling less scared than just dirty, because the nasty things in these stories don't happen as part of a plot, or a character--they just happen for the sake of being nasty. The sensation could be compared to shoving your hand into a squirming maggot-filled roadkill corpse--whereas a truly good horror story, I think, should be more like watching your parents die. (To overextend a rather awful metaphor...)

Cannibalism, rape by the dead, crucifixion, Little pulls out every stop as far as it will go. His method seems to be to create a horrific and insulated setting--a child's home with insane parents, for example, is used more than once. Nasty, cruel, sickening things become the everyday order of things, and while this does give the reader a jolt rather like a punch in the stomach--a feeling of landing in an alien landscape, where everything is wrong--it shouldn't be a writer's only trick. Little shows no sign that he can write a horror story set in the real world--the world the reader actually inhabits.

The characters, furthermore, have no motivation(with a rare few exceptions, notably the detective in "Bumblebee" and "Maya's Mother")--they are simply insane and/or compelled by supernatural forces. Watching an insane person do horrible things is horrifying, indeed, but real accomplished horror is watching--and *understanding*--a sane person do those horrible things. It's the difference between a zoo exhibit and a mirror.

The stories in "The Collection" are elegantly hideous, but there's nothing beneath the surface. Little's work stires revulsion but the characters are all utterly interchangeable, and so it's impossible to really *care* on a level deeper than the visceral recoil from something disgusting.

Bentley Little is truly a creepy writer. The Collection shows off his penchant for the gory, the twisted, the perverse and the just plain strange. Contrary to previous opinions, I don't really believe that Little is the "thinking man's horror writer." He's strictly entertaining. His imagination, however, is unparalleled. I've always enjoyed his novels and, while I'm not normally a fan of short story collections, I did get a kick out of The Collection. Like all Little's work, it was a quick, entertaining read. I didn't find it all that scary, just creepy and twisted. Fine by me. The Collection is not going to recruit new legions of fans or change anyone's mind about Little, positive or negative, but it is an interesting insight into some of the ideas running around in Little's mind - as scary as that prospect may be.

Apparently I'm not alone in having bought this book due to the glowing reviews I'd seen of it. Hmm. Perhaps I bought the wrong book somehow.

As H.P. Lovecraft says, horror works because we have an innate fear of the unknown. Great horror creators must prey on our fears within to really cause the proper response. Poe, Lovecraft, Hitchcock, King, all understand that pace and timing and establishing a general "creepiness" are essential to making the reader resort to peering over his shoulder and crawling deeper under the covers while reading or watching.

Bentley Little appears to have no such clue. He begins the book by having a variety of characters essentially say, "Hey, there's something really creepy about this University. Boy, I sure am uncomfortable." Then he proceeds to intersperse a series of violent, generally sex-related, incidents with our protagonists saying, "Man, it sure is getting creepier than I thought around here. Wow."

His character names are insipid (Jim Parker? Hunger Hut?) his descriptions of casual events are far too bland to be interesting and far too detailed to serve any purpose ("he bought a burger, criss-cross fries and a large chocolate shake"). It feels just like reading a Hardy Boys novel with lots of violence and rapes thrown in.

He's an amazingly average writer, mishandling what SHOULD be a great plot. Had he done it right - letting us meet the characters, get used to UC Brea as it USED to be, then let US figure out that something weird is happening, that might get it.

If his characters weren't disfunctional, cliched excuses for horror-movie stereotypes, whose dialogue is as flat as his descriptions of the campus, that might be OK.

"Master of the Macabre" (King quote emblazoned on the cover) - hardly. Master of cheese, perhaps. Why 3 stars instead of two (or 1)? Mainly because he's got such a strong premise, however badly it's mishandled. Also, he's got at least one decent characterization in Ian Emerson, the English professor with a special affinity for porn and horror literature.

Don't bother with this one unless you can buy it for $2 in a second-hand bookstore and have lots of free time. Read something good instead, like Phil Rickman's _Curfew_.

I read "The Summoning" by Bentley Little a few weeks ago, and was absolutely blown away. I quickly scrambled into action, and bought up every single book Little has written; But as I started reading University, I thought of something REALLY scary....What if I had just wasted a ton of money on books that stunk? What if The Summoning was a fluke, and all his other books reeked...?

Shouldn't have worried! While not quite as good as The Summoning, University is a fun read. Little goes your typical haunted house/bad place story one better, giving readers an evil, sentient College campus getting ready to "graduate", I.E. move on to its next stage of evolution. Little is well-versed in Horror vernacular and traditions/cliches, and he makes good use of that knowledge here, referring to classics like Hell House, The Shining, Burnt Offerings, and Shirley Jackson's infamous Hill House; He even throws in a character named Eleanor! The cool thing is his CHARACTERS are also aware of the Horror cliches; At one point they even try to pick out which member of their group will die by ticking off the Horror-Novel death list: The weirdo, the unattached character, etc. I did feel that certain parts of the ending were a tad corny, and I was disappointed that, after telling us how a standard Horror novel would handle main-character-deaths, Little took the same cliched route, killing just who we'd expect. Other than that small beef, University is a fun, gross way to spend a few days. Looking forward to reading more of Mr. Little's work.

I've read all the reviews for this book, and I don't think there's a single one that gives it three or four stars: everybody either loves it or hates it.

The people who hated it talk about how they thought the violence was too graphic, there was a lack of subtlety, or the characters were too shallow. All true, to an extent. And the very notion of defeating supernatural demons with high explosives, though comforting, is awfully unimaginative.

However, those complaints don't diminish the sheer power this book has. Its horror is so strong that some people are put off by it (hence many of the negative reviews). Bentley is brilliant at slowly moving from the real-life horrors of modern teen apathy and violence to the darker and more brutal paranormal stuff later in the book. I've never seen someone who captures the terror of violence as well as Little does.

I am a college student, and what scared me the most about this book was its plausibility. That's right. At my school, violent incidents have been on a steady upswing. Crimes have been getting more frequent, and much sicker and more brutal. The most frightening factor of University is just how closely its first few chapters mirror real life.

This is the first book I have read by this author and was sorely disappointed. After reading all the other reviews, however, it appears that this was probably not the author's best effort. Usually, I can easily lose myself in a good, creepy read, but I found that I just could not suspend disbelief enough to get into it. I didn't think the characters were developed that well, there were a couple red herring plot lines (what was the purpose of introducing the 'X-files type' FBI agent?) and everything came together too neatly and conveniently in the end. This would be a good story to relay over a campfire, but I couldn't recommend this book to the serious, critical reader.

Bentley Little has had around ten horror novels published in the past ten years. All but two of them have been entertaining reads that have held the reader from the beginning until the end of the book. "The Walking" is one of those two.

Like all his novels, Little does an excellent job of setting up the story and develops it at a rapid pace. However, some of his works, including this one, tend to have only a so-so or rushed ending. This one definitely had a rushed ending.

The story revolves around a number of people on a list that have died, but their bodies started and continued to walk after their death. A small group of relatives to the dead band together to determine why and to where these people are walking. The story flips from the present to the past a number of times. The present part of the story is excellent and the past is sometimes lacking. Eventually, Little merges the two at the ending. However, this ending did seem to be rushed and not as satifying as it should have been.

If you're a Little fan, definitely read this one as it's still a good read. It's not up to par with his better works ("The Store", "The Summoning", "The Revelation"), but it is better than at least one of his other works ("The Town").

Granted, Bentley Little is one of the most polarizing figures in contemporary horror fiction. People either love him or hate him. But I find it curious that readers who deride his work and find his writing style not to their taste keep reading him. I read one Ruby Jean Jensen novel, for example, didn't care for it, and never read anything by her again.

From my point of view, Mr. Little's characterizations are spot on. I find his people and their internal lives, their ruminations, very believable. Having recently lost my father to cancer, I also found the portions of THE WALKING that deal with Miles and his father extremely well done and quite affecting. Mr. Little not only has an incredible imagination but he is also able to create characters with whom I, at least, can empathize. I believe him to be one of the top three horror authors currently writing.

I'm a fan of horror, no doubt about it. Just about anything remotely creepy, even when tinged with humor or silliness gets my attention. It's only when something ends up being silly, while not origially intended to be, is my faith in the genre shaken.

"The Town" is the first book I've read by Little, and though it is entertaining throughout its first 200 odd pages, it slowly becomes silly and seemingly hurredly summed up.

My gripes: 1) Little throws in characters from literally no where (where the hell did that Mormon shooting spree come from in the last 30 pages?) and then either drops them out of the story, or slaughters them 5 pages after he introduces them. It tends to not make me really care about what happens to them anyway, which leads to my second gripe. 2) The main characters tended to not gain my support. Gregory is a jerk, Julia is a snob, Babunya is overly religious/superstitious, Sasha is a brat, and the other two kids are just OK. Adam ended up a fully rounded character and I gained some respect for Julia and Babunya, but by page 250, I was looking forward to seeing some of these people get eaten, or whatever. Put them out of my misery.

I see great writing in some areas, and the descriptive passages (what there are of them) are nicely done. But some analogies clunked big time with me (i.e. "Like an alcoholic, she took it one step at a time.") Blah.

I will read more of Little's work. I don't dismiss an author with his growing reputation lightly. Even King, Rice, McCammon, Koontz and Straub have their stinkers.

Unfortunately, that is what "The Town" is in my book. A stinker.

My opinion, take it for what you will.

If you have never visited the strangely warped worlds of Bentley Little, but avidly wish to do so, you might want to start somewhere else than "The Town." Or, maybe you could start with this book; it might help you better appreciate his other books. For me, a Bentley Little completist, I cannot say this is his best effort to date. I also cannot claim that it is his worst novel, either. Many lambaste "The Town" for its forced and tepid dialogue, pancake flat characters, and a plodding plot. To some extent, many of the flaws found in "The Town" invidiously wind their way through most, if not all, of his other novels: subplots that go nowhere, unbelievable situations even for a horror novel, and unsatisfying conclusions. Yes, some of those flaws are here, but this tale is nowhere near as bad as many claim.

Gregory Tomasov and his family (wife Julia, daughters Teodosia and Sasha, and son Adam, along with Gregory's mother Agafia) should be riding as high as a balloon. Gregory won the California lottery and receives a cool $80,000 a year for the next few decades, which promises to make life very sweet and easy for a long time to come. Greg decides to take the money and literally run, from gang filled Southern California to his long forgotten childhood home of McGuane, Arizona. McGuane is a rat hole in the desert slowly dying out due to indifference and unemployment. But most importantly for Gregory and his mother, this little town still serves as a center for a Molokan population. Molokans are an obscure Christian sect from Russia that emigrated to the United States and Mexico to escape Tsarist persecution. Members of the congregation practice extreme pacifism with an almost mystical belief in the gospels and prayer. While Gregory and his wife are Molokans, their beliefs are at best extremely dubious and at worst lapsed. Their children have even less interest in the beliefs and rituals associated with the sect.

Things start to change quickly when the Tomasov clan arrives in McGuane. It turns out that the house they moved into was the scene of grisly murders and the rest of the town thinks the house is haunted. Then the killings start, gruesomely hideous crimes that set the town people on edge and stir up latent prejudice against the Molokans. Top that off with the slow disintegration of the Tomasov family, eerie supernatural events, and a 200 year old Russian prophet and you have the essentials of "The Town."

Little indulges in some of his usual unbelievable events. Take the disaster at the coffee shop for starters. It is difficult to imagine this store is big enough to hold that much equipment or that the ceilings are high enough to cause that type of damage, especially in a small town. Moreover, what exactly is the population size of McGuane? The back cover says there are roughly 300 residents, but from the events in the story it seems as though there must be thousands of people. How else could there be a high school and a junior high school full of students? Some of the internal thoughts of the main characters also pose serious problems. Towards the end of the story, Agafia and Julia spend more time wondering why they do stupid things than in trying to do anything else. It seems as though Little is trying to cover plot problems when he has his characters indulge in these inner dialogues. Overall, these aren't fatal flaws, but they are noticeable.

At least the ending is better developed than some of Little's conclusions in other books. I saw somewhere that Little doesn't like to spend much time wrapping his stories up. This is a big problem for horror fans, who always want to see a cataclysmic ending with lots of explosions, gore, or startling revelations. Well, there are some of those characteristics at the end of "The Town," and they do generally work well in the context of the story. Believe me when I say that "The Town" has a better ending than some of Little's other books. If you don't believe me, read "The Return."

"The Town" isn't Little's best effort, but it is far from his worst. The introductory chapter to this story sets an eerie tone, many of the murders are well thought out and gruesome, and the usual Little theme of a family slowly falling apart under the duress of external evils is well done. For more entertaining Bentley Little stories, turn to "The Store," and "The Mailman." Those two books fuse social satire with horror and give much more to the reader than what is found in this tale. After reading "The Town," I can safely say I am still a Bentley Little fan. I eagerly await his new novel arriving in stores later this year.

First of all I would like to say Bentley Little is the best Horror novelist known to man. He makes Dean Koontz look like Mr. Rogers from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. I've read five of his books and all have been unbelievably good. My favorite is 'The Town' For one The Molokan culture is very interesting. The way he writes makes you feel like you're in the town. I was so in to this book and all the people in the town. I can't say too much about the book because I know how I am. I'm the type that gets in detail and I would ruin the book for you all. Trust me though it is a great book and he gets beyond five stars in my eyes. I have been searching for his other books I havent yet read. NO book stores carry them around where I live anymore. It was luck I got a hold of the few i've got. So I am very happy I looked on Amazon.com, THANKS AMAZON!!

-Stacy Parks

"The Return" is the newest novel from horror author Bentley Little. Little, who also occasionally cranks out a social satire novel attacking such American institutions as chain stores or homeowner's associations, delivers a full-frontal assault on the horror genre with this book. "The Return" closely resembles "The Walking" and "The House," in that the gore and scares come fast and furious. This may be Little's eeriest book to date, quite an accomplishment for a man whose imagination explores the darkest depths of human fear and depravity.

Once again, Little sets his story in the American Southwest, specifically Arizona. We are introduced to Glen, a techie visiting Arizona to clear up the affairs of his recently deceased mother. Glen decides he needs to change his life, and he begins to do so by volunteering to work on an archeological expedition for the summer. It is there that he meets Melanie, a teacher who likes to spend her summers digging up Indian artifacts. Regrettably for Glen and Melanie, they soon find themselves in the center of an ancient evil that is reawakening after years of dark slumber. This evil involves the Anasazi people, a race that disappeared along with the Mayans nearly 1000 years ago. With the reappearance of this force in modern times, cities start to disappear, people turn to murder and cannibalism, Indian artifacts become animated, and apocalyptic signs start to occur. The consequences of these activities are both horrific and gory.

While Little creates a story that is scary, and consistently scary at that, he tends to bite off more than he can chew as the story progresses. Too many events are occurring, and too many people are wandering around in the story. Little has a tough time weaving all of these threads into a neat conclusion.

Little sets a dark tone early on as he builds towards what should be a thrilling climax. But like other Little books, the conclusion tends to be somewhat of a letdown. The showdown between Glen and the creatures is so brief that one wonders what the fuss is all about. Since this is a phenomenon that occurs in other Bentley Little books, it seems that Little enjoys writing the body of the story more than he likes ending his books. Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with this, because Little always creates an awesome build up in his books. This build up often leads to chills and wariness about strolling about in a dark house. If achieving those effects requires the sacrifice of a brilliant ending, so be it.

For Bentley Little fans, "The Return" is, well, a welcome return for Bentley Little. For those yet to experience this dark genius, "The Return" is a good place to start before you devour the rest of his catalog (although be sure to check out "The Store," one of Little's best books).

I read THE RETURN on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm so glad I did. This is a great book. Intelligently written and intricately plotted, it stands head and shoulders above most of today's horror fiction. There are ambitious, truly scary set pieces such as the descent of a small town into hell, a boy's horrific surreal loss of his parents, a delinquent's encounter with an ancient god in an Indian cave and an abusive father's comeuppance by the ghosts of his family that will haunt me for a long time to come. Bentley Little is as good as King, Koontz and Barker in their prime. While I can understand the frustration of some with the ending of the novel, climaxes in horror fiction have always been problematic (The ending of King's classic THE SHINING? The boiler blows up and destroys the hotel. the end.)The conclusion of THE RETURN is at least consistent with Little's Lovecraftian premise that evil is inherently unknowable. I can't wait to read the rest of this talented author's books.

Bentley Little's work evokes strong reactions in people. Other horror writers I like receive reviews that are all over the map, with most falling in the three-sat to four-star range. But readers either love Bentley's work or hate it. He gets either five stars or one star. I'm in the camp that thinks he's one of the best writers out there, and in my book this strong polarization of opinion is the sign of a true artist.
Here, in THE RETURN, as in his earlier novel, THE WALKING, Bentley posits a wild Lovecraftian west, a history of America that is not written about in books and involves cosmic supernatural beings. Rather than Lovecraft's cartoonish behemoths, however, these evil forces show up in smaller, scarier, more intimate ways in Bentley's work. Toss in some unique observations about the effect of the past on the present (even if it's not our own past), and what we have here is a truly unique and satisfying scarefest. The most frightening book I've read all year.