Review: The Resort; The Association; The Walking by Bentley Little

title: The Association

author: Bentley Little
ISBN: 0451201744

publisher: Signet

year: 2001

pages: 438

reading time: 4days (18/02/2009 to 21/02/2009)

rating: 8.5

I read this book when I was in the hospital. I ask to bring it but I really didn't thought of reading but I start reading a book a day and I had only this one so... It turn out a good book with a strange plot. Surrealistic and highly atmospheric book. It worked for me... I enjoyed it so much that I bought several other book from Little. Only the Collection worked so far but I didn't lose hope.

Review from Publisher Weekly: With this haunting tale, Little (The Town) proves that he hasn't lost his terrifying touch. Barry and Maureen Welch are thrilled to exchange their chaotic California lifestyle for the idyllic confines of Bonita Vista, a ritzy gated community in the unincorporated fictional town of Corban, Utah. But as Bonita Vista residents, they're required to become members of the neighborhood's Homeowners' Association, a meddling group that uses its authority to spy on neighbors, eradicate pets and dismember anyone who fails to pay association dues and fines. Maureen, an accountant, and Barry, a horror writer who is banned by the association from writing at home, soon find themselves trapped in the kind of deranged world that Barry once believed existed only within the safety of his imagination. The novel's graphic and fantastic finale demonstrates the shortsightedness of the Association and will stick with readers for a long time. Little's deftly drawn characters inhabit a suspicious world laced with just enough sex, violence and Big Brother rhetoric to make this an incredibly credible tale.

title: The Walking

author: Bentley Little

ISBN: 0451201744

publisher: signet

pages: 373

year: 2000

reading time: 13days (03/03/2009 to 15/03/2009)

rating: 5.5

This book was very slow and I didn't thought of it of horror. I read for several times and falling asleep after some pages. The characters are poor and the plot is not so great ending far quickly. I didn't enjoy. I truly hope that Little didn't lose his touch because I am beggining to doubt his ability to make me afraid or any other feeling rather than apathic.

From Publishers Weekly

The overwhelming sense of doom with which Little (The Revelation) imbues his newest novel is so palpable it seems to rise from the book like mist. Flowing seamlessly between time and place (from the present-day hassles of HMOs to the once-uncharted territory of the American West), the Bram Stoker Award- winning author's ability to transfix his audience while relinquishing scant details about the foreboding evil is superb. Private investigator Miles Huerdeen is on a mission to find a link between the victims in a bizarre nationwide string of deaths dating back decades, his own recurring nightmares and an elderly client's prophetic handwritten list of dead men's names. Miles's world is suddenly turned upside down when he discovers his own fatherDwho suffered a fatal strokeDpurposefully striding around his bedroom, naked except for a pair of cowboy boots, having scared off his "God-Fearing Christian" nurse. Miles's obsession with his father's transformation into a zombie leads him to the families of other dead "walkers" and on a supernatural journey into the Arizona desert. Readers will gladly suspend disbelief for Little's deft touch for the terrifying, as he slowly reveals a shocking connection between the mindless army of reanimated corpses and their ultimate destination, Wolf Canyon, formerly a government-sponsored witch colony, where a vengeful resident's evil powers have yet to be fully unleashed. If booksellers are on their toes, they'll tell readers that Stephen King, a big fan of Little's work, was reading another book by this author at the time of his infamous accident. This novel has the potential to be a major sleeper in the horror category.

title: The Resort
author: Bentley Little
ISBN: 045212800
publisher: signet
pages: 390
year: 2004
reading time: 47 days (16/03/2009 to 01/05/2009)
rating: 5

After reading the first book called The Association I was stunned and start reading another book by Bentley Little one after another. First was The Collection (which I made a review in a preview post) and then the Walking and then this one. This one was the weakest of them all. It was a slow pacing book with the plot as ludicrous as the previous novels I read. This one I had no sympathy for the main characters or the plot. There is nothing here that I could find that it was interesting... The only part that was interesting was the atmosphere but even that was not that good... It was more obscene and pervert than the other novels..

Welcome to The Reata, an exclusive spa isolated in the Arizona desert. Please ignore the strange employees and that unspeakable thing in the pool. And when guests start disappearing, pretend it isn't happening. Enjoy your stay, and relax. Oh...and lock yourself in after dark.Review by Publishers WeeklyAs the novel opens, Lowell Thurman, his wife and their three sons are checking into the exclusive Reata, an isolated resort in the Arizona desert, for a five-night off-season stay. Soon, though, unnerving encounters with strange employees, wild parties in empty rooms and bizarre sex antics in the family restaurant prompt the Thurmans, as well as other key characters, to think about leaving early. Yet the Reata's magnetic pull essentially brainwashes all the guests into believing that their odd experiences are normal. By the time people begin dying brutal deaths, the youngest Thurman boy has made a discovery that could unlock the resort's secrets, but at a high personal cost. Little weaves an explicitly repulsive yet surrealistically sad tale of everyday horror. Unfortunately, as in much of his work, he fails to credibly explain a far-fetched, major plot development. Longtime fans should be used to that by now, though, and will be forgiving.

Review: Ju-On - Kei Ohishi

Title: Ju-On (novelization from Ju-On (The Grudge)

Author: Kei Ohishi

ISBN: 159582071x

Publisher: Dark Horse

Pages: 276

Reading Time: 13days (23/04/2009 to 05/05/2009)

Rating: 7/10

When I bought this book I wanted to know if a book can be as scary as a picture movie. Well it doesn't. I have seen both the Grudge version and both are scarier (the japanese is more scarier and simpler). This book adds many things to the plot and after reading this book I u nderstand more of the ju-on and the whys and some questions I wondered after seeing the movie.

Well the initial parts are way better and the plot was well conceived.I enjoyed the book and read only at night. It has some parts that make you kind of scare or disgusted if you want.

There is a part in the end when the ju-on says that of all human emotions , none is more primitive and has a longer effect on the body than hatred. The immutable proof of this can be seen in the millennia-old hatred between the jews and the palestians, serbians and muslins, the hutu and tutsi and other parties... Even love cannot erase such intense hatred. Mere love is powerless against hatred.

I would advice this book to anyone who wants to know more of japan ghost stories and learn more of the Ju-On saga. In the end is a good horror story.

Review: Icebound, Watchers, The Taking by Dean Koontz

title: Icebound

author: Dean Koontz

publisher: Headline Book Publishing

pages: 384

year: 1976

reading time: 7days (04/04/09 to 10/04/2009)

rating: 5/10

Of all Dean Koontz books I've read this one is the worst. No horror, no suspense, nothing. The main characters made me sick. I felt no sorry for them and if I could I would have killed them both. So perfect it made me sick. This is one of dean koontz main faults in almost all books... he makes too darn good characters. they are like angels. Well at least this book didn't had a dog.

In the end all ends good but I wished them all killed. What we learn? Nothing. If this was the first book I've read from Koontz I wouldn't be reading another book of his so soon..

It is poorly written, lacks suspense or tension, the characters are one-dimensional and the 'serial killer' subplot is pitiful (so pitiful that the "serial killer" doesn't kill anyone!)

Some characteristcs of the characters,

-One is highly phobic, terrified of (you guessed it): ice & snow (because of an accident that killed her parents)!

-Another's family was murdered in China

-Another's had close relatives assasinated while in office and is disillusioned by politics (a thinly disguised JFK jr?)

-Another lost his son to cancer

-Another's psychotic

... oh well..

title: Watchers

author: Dean Koontz

publisher: Headline Book Publishing

pages: 512

year: 1987

reading time: 11 days (30/10/2008 to 09/11/2008)

rating: 7.5/10

This was the first book I read from Koontz. I like it. Smart dog vs Evil something. Again the same too darn good characters. They are so perfect that are unbelievable. The "evil" characters are so evil that are perfect (well until the end). I think Koontz could start making characters with some flaws... But the story itself was good. I like how unfolds itself. In the end I was glad I read it but...

Again with the golden retrievers... What of the cats? I think he hates them.

"When the Russians sabotage a genetic research project in California, two mutated creatures escape from the lab. One is a golden retriever with high enough intelligence to think and communicate with humans; the other is the Outsider, a vicious monster created from a baboon and bred to kill. Both the man who befriends and adopts the dog and his new bride find themselves stalked by government agents anxious to find the dog, a particularly repulsive Mafia hit man intent on stealing him, and the Outsider, with whom the dog is linked telepathically. "

title: The Taking

author: Dean Koontz

publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

pages: 432

year: 2005

reading time: 7 days (28/11/2008 to 04/12/2008)

rating: 8/10

This is a good book. Again the darn good characters and the dogs... (I bet the next book will have them both...) This book was good for it's atmospheric and almost percepetible miasma. The aliens, the part of the dogs. I thought it was a good and fast paced book.

This review I found despicts my thought without taking a word...

"The story starts off with powerful mood-building imagery and with echoes of Koontz's "Strangers" and Stephen King's "The Stand" and "The Mist." Koontz then cranks up the suspense and horror as alien vegetation begins to invade the town, the residents are dispatched in gruesome and mysterious ways, and the dead come to life. Now the story segues into a Twilight Zone screenplay, as the supernatural and otherworldly occurrences increase. By the halfway point, Molly and Neil are now on a crusade to save the children at any cost, even though they wonder how anyone, adult or child, could survive this hellish new world order. When there are only 50 pages left to go in the story, I am wondering how Koontz could ever resolve the plot instead of leaving the reader hanging until a sequel. Then comes a disappointing ending that plays strongly on Koontz's increasing trend to use religion and hope in his books. Dogs feature prominently in this story, as they do in many of Koontz's books. However, the author's trademark sense of humor is conspicuously absent here.

To be fair, I give the first half of the book a nine rating for an excellent portrayal of a horrific and inexplicable entity gaining absolute control over the earth. I give the middle a three rating as Molly assumes absurdly heroic proportions in the midst of Armageddon. The ending deserves one star as a cop-out and a disappointment. So how can I sum the book up? If you are a Koontz fan like me, you will want to read the book. The first half is a powerhouse of creepiness and it has a story line build-up that showcases the best of Koontz's storytelling abilities. But the second half will likely let you down, unless your favorite theme in Koontz's books is the transcendence of horror by uplifting spirituality."

"A glowing rain begins falling at one a.m. in the San Bernardino Mountains of California, where productive but hardly best-selling novelist Molly Sloan and her ex-priest husband, Neil, live outside a small town. Besides being luminous, the downpour smells like rancid semen, Molly thinks, and it brings with it a feeling of oppression. Animals cower from it, as Molly grasps when she sees a pack of coyotes huddling on the porch. The little wolves seem to be appealing to her for help, and when she walks out to them, they seem to expect her to lead them. She goes to wake Neil, rescuing him from a nightmare, and to wash--no, scour--her hands where the rain hit them. The torrent continues, taking out the power, but then appliances come on spontaneously, and the hands of clocks run wildly in opposite directions. The Sloans conclude they must leave after an interior mirror reflects the house as invaded by ghastly vegetation--but doesn't reflect them at all. Opening sequences come no creepier than this one, and the rest of Koontz's version of the extraterrestrial attack scenario so well lives up to it that the revelation, painstakingly apprehended by Molly, of who the aliens really are comes as no surprise. "

Review: The Long Winter - John Christopher

title: The World in Winter (The Long Winter)

author : John Christopher

year: 1962

pages: 224 pages

reading time: 8 days (11/04/2009 to 18/04/2009)

rating: 7/10

This was an interesting book to read. I enjoy reading about world end scenarios.

One of the scenarios I like the most is a winterish one. Like the movie The Day After Tomorrow.

This is a interesting book to read... The first chapter was the best (and was the end) then we go the begining... What happenned and why happenned and how the characters survived. The story tells that due to natural solar fluctuations a new ice age has dawned. (don't forget that this book was written in 62.) The book itself isn't about the disaster but how the people react to it. It has everything that was popular then... things like exploring gender, racism, polititcs, colonization, customs and other themes.

The characters are believeble and they act like human beings not flesh out characters... It's funny how the writer wrote about the reversal of fortunes... the colonized countries began to colonized a barren continent.

In the end I enjoy it. The end is believable but I thought that the end was a little rushed out. A couple dozen pages more would do great.

I will continue to read more of his books.. I have Death of Grass to read next.

Review: Castaways by Brian Keene

title: Castaways

author: Brian Keene
isbn: 0-8439-6089-2
publisher: Dorchester Publishing
pages: 285

reading time: 3days (19/04/2009 to 21/04/2009)

rating: 6/10

After reading some time ago the Rising and the City of the Dead I bought some time ago several more books by Brian Keene. I have the Conqueror Worms, The Ghoul and the Dark Hollow. I am waiting for Dead Sea to come from amazon.

Two weeks ago I went to a story with a friend and I saw the book and I bought it. I have more books to read but at that moment I didn't have any with me and I was going to the hospital seeing my grandmother so I bought to read along the way and in the waiting.

I was dissapointed I must say comparing with the other two books... the characters weren't that good and they weren't all that well portraited. That people would enter aThe theme itself was good even if unbelieveble (but expecting zombies so that's no worry). I think that the book wasn't all that spooky but in a way was disguting reading about the raping and such. After reading a couple dozen pages I already knew who would be the survivors... Oh well...

In the end I am disapointed but I think Brian Keene is one of the best horror novelists writing nowadays and that's why I bought the other books even if didn't enjoy this one... This book reminds me of the Island by Laymon.

Book Review: The Earth Strikes Back - Anthology

Title: Earth Strikes Back
Author: Severa. Edited by R. T. Chizmar
ISBN 1-56504-919-5

Publisher: White Wolf Publishing,U.S.
pages: 416
Reading Time: 5days (25/04/2009 to 29/04/2009)

Rating: 7.5

I like to think that earth is alive. Is one big organism that some people call Gaia. I always thought that humans don't belong to mother earth ecosistem... I thought that if the trees are the blood of Gaia and animals are nourishment and the bacteria and virus were the defenses of it... Well, where do we enter here? We don't. We destroy mother earth... We bring nothing good to it. We are worst the virus and bacteria. We destroy without purpose and contempt. We are a surplus. And mother earth will have it's way.

I read once (and then again here in one of this stories) that if humans use radiation to threat cancer than mother earth uses ultraviolets rays to threat it's cancer... Us!

I read someplace that there are many diseases being discover, now we have the swine flu and bird flu that have cause some hysteria in the media... I like to think that it's mother earth revenge time. We will see..

Now back to the book... Some stories were good, some were not so good but only one was awful.

My Copsa Micas by Dan Simmons - A story of reckless pollution and disturbing dreams. It was one of the best story. It tells our story of humankind and some views on it. I like it. 7/10

Harvest by Norman Partridge - Cancer destroys a man's family and his sanity as well. I didn't enjoy this story very much. One of the weakest. 3/10

Toxic Wastrels by Poppy Z. Brite - The two adult wastrel children of a town's major polluter finally suffer a poetic justice. I didn't enjoy this story as much... 3/10

The Forest is Crying by Charles De Lint - A man regains his faith when visited by an angel from the future who helps him with her past. This story is a good one. It as very little to do with earth striking back but it's almost the other way around. 5/10

I Remember Me by Thomas Tessier - When memory fades, what will you do when no one else is capable of reminding you? This one is one of the best stories. I like the way he creates a plague that makes people forgetting things... love it. 9/10

Ground Water by James Kisner - A man's insistent request to be hooked up to the City's water supply has a very grisly twist. This views in this story are one of the spookiest of all stories in this anthology. Specially the family in the tub... Argh 7.5/10.

Cages by Ed Gorman - What would you do to help your drug addicted and crazy parents out? Didn't enjoy it. Didn't like it. I even didn't finish it. It was the only one I couldn't finish. Too strange for me... 1/10

Where It's Safe by John Shirley - Even all the money in the world can't keep you safe. One word... Eco-terrorism. 7.5/10

Expiration Date by William Relling Jr. - Does our planet have one? Strange and simple story. 6/10

The Dreaded Hobblobs by Gary A. Braunbeck - What if they moved next door to you? Even worse, what if they had plans for you? This one is a excelent story. Braunbeck creates a good story of something that would be good to happen to us... maybe that way we could help mother earth pollution... 9/10

Cancer Alley by Nancy A. Collins - Guess who's coming to the next town meeting? Good story. Good plot. 7/10

Binary by Roman A. Ranieri - A young boy's rescuer takes revenge for those that caused his death. This is a good story with a straightforward plot. One of the gems of this anthology. I have to see more books by Ranieri. 9/10

Tyrophex Fourteen by Ronald Kelly - A deadly burning gas is accidentally released and the company will do anything to cover their tracks. This story is another gem of this anthology. Maybe there is a conspiracy 8/10

Torrent by Mark Rainey - It won't quit raining, and the rain can kill... I don't even have to say more... It's a sad story... 9/10

Toxic Shock by Rick Hautala - A twist to the old abortion debate. 8/10

Please Stand By by Thomas F. Monteleone - Would you keep your mouth shut for enough money? I think story tells everything our world turn into it... Money buys everything. 10/10

Double-Edged Sword by Barry Hoffman - So you spray gases for the military, but what if you fall victim too? Probably my favourite story (not counting the sad one... :) ) 9.5/10

The Fur Coat by Richard Laymon - How far will an animal activist go? Again eco-terrorists but different kind... Some persons go to far and begin to take actions into their hands. Good story. It's too humane... 9/10

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200 by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - How competitive will our world get? Not the best story but a good one 7.5/10

Genesis II by Hugh B. Cave - After its all over, will you be able to start again? Good story with a interesting plot... 8.5/10

In the end I would reccommend this book to anyone who loves nature... I would give this book to almost everyone.