title: The Association
author: Bentley Little
ISBN: 0451201744
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.
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 Resortauthor: 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.
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