Rating: 
Summary: Want to get hooked on a new horror author?
Review: Without a doubt, Bentley Little is my absolute favorite little- known horror writer. The Store starts out with a sleepy little town of Juniper, Arizona becoming the home for a new discount chain store, simply known as - The Store. But strange things start to happen as soon as the groundbreaking starts. Dead animals appear in the area. By the time the store is open for business the local merchants realize that they are going to be pushed out by the new mega merchant. The store is like a cancer that takes over the town, infesting and controlling the citizens, the police and fire departments, even the local school. The store demands loyalty from its employees to the point of being a cult. Mysterious and faceless leather clad enforcers from the store known as Night Managers discipline any employee or citizen who crosses the line. Anyone who complains about the stranglehold the store is exerting on the town mysteriously disappears. One of the most vocal opponents, Bill Davis, is trying to stop the takeover, at the same time fearing for his two teen-age daughters who are now working there. When the store offers him a job as manager and flies him to Texas to meet the mysterious CEO of the store chain he has to make a decision that could free the town or cost him everything he owns. Bentley Little is totally enthralling. I've read several of his books and love his style. He combines horror, suspense, and kinky surprises to give the reader some real jolts. The Store taking over the town reminded me of what the Nazis did in Germany and I'm sure that's where Little got his inspiration. This is a great escape book and I really recommend it to any true horror connoisseur. After this book I recommend tracking down some of his other titles and enjoying them.
Rating: 
Summary: A great premise and good beginning end in disappointment
Review: Because I have respect for most creative efforts (especially those of writers), I seldom give negative reviews. This book was such a dissappointment, I felt it warranted an exception.I loved the premise -- a discount department chain store moves into a small town, drives out all local competition, and insidiously takes over the town, becoming a malevolent "Big Brother" that rules the lives (and deaths) of everyone in town. The edging out of small-town stores by big corporations gives the book enough of a basis in reality to make you shiver at the words "Welcome to Walmart." (I kept imagining a commercial with an evil smiley face bouncing around causing death and mayhem as it slashes both prices and customers.) Although this premise was both creepy and intriguing, the story lays down many hints that never pan out and questions about the true nature of the evil corporation and its president are never resolved. At the end, you don't know much more about the mysterious deaths and other weirdness than you did before. Also, the takeover of the town becomes less and less credible the farther you get into the book. My other complaint is with some of the sexual themes in the book. It was not that I was offended by them, but the sex scenes seemed to be somewhat gratuitous and unneccessary. The perversions depicted in the story, I assume, were supposed to be horrific or maybe titilating in some way. Instead, these incidents just seemed seedy and disgusting, possibly because so little was said about them after their occurence. The author devoted a great part of the book to mourning the loss of small-town, small-business (he seemed quite preachy at times), but the sexual incidents were mostly glossed over. Sorry, but I think that rape at the hands of a sadistic boss and incest(even unintentional)are much greater human tragedies than the abandoned shops on main street. While it was well written at the beginning, it definitely fell flat about 2/3 of the way through. The ending was abrupt and left you guessing. It makes me wonder if the author didn't get disgusted (and bored) with the story himself after some of the weird sexual stuff around the end and just hastily wrote a conclusion and sent it off to the publisher.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but imperfect
Review: At first glance, The Store might appear to be a rehash of Stephen King's Needful Things. Both deal with rather sinister shops, but the similarities essentially end there. Bentley Little's novel is a dark satire that is well-written and suspenseful, although it does fall apart a little at the end. The story focuses on Bill Davis, whose family resides in the small Arizona town of Juniper. Juniper is one of those middle-of-nowhere towns in which there is not much in the way of shopping choices, and in fact, most of the times, the residents must go out of town to get what they need. Into this sleepy village comes The Store, a generically-named, sinister (but obvious) version of Wal Mart. The Store offers a great selection and low prices. Unfortunately, The Store also offers much more to those who wander down the wrong aisles: racist video games, snuff films and cheap explosives. It also has a rather rigid employment policy which requires dark rituals to get hired and severe consequences for disobedience or quitting. Then there are the mysterious Night Managers... As with most of Little's best novels, this succeeds both as horror novel and satire. It is exciting reading, but as with many horror novels, the ending is a bit weak. Also, while we are expected to suspend our disbelief for supernatural fiction, there should at least be plausibility, and in some of the events of this story, such plausibility is a bit lacking. These flaws keep The Store from being a great book, but it is still pretty darn good and - though not Little's best effort - it is a fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Master of the craft!
Review: You think Stephen King is good, just try Bentley Little. And if you're going to start somewhere, start here, with his best. It's called "The Store." I know, it's a cheap title, and it was so simple I almost didn't buy the book. But I was a Little fan, so I decided why not. Trust me, it was worth it. Jumiper, Arizona. A small desert town with locally-run businesses. You can imagine how excited the townsfolk are when a retail discount giant--simply titled "The Store"--decides to build there. Bill Davis jogs buy the site of the new store everyday. One day, however, he discovers the sign there changed. There is also a dead deer. The next day all the trees and shrubs are cleared from the land, and there are more dead animals. In just a matter of months the Store is built and open for business. It immediately becomes the town's main employer. It also becomes the main shopping place, with the latest brand-name items. The smaller businesses are either forced out of business, bought out, or mysteriously burnt to the ground. That's not all. The Store features items not commonly found in public places. Sex videos, other items that should not be available. Dangerous items are found in the children's section, at amazingly low prices affordable to all ages. The Store is even beginning to feature construction items and gas. It soon becomes the ONLY place to shop in Juniper. The personel manager is a mysterious man by the name of Mr. Lamb. He forces hirees to undergo tests like urine tests with him watching. He demands only the best. New employees must run "the Gauntlet" in order to be hired. And if someone breaks a single rule--no matter how trivial--the mysteriously disappear. But Davis's two daughters want to join. They suddenly turn against their father, who is anti-Store. But his actions may not be enough, for The Store soon controls the town counsil. And to top it off, the entire chain is run by a mysterous man named Newman King. Bentley Little will scare your socks off with this one. It is not only a superb horror novel, worthy of any and every award available, but is a great story about how a giant corporation can control an entire town. Buy The Store today. It'll be worth every penny.
Rating: 
Summary: makes a good sleep aid
Review: This book is terrible. I read The Walking and I found it entertaining, if a little simplistic. This book, however, is ridiculous. The plot is threadbare. The ending is ludicrous. Perhaps it would make for an entertaining read if I was 14 years old. Suprising to see incest used as a plot device in such an offhand manner. I recommend not wasting your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't belive the rave reviews...
Review: I spent most of the time while I was reading this book, wondering why the characters in the story were putting up with the antics of THE STORE.
It makes it tough to enjoy a story when most of the characters are portrayed as being intelligent, yet they are clueless about how to deal with the obviously evil STORE.
(PSSST.....Don't shop there!)
Rating:
Summary: Blue Light Special on Bone Saws: Aisle 9
Review: If you want all your horror creatures explained, along with their origins, motives and detailed descriptions of how they acquired their powers, and you want all loose ends tied up in a neat little bundle and handed to you by the final page, don't read this book (or anything by Bentley Little) because it will only frustrate you. Newman King does will not tell Bill that he is really (1. a creature from The Pleaides System 2. Satan 3. A vampire) and that he makes his Night Managers by (1. exposing corpses to the radiation form his starship 2. draining blood from Hu-Mans 3. breeding possums with giant lemurs.) It ain't gonna happen. Little leaves the details up to the imagination of his readers, and that is a large part of his genius. Or else he is just plain lazy. Either way, the technique makes for a great, creepy read and I always look forward to starting another Little book. Like The Policy, The Association and The Ignored (and probably a few others I haven't read yet), The Store takes a little bit of real life that many of us find annoying and objectionable and amps it up to horrific proportions. This time, Big Box stores,their CorpThink and their predatory capitalism are mercilessly skewered and ultimately made to grovel and beg. I think there is a lesson in this: If you do business with Bentley Little, do NOT tick him off. You and your organization might find yourselves embellished with blood, entrails and vomit and made the theme of his next novel.
Rating:
Summary: The Horror of a Monopoly Founded on Blood
Review: When The Store opened in Juniper, Arizona, the entire town turned out. The Store was supposed to help the town recover economically from the closing of the paper mills in the 80's instead it sought to destroy the small businesses all ready there, to financially break the town and then underwrite the police force, parks and recreation etc. and eventually ran its own people for mayor and town council positions easily winning the elections. Then there were the animals that kept seeking death in The Store's parking lot by causes unknown, the bloody rituals that employees were required to participate in and the strange police force that patrolled the store at night. Anyone who fought the store either was bought out or disappeared. The store stocked illegal and bizarre items on its selves and insisted upon having escorts show people through The Store allowing those so inclined to explore their darkest desires. One man Bill Davis whose daughters Samantha and Shannon worked for the store goes to see Newman King the founder and CEO of the store, a Howard Hughes type recluse who spoke to his customers through press releases. He wants his daughter released from their ironclad contracts that won't allow them to quit without some sort of repercussions. King offers him a position as a store manager and Bill accepts thinking that he can change The Store from the inside an incredibly dangerous move. He's nearly sucked into The Store mentally but snaps out of it when he discovers a dark secret. He contacts other disgruntled managers and together they decide to take back their towns. The Store was intense and fascinating so many points Little makes are so true of many large corporations. This text bares warnings for all of us to heed. An excellent Horror read!!!
Rating:
Summary: HORRIBLE ENDING
Review: I gave this book 2 stars because it had a great opening, and for the most part it kept me interested. Other than that though this is not a good book. As the story goes along it becomes more and more far fetched. It is more laughable than disturbing. The biggest problem though is the author has several bizarre story arcs he goes off on and he never resolves any of them. The ending made me wonder how this got published. I think the author could not figure out how to explain all the bizarre incidents that take place in the book so he just wrapped things up in a simple uninspired ending that left me annoyed. This book is not worth your time. This was my first Bentley Little book, and I must say I am very unimpressed.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely up to Little's standards
Review: Do you like freaky, unnatural novels? Do you like the feeling of chills going up & down your spine? I know I do, which is why Bentley Little is one of my favorite arthurs. This particular novel is quite interesting. Not as scary, creepy as his other novels, but definitely strange. It about a store chain that is taking over America, one store at a time. I wouldn't want to work at this store, not after reading what they do to employees who displease them. In the battle of corporations vs. small business owners, I'd say Bentley Little is on the side of the small business owners!
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