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Summary: The Collection - Bentley Little
Review: 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.
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Summary: The Best Short Story Collection Since NIGHT SHIFT
Review: Bentley Little proves once again why he is the best horror writer working today. These 32 stories effectively showcase his incredible range, from quiet horror like "Monteith" to the hardcore splatter of the edgy "Llama" to the unclassifiable weirdness of "The Man in the Passenger Seat." This guy can do it all! Perhaps most of interest to his fans are the short introductions which precede each work and explain where the author got the idea for each piece. A must-read for all serious horror fans.
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Summary: History, Skin Houses, and Other Things We Craft By Hand
Review: History is nothing but a wayward lie and George Washington, he was a self-proclaimed cannibal. Words, they have the power to fashion worlds, to change things, and speaking is sometimes a godlike fashioning utensil. Recycling, it can be a tool that works miracles, saving a planet being invaded by the looming human disease, but the extremities of it, they can be monstrous. And those shapes in the woods and the rituals that they require? Well, they are oftentimes more than most people want to bear. Landmarks, they aren't always something that a viewer wants to see, especially when you find something noted as a "skin house." And Snuff Films? Well, let's just say that they can reach out when the camera is turned and that the audience can understand the revelations, the intimacy, in ways they never thought possible. Over and over again, the world of images and facades, of haunting and the reasons why even deserted towns are filled with litter, comes seeping to the surface in fables fashioned on the greatest of canvases. And that's only a ripple in the pool of thought that this book brings to light. As a constantly bored entity looking for some new of enlightenment, I have found that short stories can be a cure-all for any ailment. How can that be? Well, it's actually quite simple. In only a small expanse of time, a scene can be devoured and a chill can emerge on skin that was otherwise calm and stoic, giving both an instant charge to the needing mind and a feeling of lovely woe that keeps the wanderer wandering.
And when wanting to sample, to taste different types of feeling and fears and attempts to rectify the disintegration of morality but only taste it lightly, I found this book to be a miracle in the making.
Why would I say this?
Well, because of a few reasons, actually.
First, the climate controlled herein is constantly changing, dancing to and fro while rolling in the written tongue of an impressively expressive mouthpiece; Bentley Little. Here, explanations run toe-to-toe with ideas that are sometimes mortifying and sometimes funny, keeping with a twisted theme but always coming off with surprising hitches. Finding a letter about a founding father being a cannibal comes back-to-back with a story spawned by a fear of vegetables, for instance, and runs in the same fields that a story about a pillow hugging back resides in.
Second, this book is constructed well and the tales, as a whole, are all good. I was actually surprised by how much depth could be found in so many intoxicating manifestations of pain or dread, with characters that could be felt despite living for only ten pages. This takes talent and it takes a skillfully choosing hand, both of which seem to apply to the words of Mr. Little.
Third, there are thirty-two stories concealed within a little over four hundred-fifty pages, giving the mind a realm that comes in many snapshot flavors and yet leaves a person feeling as if their time was well-spent. This, to me, is something sometimes elusive, and I find myself needing more.
That's not to say that I didn't want anything else, but the fabrics fashioning this work, well, they kept me happy.
Lastly, Bentley Little takes time to comment on each piece and explain something about its creation beforehand. This little piece of insight into the working mind is something that I found really worthwhile because I've often wondered where the spawning grounds lie. And the answers, well, they were worthy additions. While this isn't overly riddled with gore, I would possibly caution those that aren't horror readers to ease into the waters because they are interesting. This is because Bentley crafts something that many forget to make, that of atmosphere, and it sometimes left a little feeling, a little friend, called doom setting close to this nightly reader's endtable. If you are someone that likes to find yourself lured in by a premise, though, and ones that are looked into with insights that are cold and bizarre are all the better, then this is something for you. Honestly, I was quite taken with this piece of work and I read many portions of this book more than once, chuckling at the skyline that giftedly-demented hands can craft.
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Summary: Don't Bother
Review: How disappointing! For a Bentley Little fan, this book left much to be desired. After reading The Store, and The Return I figured just about anything he wrote should be golden - not true. Mediocre stories - not scary, not particularly horror filled, or even interesting - some plain flat out stupid! I would not recommend this book even to the most die-hard fan!
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Summary: Ridiculous Book
Review: I bought this book thinking that while I don't think he's the world's greatest horror novel writer, he has good "punchline ideas" and that short stories would be perfect for him. Unfortunately I'm very dissapointed. What it comes down to is that a large portion of the stories make no sense! They wander here and there and taper off to an ending that's not really an ending. I feel like he took general ideas, made them as gruesome and possible and felt no need to actually base them around a real story. They honestly make no sense some of them. A total waste of money.
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Summary: Little indeed
Review: i can only put it this way: i didn't get it. the style was so shallow, the psychology awful, the descriptions too bad, the way that the happenings were described made it so little credible (i never bought the people's actions). worst of all: the plots were poor, or weren't really plots in the common sense at all, or was unrecognizable as plots because they were so standard stuff. i mean: the mother is a killer. the boy thinks about killing her. and, surprise: HE KILLS HER. truly amazing! and considering the other flaws described above, the story is so uninteresting
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Summary: One star, but only because I had to
Review: 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.
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Summary: This is terrific!
Review: I had never heard of Bentley Little and was looking for Stephen King Books, when I stumbled upon this. Boy am I glad I did. Some of these stories really stick with you... The Washingtonians, The Idol, The Sanctuary.... All I can say is,"My God, READ THIS BOOK!!!!!"
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Summary: Chills and weirdness abound
Review: I have been a fan of Bentley Little's ever since I read The Revelation - which was a fairly standard horror story with a terrifying twist. Little manages to take a situation that is beyond bizarre and somehow make it real and frightening (i.e, The Store and University). With The Collection, new readers will just have to experience his story, The Washingtonians, to see what the author is all about.
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Summary: Haunting, Thought-Provoking, and Unnerving !!!!
Review: I have read some of Bentley Little's novels and have found myself split..some were great..some just didn't do anything for me. However I picked up Little's 'The Collection' hoping to get a broader view of his talent. I can say I was not disappointed. 'The Collection' contains 32 pieces of short fiction by an author I now consider to be one of the most disturbing in modern horror. Yet it isn't gore or fear that pulls the reader into each story. It's Bentley's undeniable ability to make the reader think. That is where the real terror begins. As I read each of the stories in 'The Collection', I found that they all truly disturbed and haunted me long after finishing them. If you want thought-provoking horror that will keep you awake for many nights to come 'The Collection' is definitely IT!!!
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