Rating: 
Summary: Explicit Sex and Extreme Violence = Horror Classic?
Review: I got 'The Collection' by Bentley Little as a present from my parents, who thought I would like it because Stephen King's quote was featured on the cover. For the most part, I enjoyed it.I got several other novels from the library to read on vacation. One of them was University. Although I read the fantastic 'Mailman' novel after it, this made me decide to drop Bentley Little for a long time. There's waaaaaay to much sex and waaaaay to much violence for me. Bentley Little has shown he's not above doing sex and violence in his novels, but this is ridicilous. Most of its unrelated, too in that it does nothing to advance the plot, and if an editor were to snip it out it would not make a difference. My best guess is Bentley Little wanted to show how the school's twisted power has influenced the staff and students, but could he possibly do it without tons of explicit material? Could he show how sick one antagonist is without having a needless scene in which he licks milk from his mother's breast? Is a rapist janitor who has no development that does nothing to further the plot really neccessary? Guess not.
Rating:
Summary: Not the typical Bentley Little
Review: I had read the mixed reviews before purchasing and reading this book, but I felt that if it was Bentley Little, it had to be good. Now I know that many of the reviewers were right and I was wrong. This book is nothing but a terrible conglomeration of gore and sex. The plot is weak, many things are confusing or unclear, and it appears that Mr. Little attempted to make up for the lack of significant plot by filling the book with very explicit sex and unnecessary gore. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. Usually I can't put a Bentley Little book down. This time I had to force myself to finish it. Save your money by not buying this book; buy another one of his books instead.
Rating: 
Summary: A Neat Spin On The Traditional "Bad Place" Story.
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Good idea, bad writing.
Review: I read a few posts about whether this book was edited. I agree. I don't think it was. I noticed on every single page things I would get dinged for in my writing. Did Stephen King actually think the writing was good-especially after he wrote the book "On Writing." The premise of the story was good. The characters had promise. But the story was full of so much gore and sex that it was just disgusting. I would never read this in a public place-I'd be too embarrassed. And the last chapter was a total waste of space. What the point of the last chapter anyway? It did nothing to sum up the plop. And yes, the ending was predictable. I think with a good editor behind this book, it could have been much better. This was my last Bentley Little book. I've read two and I think I've read enough. Back to Stephen King for me.
Rating:
Summary: Cheesier than "USA Up All Night"
Review: I read somewhere (I believe it was HorrorNet.com) that Bentley Little's "The Ignored" was the best horror book of 1997. When I couldn't get ahold of a copy, I thought I would give "University" a try. What a mistake. This is probably the cheesiest book I've ever read. I felt like I was watching some B-rate movie on late night TV. I don't expect much character depth in horror books, but this was ridiculous. Usually some shallow elements can be tolerated with a good frightening storyline, but the cheap sex and violence that had me giggling a little at the beginning had me rolling my eyes and moaning by the end. I'm not even sure if I want to read "The Ignored" now.
Rating: 
Summary: Simply horrifying.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Too much of a bad thing
Review: The fault with this book is that it blows any sort of fear and interest out of the reader's mind before the storyline has even had time to set itself up. Instead of carefully leading us along, hinting at terrors and secrets to come, UNIVERSITY sucker punches you at the start, and simply continues to bludgeon you over the head with an over-done orgy of blood, sex, and evil. The theme of "all-powerful evil" in horror and suspense novels has been written right into the ground...and this book just doesn't have anything else to offer. By the way...the next time a horror author thinks he's going to surprise ANYONE with a cliched ending where the evil presence (or whatever)somehow survives, leaving us feeling like a tremendous waste of time just occurred--do us a favor, and unplug your word processor before you ruin what might be a good story.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting idea, badly handled...
Review: The King quote and the favorable reviews had me anxious to read this, but the story just doesn't pan out. The evil starts to manifest itself with aberrant sexual behavior and torture, and then...just does the same thing over and over again. It's a one trick pony. And the characters, oy! Gifford Stevens, the professor of comparative literature and high explosives (!), is nothing but a cypher, a plot device, and the others don't fare much better. Key plot points happen off-screen, mainly because Little either couldn't explain them logically or didn't want to take the time. And the little epilogue at the end, and the heroes' reaction to it, was especially annoying. In all, not quite as bad as THE MAILMAN, but that's not saying much.
Rating:
Summary: I dont see why people give it either 1 or 5 stars
Review: This book deserves 5 stars, but thats just what I think. I like how each chapter switched with each character. Then you get to see how UC Brea affects the student body in different ways. Anyway, I got this whole thing planned out. This could be a movie and I got this great soundtrack for it. Maybe I am not as sophisticated as the other reviewers on this page, but I think this book is definitely worth reading. It sure beat listening to teachers in class
Rating:
Summary: I gave it 5 stars and I haven't even finished reading it yet
Review: This book has so far given even more credence to my belief that Bentley Little just doesn't have any shame, he likes the shock value that's for sure. Some of the reviews before mine have been pretty damn ignorant, slammming the graphic violence and the character development, and I just can't figure out what the hell these people were looking for! If you look to a book to bring new, profound meaning to your life you need to get out more, maybe socialize some, it is ok to not read sometimes. Picking up a book and trying to analyze while you read is extremely boring and takes away from the experience and let me just say that graphic violence, unabashed, does have its place in horror fiction. There is something about the things that do evil without any remorse, without any emotion at all. Evil for evil's sake should always pop up in the so called "fresh faces" of horror. You can't think deep all the time, treading through that water takes too much energy. Every once in a while you just need a no brainer that just gives you a kick in the pants, a little sense of the what ifs, and sets you back on your way. I doubt this book will change the course of horror fiction, it certainly isn't subtle in any respect, but you never know. I just can't help thinking that the people who said the intensity of the violence was degrading to the story never saw The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or maybe they don't think an educational establishment would ever be possesive of an evil entity. Aaah, those lucky Catholic school kids, so naive. Bottom line, if you have any liking of Bentley Little's works and it doesn't take you long to get through books (as in you can read) you should probably check this out. If not for the little instances of guilt certain scenes will stir within you, for thinking those dirty thoughts.
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