The Town

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Put it Down!
Review: First of all I would like to say Bentley Little is the best Horror novelist known to man. He makes Dean Koontz look like Mr. Rogers from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. I've read five of his books and all have been unbelievably good. My favorite is 'The Town' For one The Molokan culture is very interesting. The way he writes makes you feel like you're in the town. I was so in to this book and all the people in the town. I can't say too much about the book because I know how I am. I'm the type that gets in detail and I would ruin the book for you all. Trust me though it is a great book and he gets beyond five stars in my eyes. I have been searching for his other books I havent yet read. NO book stores carry them around where I live anymore. It was luck I got a hold of the few i've got. So I am very happy I looked on Amazon.com, THANKS AMAZON!!

-Stacy Parks

Rating:
Summary: First book read by Bentley Little - Bought every other since
Review: This was the first book that I read by Bentley Little. I have purchased and read every book since! This book was one of my favorites by Bentley Little, with only two that I liked better, and one that I did not like at all. However, this book spooked me. Of course, being afraid of the dark, and afraid of the 'boogie man'... this book hit home with me.

Rating:
Summary: What a bad book!
Review: When I picked up this book about a couple years ago, I thought it sounded cool. It was called, "The Town", and the premise sounded really cool. I am really into horror, and I was excited about reading this. I read a book by Stephen King, called, "Desperation", right before this, which was so good. But I wanted to take a break from King and so I seen a whole bunch of books by this author I have never heard of before. So I started reading it, and it started off ok, it was sort of boring, nothing to great. Well i thought ok, I understand, I am a writer too. You have to indroduce the town and the characters. But then it just never really got any better. It was so disapointing. It just got downright bad and kinda confusing. I really had no idea what was going on half the time. The book was not scary. If anything, it was sort of voilent and had wierd things in it. (Like the boy thinking about his sister...that was gross)I had to force myself to finish the book, and I thought, well maybe the ending will be really good. No! It was bad. The father goes all psycho...It was just...It wasn't thst the book was badly written, it just it was just not what I was expecting. I pictured something totally differnt. Kind of like going to a horror movie in the show...I am kinda of apprehensive about giving Little another try...I am not sure about that...But If I were you I would defenitly not read "The Town". Well, unless you like what I described in this review. For a really good horror book, try reading "Desperation" by Stephen King instead. It's really freaky!!!

Rating:
Summary: The jury's still out...
Review: I've been an avid fan of the horror genre since I was eleven years old....

I'll have to say that I was not overly impressed with this one. The quality of the writing itself is decent enough for the most part, and there is even the occasional poetic flash of something brilliant hiding in the tall grass of the story's pages. The characters just fell flat for me, though. I didn't feel like I was really that involved in the lives of any of the protagonists. I didn't really like them all that much, either. I felt like Little hadn't given me enough meat to sink my teeth into. I didn't feel I could relate to them. But despite the failings of this book, it was still sort of fun to read, and for that reason, I'm going to give Bentley Little another chance. I'll probably try The Ignored. I've heard that's is supposed to be one of his best. We'll see. I'll let you know what I think.

Rating:
Summary: Weird!
Review: This book was ok. It had a slow start but then all of these weird things started to happen that meade me continue to read.
The only fascination I had with this book was the so-called "houseguest" the Tomosov's forgot to invite from their old home.
Oh, and I was waiting for the shadows in the bathouse to eat the little girl...that's about it. I've read better. Try Dominion by Little

Rating:
Summary: What a bad book!
Review: When I picked up this book about a couple years ago, I thought it sounded cool. It was called, "The Town", and the premise sounded really cool. I am really into horror, and I was excited about reading this. I read a book by Stephen King, called, "Desperation", right before this, which was so good. But I wanted to take a break from King and so I seen a whole bunch of books by this author I have never heard of before. So I started reading it, and it started off ok, it was sort of boring, nothing to great. Well i thought ok, I understand, I am a writer too. You have to indroduce the town and the characters. But then it just never really got any better. It was so disapointing. It just got downright bad and kinda confusing. I really had no idea what was going on half the time. The book was not scary. If anything, it was sort of voilent and had wierd things in it. (Like the boy thinking about his sister...that was gross)I had to force myself to finish the book, and I thought, well maybe the ending will be really good. No! It was bad. The father goes all psycho...It was just...It wasn't thst the book was badly written, it just it was just not what I was expecting. I pictured something totally differnt. Kind of like going to a horror movie in the show...I am kinda of apprehensive about giving Little another try...I am not sure about that...But If I were you I would defenitly not read "The Town". Well, unless you like what I described in this review. For a really good horror book, try reading "Desperation" by Stephen King instead. It's really freaky!!!

Rating:
Summary: Chilling tale of a town
Review: I was suprised that this book didn't get the creditablity it deserved. If you're an avid reader of horror, especially when the story entails good vs evil, you'll enjoy this book. I recommend The Town.

Rating:
Summary: Not as Bad as People Think
Review: If you have never visited the strangely warped worlds of Bentley Little, but avidly wish to do so, you might want to start somewhere else than "The Town." Or, maybe you could start with this book; it might help you better appreciate his other books. For me, a Bentley Little completist, I cannot say this is his best effort to date. I also cannot claim that it is his worst novel, either. Many lambaste "The Town" for its forced and tepid dialogue, pancake flat characters, and a plodding plot. To some extent, many of the flaws found in "The Town" invidiously wind their way through most, if not all, of his other novels: subplots that go nowhere, unbelievable situations even for a horror novel, and unsatisfying conclusions. Yes, some of those flaws are here, but this tale is nowhere near as bad as many claim.

Gregory Tomasov and his family (wife Julia, daughters Teodosia and Sasha, and son Adam, along with Gregory's mother Agafia) should be riding as high as a balloon. Gregory won the California lottery and receives a cool $80,000 a year for the next few decades, which promises to make life very sweet and easy for a long time to come. Greg decides to take the money and literally run, from gang filled Southern California to his long forgotten childhood home of McGuane, Arizona. McGuane is a rat hole in the desert slowly dying out due to indifference and unemployment. But most importantly for Gregory and his mother, this little town still serves as a center for a Molokan population. Molokans are an obscure Christian sect from Russia that emigrated to the United States and Mexico to escape Tsarist persecution. Members of the congregation practice extreme pacifism with an almost mystical belief in the gospels and prayer. While Gregory and his wife are Molokans, their beliefs are at best extremely dubious and at worst lapsed. Their children have even less interest in the beliefs and rituals associated with the sect.

Things start to change quickly when the Tomasov clan arrives in McGuane. It turns out that the house they moved into was the scene of grisly murders and the rest of the town thinks the house is haunted. Then the killings start, gruesomely hideous crimes that set the town people on edge and stir up latent prejudice against the Molokans. Top that off with the slow disintegration of the Tomasov family, eerie supernatural events, and a 200 year old Russian prophet and you have the essentials of "The Town."

Little indulges in some of his usual unbelievable events. Take the disaster at the coffee shop for starters. It is difficult to imagine this store is big enough to hold that much equipment or that the ceilings are high enough to cause that type of damage, especially in a small town. Moreover, what exactly is the population size of McGuane? The back cover says there are roughly 300 residents, but from the events in the story it seems as though there must be thousands of people. How else could there be a high school and a junior high school full of students? Some of the internal thoughts of the main characters also pose serious problems. Towards the end of the story, Agafia and Julia spend more time wondering why they do stupid things than in trying to do anything else. It seems as though Little is trying to cover plot problems when he has his characters indulge in these inner dialogues. Overall, these aren't fatal flaws, but they are noticeable.

At least the ending is better developed than some of Little's conclusions in other books. I saw somewhere that Little doesn't like to spend much time wrapping his stories up. This is a big problem for horror fans, who always want to see a cataclysmic ending with lots of explosions, gore, or startling revelations. Well, there are some of those characteristics at the end of "The Town," and they do generally work well in the context of the story. Believe me when I say that "The Town" has a better ending than some of Little's other books. If you don't believe me, read "The Return."

"The Town" isn't Little's best effort, but it is far from his worst. The introductory chapter to this story sets an eerie tone, many of the murders are well thought out and gruesome, and the usual Little theme of a family slowly falling apart under the duress of external evils is well done. For more entertaining Bentley Little stories, turn to "The Store," and "The Mailman." Those two books fuse social satire with horror and give much more to the reader than what is found in this tale. After reading "The Town," I can safely say I am still a Bentley Little fan. I eagerly await his new novel arriving in stores later this year.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointing horror experience
Review: I really wanted to enjoy this book, since I'm on the hunt for a new-to-me horror novelist that I can enjoy. This was my second read by Little (first was "The Walking") and likely my last. In "The Town," Gregory and Julia Tomasov win the lottery and return to the small town of Gregory's childhood along with his mother and their 3 kids. They forget the traditional/religious invitation to the spirit that will supposedly keep any house safe, but nobody except Gregory's mom takes it seriously. Not surprisingly, horror ensues, or some strange imitation of horror.

This book features weak characterization, a dull dragging plot, a few moments that you know should be really gripping but just aren't, and to top it all off perfectly - lots of typos. There were some unique horror moments which were fascinating in their weirdness, but they didn't come close to making up for the *horror* of this reading experience.

Rating:
Summary: Little - The Town
Review: A year or so ago, I picked up Little's The Association on a whim and I truly enjoyed it. Since then, I've experienced good and bad sides of Bentley Little. Little is truly talented - he has a gifted imagination and a laid back style of writing. There are usually a few good scares and some genuinely humorous moments in all his novels. Unfortunately, The Town is not one of his better efforts.

The Town is quite simply not well written or well executed. Dialog is just plain dumb, ideas and plot lines are muddled and the book is just not that scary. And while the source of the evil is kind of interesting, it really just sounds silly by the end of the novel.

Little's written better novels - try The Association or The Store before wandering through the pot-holed, badly mapped streets of The Town.