Rating: 
Summary: Kind of like a bad B-movie
Review: I picked this up after reading some good reviews on Amazon of the author and after noticing some awards the author received and praise from other authors. I hadn't read anything by Mr. Little before, and now I can say that "The Town" is the first and last novel I will read of his.The premise sounds good- slightly outcasted family moves to Dad's hometown to become even more disliked by the towns people- and there's that deep, dark secret brooding just underneath the surface. Strange things start happening when the family moves into "that house," of which all in the town are fearful. So, starts off okay, but not great, then gets really really bad! The whole time I was reading it I kept picturing one of those low-budget cheesy "horror" movies from the eighties- there is a church that grows hair, a bible that bashes a care-taker to death, an evil dwarf that follows people around and an incestuous crush. Even in addition to that, it is so full of cliches and stolen plot lines: there is an old ethnic wise man who can give the answers that will save them all, Dad goes nuts and goes from nice guy to homicidal wacko who tries to off the whole family (sound familiar?), a teenage daughter who isn't mentioned much with the exception of passages of her brother fantacizing about her and, well, you get the picture. Once I finally finished this book of idiocy I was so relieved to be done with it. I did want to see how it ended because I was sure there had to be something good in this book for people to make such a fuss about the author, but nope. Please do yourself a favor- if you are curious about Bentley Little's work, DO NOT start off with this one!
Rating:
Summary: Mr. Little, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!
Review: I am a very avid reader of Bentley Little's books, so naturally, i couldn't wait to pick this one up to start reading it. Boy do I wish I hadn't! Often times throughout the book, I found myself growing restless and forcing myself to turn the page. This book does have some of Mr. Little's trademark strangeness, but this is one of his books that should never have hit the shelves, much less the post office to be shipped to his publisher. All i can say is I hope nothing like this ever hits the shelves from him again!
Rating:
Summary: 'not a good small town terror'
Review: It starts as good but then faltered. Not a great book on small town terror and some of the characters were like from his other book 'the summoning'. Cliamx was wrapped up. No, I think dont read.
Rating: 
Summary: A NICE PLACED TO VISIT, BUT....
Review: Okay, in this one by Little, we get a 13 year old who starts longing for his 17 year old sister; a little girl who splats a kitty cat onto a rock to offer sacrifice to an ancient bathhouse; a Bible that flies around and kills a minister; a woman who gives birth to a smiling cactus, and a little elf that runs around killing people! Enter the strange world of Bentley Little, born not long after his mother attended the world premiere of "Psycho." Thank God, she didn't have him while watching "Halloween," God knows what Bentley would have turned out like.
Nonetheless, this is one of Little's more intriguing books simply because he does have some shuddery, scary scenes. The characters are typical Little characters: cardboard, one-dimensional, easily dispatched. There is a great deal of gore and sexual situations, so it's definitely not one for the young folk. Adults who enjoy this genre should enjoy Little's tale of a town that is haunted by some kind of Russian spirit, turning a nice all-American family into something close to the Osbornes, but I'll admit, nothing could be as bad as the Osbornes! (Ha ha).
Anyway, RECOMMENDED FOR FANS OF THE GENRE.
Rating: 
Summary: Choosing Life
Review: Before reading Bentley Little's THE TOWN, I had read several of his other novels, and had liked them all. Because most of his characters are so ordinary -- the phrase "the Bruce Springsteen of horror fiction" comes to mind -- it is easy to identify with them. Therefore the terrifying situations in which they find themselves strike home with a vengeance, as if they were happening to the reader, or to someone known personally to the reader. That is true of THE TOWN, as well -- but there are extra dimensions to it that made it even more compelling, dimensions that evolved as Bentley Little, the writer has evolved, out of his own writer's soul. THE TOWN has extra depth and richness to it that clearly come from the author's own life-history, his ancestry and background, and in reading it the reader confronts a culture initially totally unfamiliar to most of us, that of Russian emigres to America, the trials presented to them in this country, their fears and hopes, weaknesses and strengths. In the course of reading THE TOWN, the reader comes to identify completely with people at first so strange to him that at first no identification at all is possible, thereby discovering, wondering and humbled by the discovery, the grace and courage with which those "strangers in a strange land" deal with the utterly alien evil that has befallen them. Forced to choose between service to their families and communities, at the possible loss of all they possess and, indeed, their very lives, and fleeing the threat that menaces all they love, again and again they choose service to life and the living, even knowing it is likely that service will kill them. The survivors of that process emerge stronger and wiser than they ever were before, while the dead rest in well-earned peace. True, there are villains here, but the real villains are not human, hardly comprehensible in any meaningful way other than via the harm they do humanity. The human beings who do evil do it as the puppets of spiritual entities that might as well have come from another world, so alien are they to everything we are used to in ourselves and others. The heroes are all genuinely human, weak, fallable mortals, who nevertheless take on the challenges thrown at them by those entities and, ultimate, triumph over them. As for the details, several others have presented those in their reviews here, and I don't wish to bore the reader. So I'll just add that this is most mature of Little's novels I've seen so far, moving and touching as horror fiction rarely manages to be. I eagerly await his future creations -- what _will_ he do for an encore? :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Probably his WORST novel, but better than some writers
Review: Little's worst novel, but still better than some published writers, who have no imagination, ie Ron Dee. Little offers his spin on The Shining, meaning possession of one's body by an evil spirit.
The premise is a slightly original one. Greg Tomasov wins the California lottery and moves his family back home to a samll town in Arizona. Little describes southwestern life in great detail and adds a little russian history to the mix.
The spirits in the bathhouse are somewhat underdone, but Greg's possession is entirely predictable; however you never can tell with Little. The tone of the novel between the russians and redneck "townies" is conceivable given Arizona is home to some true yokels.
The ending is solid and the book is a decent read, but as already stated, not up to vintage Little-ites standards.
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Summary: ¿A Master of the Macabre¿ says Stephen King.
Review: Bentley Little is the winner of the prestigious Bram Stoker Award. Nightmare upon nightmare comes to fruition. The unbelievable becomes commonplace and there are doubts that anyone will get out of THE TOWN alive. Gregory Tomasov is the winner of the California State lottery, and decides to move back to his hometown in hopes of bringing his three children up with small town values. What follows is a step into the twilight zone, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. Shapes that shift in the shadows and a house with a deadly secret are only the beginnings of this families adventure. This is a great book and author if you are in the mood for something in the horror genre. Not as wordy as Stephen King and just as imaginative as Dean Koontz. It was fun to be surprised and frightened with every turn of the page. Kelsana 1/19/02
Rating:
Summary: OK book, but not solid.
Review: When you read the first couple of chapters, the book takes on the boring old tradition of meeting the characters. Then it takes a turn and actually gets interesting, but then slacks off again. I was disappointed with the ending, but it wasn't so bad that it was totally unreadable. For fans of Little, I suggest trying out Ronald Kelly.
Rating:
Summary: A good read but...
Review: This was the first Little story I read, and was impressed by it. The characterizations were very good (a char. has to be well written to be snobbish or a brat...) but I agree with some of the other reviews that it had problems. As with most horror books, it had a rushed bad ending, and there were story threads that were not followed up on. Also, some of the ideas were forced, like the Russian man's shadow and the child's femur, and some were just strange like the spoon found on the hill (???). But if you ignore these small flaws (you usually have to for horror) it was a good book in general. A nice light read with some interesting ideas for killing people.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant pastiche
Review: Little is one of the most accomplished horror writers around, and it is the literary scope of his work that I have always admired most. He is well aware of the genre's history and often tosses in referential "in jokes" for serious horror fans. Here he knowingly gives us a covert catalog of Stephen King's entire ouvre, in a way that is both clever and unobtrusive. With a wink and a smile, he references all of King's work through ROSE MADDER...and he manages to still create an original and scary story with a unique ethnic background. I don't think there's anything Little can't do at this point. He's a genius.
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