If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Bentley Little, then The House will give you the perfect opportunity to get to know this fine sorcerer of horror. Haunted houses are an endless source of fascination for writers of the macabre--Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Henry James's classic The Turn of the Screw are excellent examples. But Bentley Little still manages to add something new to this well-trodden territory--and The House will scare your socks off.

Five strangers simultaneously experience terrifying nightmares and strange hallucinations. These unnerving events reacquaint each of the individuals with a childhood they would rather forget and memories long repressed. It soon becomes apparent that each of these four men and one woman once lived in identical houses--right down to the arrangement of the furniture. Each character must return to that childhood home to confront the demons of the past and liberate their souls from the shackles of despair. Reading this battle of good versus evil is a nail-biting experience. For more of the same by this author, try The Store and The Ignored. --Naomi Gesinger

Customer Rating:
Summary: fair
Comment: "The House" started off good, but fizzled.
Part One was good, Part Two was too drawn out. I found myself rushing to get to the end.
Also, what did the Prologue have to do with the rest of the story?
Not one of my favorites from Bentley Little.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time !!
Comment: It starts off pretty nicely. Then gets completely ridiculous !!! I can't believe I paid full price for this !! Such a horrible book !!! ugh It makes me sick to think I read the entire thing !!!!!!! The ending was so bad !!! They should've just kept the first couple of chapters, and left it unfinished. Then maybe it would've had a chance.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Absolute Garbage
Comment: Absolutely one of the worst books I've ever read. I found this book at a used bookstore, and from what I read on the back cover, it looked very interesting. The beginning of the book is very intriguing, but as the story progresses, it gets more and more absurd. I actually laughed out loud when I read certain parts of the book because it made absolutely no sense. You can tell that Little was rushed when it came to the ending and he had no idea what to do with the characters. I wish I would have read one of his other books first, because after reading this one, I will never pick up another Bentley Little book. He should realize that just because one of your books is successful, doesn't mean that you slack when it comes to your other novels. He did himself a disservice because I'm sure that a lot of people picked up this book first before reading his others, and now they're going to refuse to read his other stuff. He should remember that the ending is just as important as the beginning and the middle. I give this book a big, "boooo!"

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Bizarre Universe
Comment: Bentley Little juggles five characters who face strange paranormal childhoods and are forced back into the bizarre universe of the house. Daniel is a married guy who loves his wife Margot and his son Tony and lives in a Philadelphia suburb. Norton is an Iowa teacher whose marriage to Carol is often a rocky truce. Stormy is a film distributor who lives in New Mexico. Mark is rootless guy who roams northern California. Laurie is a business executive who lives in the San Francisco bay area. With juggling five personalities, it gives Little a chance to show the similarities in their experience. However, it often was hard to keep track of five different threads; I found myself frequently paging back to remind myself of which character I was tracking. All five characters have their lives interrupted and are drawn back to the scene of their strange childhood. The butler Billings is apparently a spooky paranormal manifestation. The creepiest part of the story is with the child demon that is called a variety of names that sound like takeoffs on "Donna." The chapter where Laurie breaks up with her boyfriend, encounters the demon in an alley who lifts her skirts, and then dreams of having relations with the child almost made me put the book down. It really was more tacky than scary. Little builds the tale with an ever-changing house where windows & doors appear & disappear at random. Finally, the story crashes to an end with each of the five characters experiencing a variety of fates and futures. If there were a theme, the story highlights how important it is for communication within families to happen. It also shows that weakness and indecision are great personal flaws. Little did make me want to see what happened next; so the story kept my attention. But it was about as repulsive as it was scary.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: No place like home
Comment: A great piece of writing that I simply could not put. Horror at its best.

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