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214th out of 637 books
—
634 voters
The House
Five complete strangers from across America are about to come together and open the door to a place of evil that they all call home. Inexplicably, four men and one woman are having heart-stopping nightmares revolving around the dark and forbidding houses where each of them were born. When recent terrifying events occur, they are each drawn to their identical childhood home...more
Mass Market Paperback, 368 pages
Published
April 1st 1999
by Signet
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When a house is no longer a home
The attack of the most precious place for your zen like moment, your home is very unwelcome, especially when the supernatural stirs its body finger in the soup of your life, mudding up your plans, and spoiling any possible happy future. For a few individuals it seems like things aren't quite right, in fact things aren't good at all, the dead are coming back, and they are appearing to certain people, people who had previous history with a specific house and its inh...more
The attack of the most precious place for your zen like moment, your home is very unwelcome, especially when the supernatural stirs its body finger in the soup of your life, mudding up your plans, and spoiling any possible happy future. For a few individuals it seems like things aren't quite right, in fact things aren't good at all, the dead are coming back, and they are appearing to certain people, people who had previous history with a specific house and its inh...more
I was disappointed in this book. I read 80 pages into it and still did not come upon the plot. With each chapter I was waiting; hoping for it to come at me. It did not. Each chapter introduced a character that had strange unexplainable encounters at their homes. I guess these encounters were suppose to haunt them later on in the book. Though it was easy reading and Little is a great writer the overall theme and structure of the story did not keep me interested.
It is well known that Stephen King – like many of us – will carry a book of fiction wherever his travels will lead to appease the boredom that arises from life’s mundane activities. And for those of us who have read On Writing and followed his accident with a certain Dodge Van will know, he has a penchant for taking long walks during the afternoons. What isn’t a well-known detail and many might be curious about is that the grandmaster was reading The House by Bentley Little when the unfortunate...more
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Sometimes, you just need fluff!
The last couple of books I have devoured were more of the multi-layered, symbolic variety: CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell, and WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLES by Haruki Marakumi. Books that made your mind race with the hidden messages (messages that the author no doubt had any intention of doing, just that you want to believe that they did, and you make shit up just to explain all the gobble-de-gook)
Needless to say, both books were very good. CLOUD ATLAS is one that I will...more
The last couple of books I have devoured were more of the multi-layered, symbolic variety: CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell, and WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLES by Haruki Marakumi. Books that made your mind race with the hidden messages (messages that the author no doubt had any intention of doing, just that you want to believe that they did, and you make shit up just to explain all the gobble-de-gook)
Needless to say, both books were very good. CLOUD ATLAS is one that I will...more
I have to say that this is, pardon the language, THE most fucked up book I've ever read. The fact that the evil little ghost girl or whatever she is is constantly enticing the characters into these sick sexual fantasies makes it even worse. I'm sorry, but I can understand that she's a demon of sorts and not really a little girl, but the fact that these people are actually tempted by her is sick.
And I couldn't grasp the point of the prologue. NONE of the five people in the prologue had ANYTHING...more
And I couldn't grasp the point of the prologue. NONE of the five people in the prologue had ANYTHING...more
OK, now that I'm finished with this, what I found most disturbing about this book was not its violence which lessens substantially after the first few chapters. Instead, things that are should not be frightening at all are deeply disturbing. Waking up to find you and your bed have been covered in hundreds of slices of burnt roast or that your toilet is overflowing with fruit cocktail sounds silly. However, the sheer randomness and the fact that there is no reference point them is eerie. There's...more
Well, I almost gave up on this book at the beginning. It's not a fluid read at first..... you have to follow the lives of 5 different people, each character having its own chapter. By the time you come back to the first one you don't quite remember much about him or her. Also, the beginning is quite strange and could have been left out..... those first few events are never explained and you only barely understand them at the end of the book. I'm glad I stayed with it though because it gets bette...more
Sep 10, 2010
Linda G
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
no
Recommended to Linda G by:
Lisa S.
Shelves:
horror
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click here.
LOVED this book! It's my 10th Bentley Little book and this is the best one I've read by him so far. 5 people all have memories of living in this house of evil. Years later, all of a sudden, strange things happen to each of them, pulling them towards this house, as they feel they need answers to the strange things happening to them. Once they arrive at the house, they find that even though each of them lived there and they all remember the butler, (even though his name is slightly different for a...more
Not his best, but mighty close. At his worst, Bentley Little throws perverse, shocking images at you in wave after wave of jumbled chaos. At his best, he has the ability to take a completely unbelievable tale and make it seem as genuine as yesterday's 6 o'clock news. This is almost his best. The pace is slower than many will like -- spending 80+ pages purely on character development before the "story" begins. But the story is one that won't matter and won't work without the people in it. There a...more
Stephen King recommended author. He says: "BEST OUTRIGHT HORROR NOVELIST. Bentley Little, in a walk. Don't know Bentley Little? You're not alone. He's probably the genre's best-kept secret, but at least 10 of his novels are available in paperback; you can pick up three for the price of that flashy new hardcover you've got your eye on. The best thing about Little is that he can go from zero to surreal in 6.0 seconds. My favorites are The Store (think Wal-Mart run by SAYYY-tan) and Dispatch, in wh...more
I love Bentley Little's short stories and I was originally introduced to him through "The Collection" a few years ago.
Last year, I read "The Walking," a novel he'd written about the mysterious reanimation of dead people that are compelled to ceaselessly walk in circles, before they eventually walk away from their homes and into a lake. That book was subpar and I really hesitated to read anything else by Little again, aside from his shorts.
Someone recommended "The House," and so I gave it a shot....more
Last year, I read "The Walking," a novel he'd written about the mysterious reanimation of dead people that are compelled to ceaselessly walk in circles, before they eventually walk away from their homes and into a lake. That book was subpar and I really hesitated to read anything else by Little again, aside from his shorts.
Someone recommended "The House," and so I gave it a shot....more
as i struggle mightily with my own haunted house novel, bentley little's profoundly disturbing and jaggedly innovative 'the house' looms over my every imagined plot twist and character motivation. if you've never read little's work then i guarantee you've read nothing like it: he is easily the richard brautigan of the horror genre (which should say ENOUGH if you know the greatness of ze brautigan)
This was the very first book by Little I read, and boy, was it an introduction. The guy breaks all the rules: what topics can and can't be handled; how characters should develop; how the overal story should be structured. It's a violent, confused mess, in which you never know what will happen next and to whom. Hallucigenic, disturbing, raw and real, it was my favorite horror book for 2011.
This book is incredibly polarizing. I read it once a number of years ago, and I remember hating it. With my older, wiser eyes, I found this book to be a fine mesh of simplistic and psychological horror, with a bit of the paranormal thrown in just for fun. I strongly recommend this book, it gets 4 stars only because I'm unhappy with one of the characters' story arcs.
The first 15-20% of this book held enough interest that I couldn't give up until it was done. After the first part it was a painful read- like awful tasting medicine you know you have to take to get better. I knew each day that I had to read to finish it. Thpt! I'm still trying to get that nasty taste out of my mouth. Horrible.
The House is in a way a haunted house story but Little's take on it, as with most things, is very unigue. This is a multiple-character story and some might find it a bit hard to follow. It follows the experiences of five strangers from accross America who are having nightmares and terrible times in their present lives. They are eventually drawn back to their identicle childhood houses by an evil force which has never really left them. This book includes Little's take on the afterlife, reasons wh...more
Hard to follow somewhat the way each chapter changes characters. With the way I am inconsistent with my reading this was difficult. But some of the images the author paints were very horrific. This is why I read this book. I did an internet search of the scariest books out there and this was on several.
Jul 04, 2012
Laura Huber
added it
Amazing. Superb writing style, simple and yet classy, in a way. The writing does not take away from the story. I was worried that it would fall under the classic haunted-house cliche, but it turned out to be a very unique story line. I would recommend this book to anyone who can find it in a bookstore!
I read to page 100 and gave up. The separate character chapters were okay, but at some point, they needed to become more cohesive. I had a lot of trouble following exactly who was doing what, and got tired of waiting for the story to come together.
I am on a crappy book streak...ugh.
I am on a crappy book streak...ugh.
A really nice attempt by Bentley Little at the horror genre. Even though it is very creepy and has a nice plot, I felt that it was a bit long...and a little to out there. However, I guess being "out there" is what the horror genre is all about.
Teddy had... Patty was... Jennings followed... Shelly emerged... Daniel heard... Laurie looked... Norton hated... Stormy drove... Mark was... I snored...!
80 pages of one prologue after the next and no story line to be found anywhere! Stephen King thinks this guy is “A Master Of The Macabre”. Oh yeah? I was jumping paragraphs after about 40 pages, because nothing was happening. Ok, ghostly shapes here, scary things there, but no indication of where all this was supposed to be going and no build-u...more
80 pages of one prologue after the next and no story line to be found anywhere! Stephen King thinks this guy is “A Master Of The Macabre”. Oh yeah? I was jumping paragraphs after about 40 pages, because nothing was happening. Ok, ghostly shapes here, scary things there, but no indication of where all this was supposed to be going and no build-u...more
An OK horror book with a different, interesting, concept. There was a particular incident at the end that featured a good character having a short attack of conscience that was kinda ridiculous to me, given the evil nature of the character who was finally vulnerable enough to be dealt with. I don't want to insert too much of a spoiler, but fortunately this incident didn't really change the outcome. Still, I found myself rolling my eyes at that particular part.
Definitely not one of Bentley's better books. It was just convoluted and hard to read. I had to force myself to finish it. It had a fantastic premise, but it just didn't flow, even a little.
I really liked this book. I loved how Bentley Little took several characters, and in the end brought them all together in the end. The story line was very interesting.
if your a fan of Koontz, you'll probably like this one. Weird. Also it was the book Stephen King was reading while he was hit by that van in 2005.
Very good, icky and creepy - my favorites! Some of the characters were really well fleshed out, especially Norton, The way the girl affected each character was different and well explored - very good read!
Good read but the flipping between main characters for each chapter left me wondering who was who all the way until the end.
The best horror novel I have read in a very, very long time. If this didn't win Little a Bram Stoker, it should have.
My first of many Bentley Little reads-this the book that got me started into becoming a huge fan!
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Bentley Little is an American author of numerous horror novels. He was discovered by Dean Koontz.
Little was born one month after his mother attended the world premiere of Psycho. He published his first novel, The Revelation, with St. Martin's Press in 1990. After reading it, Stephen King became a vocal fan of Little's work, and Little won the Bram Stoker Award for "Best First Novel" in 1990. He mo...more
More about Bentley Little...
Little was born one month after his mother attended the world premiere of Psycho. He published his first novel, The Revelation, with St. Martin's Press in 1990. After reading it, Stephen King became a vocal fan of Little's work, and Little won the Bram Stoker Award for "Best First Novel" in 1990. He mo...more
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