The Association [Unabridged] [Hardcover]

Bentley Little (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2001

Thriller by the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Walking. "Follow the rules. Don't say a word. And lock your doors." Those were the rules of the homeowners' association Barry and Maureen joined when they moved to Colorado. They didn't know the association might kill them.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 438 pages
• Publisher: Signet; 1ST edition (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739420909
• ISBN-13: 978-0739420904
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (136 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For "Sale," and the Use of Other Four-Letter Words, July 19, 2003

By 

TastyBabySyndrome "Matthew Lewis, author of M... ("Daddy Dagon's Daycare" - Proud Sponsor of the Little Tendril Baseball Team, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Association (Mass Market Paperback)

Let's face it. Homeowner's Associations can be a tool dispensing a veritable fountain of useful dictations - provided that you want to follow them. They, the police policing policy, look through all the little things we do and they create bylaws to keep them from becoming too overwhelming. In some cases, that means that you wouldn't be allowed to have a basketball behind your house, keep a flagpole in your yard, or build that utility shed you wanted. In others, it could mean fines because you paint your house some strange color or because you put too many plants in your yard. And some, as Barry and Maureen Welch soon find out as they acquire a home in Bonita Vista - gated community in the middle of nowhere (the ultimate desire of the extremely wealthy to either live or vacation in) -, go farther, making life a miserable little game of limb loss and bully tactics.

What begins with an infraction for having a yard sale soon introduces the reader to a world that isn't such a nice place. Here, an Association lords over everything, hatching sinister plots while using a tome of laws they use like some kind of suburban bible. It is suspected of poisoning animals, of making people leaving int he middle of the night, and other rumors are spoken of about people always watching other people. This makes the residents therein all distrust one another, all thinking they're quite possibly spies for the Association. But why? What horror could possibly motivate people to think like that? Well, in answering that, you need to add in townsfolk living outside of the gated community that hate the residents therein for their own reasons, cats stuffed into mailboxes and tales of a man named Stumpy because of his lack of appendages, and monstrosities.

Now, I'm a fan of Little's work, having liked his creation of The Collection and The Walking, and I expected a lot out of him. Well, after absorbing this book and the way it all came together, I would have to say that I walked away a little disappointed but that I got a nice laugh out of the way this was set up. I liked the fact that there was an Association of Homeowners becoming the pivot in the master plan for terror, and I loved the fact that it laughed at the life hidden behind those tarnish-proof gates.
My problem here came because the ending seemed rushed, like the bizarre was approached too quickly for a build that took quite a bit of time only to ultimately disappoint. It was a shame, too, because it seemed as if the story were going to go somewhere for a while, with the characters meshing well and Little's writing style panning out. Unfortunately, some of the description began to drag and the book began to drone a little, making me long for something to punctuate it all. That said, I was still hooked, wanting to know how the Association was going to try to up its hand and if it had a garden where it grew baby stumpies.
And, in a way, this compulsive "knowing" disease I've somehow acquired, the one that makes me keep reading, gave me some mixed emotions.

If you want some of Little's better works, you could try The Walking (although the ending is a little anticlimactic) or you could obtain The Collection first to see what you think on it. Personally, The Collection would be the choice I would recommend and I would say that you might want to work up to this piece, unless you can see the humor in the horror that an Association could provide.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read this book with your doors locked!, June 25, 2002

By 

"22sherry" (Southern Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Association (Mass Market Paperback)

Barry and Maureen found the house of their dreams in a gated community in Utah. At first glance, they both fell in love with the breathtaking scenery. It was perfect.
When you buy a home in Bonita Vista, you are required to belong to a homeowner's association. Slowly the association invaded their lives and Barry and Maureen learned that any infraction of the rules could result in fines, physical punishment or death.
This dark and evil excursion across the pages led to a terrifying conclusion. I reside in a gated community and after reading this novel, I check all the doors and locks every night. At least twice.
If you want the hairs on the back of your neck to stand tall, this book is for you. Bentley Little has the knack of making the reader leave the lights turned on . . . . long after the book has been closed.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Torn between giving this book 3-stars or 4-stars, July 14, 2006

By 

Sibelius (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Association (Mass Market Paperback)

But ultimately 4-stars wins out - mostly for the sheer entertainment value this book presents.

The premise itself is almost laughable - Bentley Little is gonna conjure up a 438 page horror novel with a Tenants Homeowners Association as the source of evil? Unfathomable...and yet Little manages to pull off a very brisk and readable tome, that while isn't quite as horrific as some of his other works, is certainly as gory and suspenseful as anything he's ever done.

And while there are certainly a few head-scratching plot holes and inconsistencies - for anyone looking for a fun, readable book in this genre you really can't go wrong with this one.