Customer Reviews

The Burning

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Angela is a college freshman who has found herself in the center of a growing racial tension on campus; Henry is a park ranger who has nightly visits from two very mysterious (and dangerous) young women; Jolene is a mother starting a new life with her son, but who finds instead a mysterious mansion with disturbing secrets; Dennis is a young man who sets out to travel cross-country, but instead finds himself haunted by a horrifying tourist-trap. These four individuals are from different regions of the country, from different ethical/religious backgrounds...but they all have one thing in common: their lives are about to become a living hell.

"The Burning" is possibly Little's grandest novel, scope-wise. With so many main characters (half-way through the book, we are even re-introduced to FBI Agent Greg Rossister, who has made appearances in a couple previous Little novels), it'd be easy for the tale to fall off-track (ignore the train pun). But it doesn't. Bentley Little is usually not into subtlety; if he wants to scare you, he doesn't dilly-dally around--he goes right out and scares your socks off. "The Burning" is more about atmosphere. Granted, there are gross-out moments, genuine shockers that even Stephen King would be hard-pressed to create. But the best thing about "The Burning" is its tension, the way it steadily builds; just when you think things can't get any worse, they do. And again, and again. This is yet another terrifying horror novel by the master of the macabre.

Stephen King crowned him thus in an ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY column a few months back.

Been a follower of Little's since day 1 and am glad to see him deliver such a timely on-topic novel of horror after his fantastic DISPATCH.

This novel is grand in scope...with characters from at least 3 previous books making appearances..one who is from THE SUMMONING gets a pretty big role and we will probably see him soon in another Little offerning.

Terrifying at times, well written and believable characters.

This is why "BENTLEY LITTLE IS THE BEST HORROR NOVELIST" running right now.

I love Bentley Little's books and his way of turning rather innocuous things into sinister devices of evil. Great examples are a store, a homeowners association, an insurance policy, a town... this book however seemed to lose some of that idea. While I liked it, I felt that it had a bit of a preachy quality to it. Normally I'm unable to put his books down, and this one took me a few sittings to read. I recommend "The Store" if you haven't yet read a Little book. That is, by far, my favorite of his novels.

When first starting to read this book, the formula seemed very different from most Bentley Little stories. It began by telling the tales of 4 seemingly unrelated individuals in completely different locations, experiencing seemingly unrelated supernatural phenomenon. This lead me to believe I was in for a plot similar to The House; a book that would veer from the author's standard fare of social and political horror, dealing instead with more mainstream frights. Near the novel's mid-point, however, I was definitely proved wrong.

Any reader familiar with Little's style will know that he has a knack for taking seemingly normal entities and turning them into something frightening. Whether dealing with corporations or social entities, Little turns them into something massive, mysterious, and consuming.

Before long, it becomes apparent that the "entity" being tackled in this book is the human emotion of racism and hatred. Human bigotry is transformed, via Little's supernatural touch, into a frightening, phyiscally destructive force that operates on a grand scale.

Little has a way of walking a fine line between offensive political opinion and horrifying entertainment. Each of his novels is as much an observation of society as it is a supernatural tale. In this book, he manages to push the envelope further than he ever has in the past, but any fan of the author's "thinking person's" style of horror should be able to appreciate the approach he uses here.

I strongly disagree with many of the reviewers opinions of this book's ending. I felt that the climax of this book was everything I've been wanting Bentley Little to write. His resolution here goes far beyond the simplistic endings he's written in the recent past. I give this book 5 stars. My only complaint is that it wasn't a hundred pages longer.

Although the author is one of the most imaginative writers in the horror fiction genre, this book is not one of his best. The story finds four of its main characters encountering mysterious and frightening situations in their lives, situations that are simply surreal. All of their encounters are in different parts of the country, and the characters are all from totally different backgrounds. Yet, the horror that is intruding on each of their lives has a commonality: a ghost train. It seems that a curse from the past is now intruding upon their present.

Unfortunately, the concept of a malevolent ghost train barreling across the country out of nowhere simply did not capture my imagination. While portions of the book are genuinely creepy, the story never fully engaged me, and towards the end the book was almost a chore to finish. Still, fans of the author may get some enjoyment out of it.

Little's latest focuses on four main characters, college freshman Angela Ramos, park ranger Henry Cote, California divorcee Jolene, and Dennis Chen, a young man who has just set out on a trip to explore America. This diverse quartet finds themselves at various hot points across the United States as the consequences of a decades old Chinese curse begin to reveal themselves, threatening to tear apart the very social fabric of the United States.

A tale of past misdeeds haunting the present, The Burning is vintage Little, a horror novel that examines larger social issues while scaring the pants off its audience. This time out, Little focuses on racial prejudice and hatred, pointing out how they lurk just beneath the surface of everyday American life, awaiting the smallest of sparks to ignite a larger conflagration.

Although the novel shows sentimentality that Little does not often reveal, particularly during the book's final chapters, the book never fails to thrill, even at its quietest moments. It's during these moments that Little sets you up for bigger scares, all of which are quite effective. The fact that the book might make you think about your attitudes and beliefs is an added bonus.

I buy each Little novel as it is released. As a fan I enjoy his writing style even when I do not always like the novel itself. This story has some nice moments, and good tension, but it just didn't do it for me. Though it was fun to see some characters that had appeared in other novels, it just wasn't enough for me to recommend this book. The ending was also a bit weak, which seems to be the standard for a lot of his books. There are so many great books by Little. If you are new, I would start with something like The Store to get a solid Little story.

This book has the distinct honor of being the book that killed Bentley Little for me. I used to enjoy his work, loved his short stories and a few of his novel. However, after reading this boring and pointless novel, I have no intention of ever reading one of his books again without a good recommendation first. The novel weaves four stories together by sharing two common themes. The first is a demonic train traveling across the country. The second is that each story is told without the slightest inkling of suspense, horror, character developement, pacing, or general enjoyability. I will admit that one or two of these stories might have made good novels in themselves, if their stories were fleshed out and the characters were actually developed. However, as it stands each individual story becomes a chore to read. While reading one chapter you silently pray that it will end so you can move on to the next store, hoping that it will be more interesting than the mess you are currently plodding through. Unfortunately, once you reach the next chapter and switch to another story, you find its no more interesting than the last. Im sorry that im not going into the plot much with this review, but unfortunately it has all the depth of a fifth grader's halloween writing project. If you must read this book, please check it out from local library. If you must spend the money, I recommend just tossing it into the middle of the street and watching cars run it over for an hour. It will be a lot more interesting, and scarier too.

I really enjoyed this book. "The Burning" was the first Bentley Little book I've read and I had it finished in a couple of days. I found the story/writing engaging and interresting.

My only complaint is that there were characters brought up and then just dropped. At the end of the book I was wondering what happened to the roommate and the friends of the college girl left in Babbitt House. (they were left in a bizzare predicament).

I have to agree with one of the others who commented above. The book was a great read up until the last 50 or so pages. I almost felt like it was a very anticlimactic ending. I love reading Little's novels and like I said this was very good up until the end. I wouldn't suggest passing on the book, it just let me down.