Customer Reviews

Little Brothers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I never heard of Rick Hautala before, and I have a huge collection of horror novels...go figure?. I really like the straight forward clear writing style, the suspense kept me glued to the pages to the very end and above all "LITTE BROTHERS" is scary, really scary! I'm a sucker for anything with a monster in it and this book delivered more than it's share of them. I have recently purchased every Hautala book I can find...I am now currently reading Bedbugs and I love it!!! Finally... an author that tells a story without getting bogged down in excessive plot twists, with redneck blue coller characters, countless pages of descriptions (KING), or trying to be too literary that it puts you to sleep(STRAUB), so disposable, commercial and predictable(KOONTZ), cheap porn(LAYMON), Mr. Hautala is none of the above, he's better and I'm glad he's still around.

This is my all time favorite Hautala novel. A little boy sees his mother killed by 'little brothers' that live in underground tunnels that criss cross his hometown. Now the monsters want him as well. Of course, being a Hautala novel, there is a lot more going on in the tightly wound plot than first meets the eye. The reader of this book is in for a real treat. Recommended.

Every 5 years creatures emerge from an underground cavern to feed. It just so happens that 5 years ago Kip witnessed his mother being eaten by the beasties and as if the psychological damage wasn't enough now they're after him. True, I was hoping for a siege on the town with the creatures eventually running rampant everywhere so it was a bit of a letdown when there were only a few victims/attacks. And even though 2 people (one being a young teen) taking on the entire nest of extremely lethal creatures is a little hard to swallow and slightly took me out of the story I still liked it overall and plan on giving it a few more re-reads in the future. It's the first book I've read where one part actually gave me the creeps.

Rick Hautala doesn't write, he conjures. His mastery of fiction helps him create characters and worlds so real, you don't read a Hautala novel, you live it.

Little Brothers is no different. Kip Howard lost his mother a few years ago. He's still struggling with the grief but little does he know that whatever took her life is coming back. Immerse yourself in a story so rich and engaging that you will not be able to put the book down. Hautala is a master of his craft and Little Brothers is one hell of a masterpiece.

Have I mentioned previously how much I love Amazon's Kindle? Well, if I haven't, let me state it now--I love Amazon's Kindle. Why? Because so many authors are releasing their long out-of-print books to the digital device. Rick Hautala is one of these authors.

I first read Little Brothers when it was published in 1988. I loved it then, and during the course of moves, my dog-eared, well-read copy had become so used and abused it was falling apart to the point where I was afraid to read it again. So when I heard it was going to be released on Kindle (and other digital platforms), I was ecstatic.

Five years ago, Kip Howard witnessed the traumatizing events of his young life: the brutal murder of his mother at the hands of. . . What? He couldn't remember. As a result of the murder, his father, who was present at the time but did not witness the attack but did see the aftermath, abandoned work on the new house. But now that his father is about to once again start work on the new house, all of Kip's fears are resurfacing. As if that wasn't bad enough, the memories are trying to break through the wall he built up to keep them hidden.

The attack on Kip's mother was so brutal, it was initially attributed to some animal, but John Watson, the town's resident drunk, knows the truth. A Native American who was brought up in the area, Watson knows the legends that surround the land the town has been built on, and what killed Kip's mother is one of those legends. The Untcigahunk, the Little Brothers, a dwarf-like humanoid race that lives in the caverns and tunnels that run beneath the land. They surface every five years with a hunger for flesh and a thirst for blood. And their time is coming around again.

Man and boy will be brought together by chance, and together they vow to put an end to the Little Brothers once and for all. But do this unlikely duo stand a chance against a race that his been around since the dawn of creation, or will they be like so many others that have disappeared without a trace from the town of Thornton, Maine?

Little Brothers was Hautala's fourth novel, but it was my first exposure to this Master of Horror. The Untcigahunk are, in my opinion, one of the Horror genre's more memorable creatures, ranking right up there with that damned Zuni fetish doll from Trilogy of Terror. The readers seem to agree, as the Untcigahunk were to appear in several stories after Little Brothers was published.

This novel is not an edge-of-your-seat thriller, at least not at first. Hautala takes his time creating his characters, fleshing them out and making them real, giving you ample time to get to know and like (or dislike) them, so when something happens to them or they are placed in a position of danger, you do find yourself sweating it out right along with them, or cheering when the bad guy (yes, the Little Brothers aren't the only bad guys in the book) finally gets what he deserves. It isn't until the boy and Indian meet and start making their plans that the book (or Kindle in this case) becomes hard to put down. The details are rich, which makes it easier to lose yourself in the world of the characters.

If you haven't had the pleasure of reading the works of Rick Hautala, and many younger readers might not have because many, if not all, of his books are out of print, I can't encourage you enough to pick up one of them and give him a try, and Little Brothers would be an excellent book to start with. You won't be disappointed. And here's hoping to Rick Hautala will be working on another novel featuring the Untcigahunk.

Stephen King wannabe Rick Hautala hits rock bottom in this utterly preposterous, contrived and unimaginative horror story. Native American folklore forms the basis for nasty little critters called chtihumangas or something like that, which translates to "little brothers." Seems like they come out every five years and chew up the local citizenry supposedly in revenge for being underground-bound by some tribe way back in history. Hautala's usual padded book (over 500 pages) has little suspense and the creature attacks are merely comic; there are characters introduced and cast off (like Gail Fleischer, whose only inclusion seems to be to let her dog Barkley get chomped up); and the brothers Marty and Kip are so juvenile and obnoxious, it's hard to feel anything for them, even though Kip does finally stand up to his brother. The dad is a wimp; the alcoholic Indian a stereotype and the conclusion forced and predictable. While I'm not one of Hautala's biggest fans, I've managed to enjoy some of his other works, but this one is tedious and boring.