Customer Reviews

The Store

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Bill Davis is a regular guy who works from home. He's well settled into the small town life of Juniper, Arizona with his wife Ginny and two teenage daughters Samantha and Shannon. Life is good.

Then, while jogging, he sees a new sign announcing the arrival of The Store, and their intentions to build on a beautiful meadow outside of town, along Bill's jogging route. This immediately disgruntles Bill, but when he starts to find dead animals and even a dead hobo on The Store's grounds, his disgruntlement turns to a creeping fear.

The Store plows into town, overriding building and zoning codes and paying off the city's politicians for favors, promising jobs and prosperity in return. It soon becomes evident to Bill and his friends Ben and Street that The Store wants more than just the town's business; it wants the town itself.

The spookiest characters of the story are the Night Managers, though The Store is closed at night. These strange, black clad Managers prowl The Store at night as the lights flicker on and off. During the day, the employees are forced into cult-like obedience, and the shelves restocked with only Store items as one-by-one the local businesses are shut down.

Juniper becomes a ghost town. But when the entire city council resigns and are found dead in the parking lot of The Store, and Store Managers are appointed to City Government after The Store has already taken over Parks, Police, and Fire, Bill and his friends have seen enough.

Bill, Ben, and Street set out to try and restore their small town, but The Store is not easily fought. It's roots are everywhere, it's contacts cemented by previous court decisions, and to say no to The Store can be fatal.

Reading 'The Store' is almost (but only almost) enough to make one appreciate the terrorist tactics of WalMart. Its true that it is impossible to believe that anyone would blindly follow such a Corporate Cult, but that is where Little brings in the eerie Night Managers and the strangeness of Newman King, the sole owner of The Store chain.

The Store doesn't want customers. It wants converts.

Enjoy!

Bentley Little was an enigma to me until a few weeks ago, when I thumbed through a few of his novels at the local bookshop. Despite the name association I made with the neighbor from "The Jeffersons," the books looked interesting and I decided to take a crack at a few of them. "The Store" is the first one I decided to read and I am glad I did. What caught my eye were the somewhat cheesy cover and the hilarious description on the back cover. As I read the book, I discovered that the humor goes well beyond skin deep.

What surprises me about many of the reviews here is that they miss the biggest point of the story, namely, the humor. This is a wildly funny book. I alternated between chuckles, guffaws, snickers, giggles, hoots, bellows, knee slapping, gut busting, and roaring laughter with this gem of a novel. At first, I wondered if the book is supposed to be funny. I quickly decided that it is supposed to induce laughter. What Bentley Little is writing here is black comedy and satire on an epic scale. One event after another brought me to tears. There are horrific elements here, several which are decidedly unfunny. But overall, this book is the height of amusement. You know a book is good when you laugh out loud later, at weird times and places because you're thinking about the book. You learn to ignore the stares. It's difficult to explain what is funny in a short review. It is the cumulative effect The Store has on Juniper that brings out the chortles.

"The Store" takes place in Juniper, Arizona. Juniper is a podunk town out in the boonies. People have to drive to Flagstaff or Phoenix to visit a mall or a discount retailer. All of that changes when The Store arrives. The Store is a national discount chain, along the lines of Wal-Mart or Kmart. About the only person in town concerned about the new store is Bill Davis, a work at home writer who has plenty of time to poke his nose into what's going on in town. Davis has problems with The Store right from the start. The Store violates town rules by destroying the environment on the construction site. Then the dead animals start showing up, along with a transient that dies on the site. Davis is horrified to discover all of this carnage and quickly discovers that The Store is getting special treatment from the city government.

When The Store is finally built, even more ominous behavior begins to emerge. The Store uses its clout to run other businesses out of town. Unemployment begins to increase, as does The Store's influence in town government. The Store starts to sponsor activities in town, and they take over city services. People that are hired at the store begin to exhibit cult-like behavior. Bill is horrified when his daughter Samantha takes a job at The Store, followed by his other daughter, Shannon. Bill gets fed up with the increasingly fascist activities of The Store, and decides to confront its CEO, Newman King.

The book really builds up to what should be an awesome climax. Unfortunately, the ending is rather anti-climatic. Too many things go unexplained. Who is Newman King? Who are the Night Managers and how do they become what they are? The only conclusion I drew from the story is that The Store and its minions are related to some type of voodoo ritual. But that is never confirmed in any way, shape, or form. Like other reviewers have said, it seemed rushed. It does contain the most shocking scene of the book, however.
The characters in this book are marvelous. They are well drawn and sympathetic figures. I especially enjoyed Shannon, Bill's youngest daughter. Her spunky attitude and cynical observations are a joy to read. She reminded me of a girlfriend I once had years ago. Samantha, the other daughter, serves to put a human face on the degeneracy of The Store. It is through her eyes that we see the grueling application process, the cult-like devotion to The Store, and how The Store disciplines workers who break the rules.

Bentley Little's goal in this book is to expose the dependence Americans have on retail stores. In his view, Americans will sell out the very ideals of democracy in exchange for cheaper goods. Small towns are especially vulnerable to this type of corporate control because they lack access to bigger markets in a country that thrives on consumerism. These corporations can corrupt even their most dogged opponents, as seen in the book through Bill's meeting with Newman King. It seems that most of us recognize the danger of monopoly and unfettered corporate control. What Little does here is to take that idea and inject it with a huge dose of steroids, and then beat you over the head with the results.

This is masterful comedy, so sharp that it could put out your eye. I can't wait to read his collection of short stories and his other book, "The Association," about an out of control homeowners association (which promises even more chuckles). I hope you find "The Store" as entertaining as I did.

I was a little wary of this novel at first, because at first it sounded like a copy of Stephen King's "Needful Things". However, it was NOTHING like Needful Things, and had a premise that was just as compelling. It sounds almost hokey to say that the story is about a chain of stores that takes over small, economically-privileged towns in a way that's beyond sinister, but that is indeed the story. I was disdainful at first, but the more I read, the more "into it" I got. Yes, it seems a little far-fetched at times, but is it really? That's what I kept asking myself, along with, "Could this really happen? Can I envision this happening in the future, if things keep going the way they are in this country?" With super-chains like Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble putting just about every small business OUT of business - and the way we allow it to happen - the things that happen in this book are really NOT that far-fetched. Bentley Little doesn't try to impress with intense prose or complex storylines, either. It's simple, to the point, and very well-written. The guy knows how to tell a story! I highly, highly recommend this book. It's a fun and creepy read that also gives you something to think about.

I have found that there are two styles of writing for Bentley Little. There is the regular horror writing style and then there is the outrageous, macabre style. This is the latter. Much like "The Resort", this one will blow your mind. The outrageousness of it is almost snuck in between normal activity in the book. You then find yourself turning back to see if that was what you really read. It was. Trust me.

I gave the book 4 stars. It is by no means a masterpiece, but it is entertaining and that is why we read Little, to be entertained. If I was to go into to any detail, it would give away the story. So, read it for yourself and you be the judge!

I might suggest reading something like "The Resort", "The Policy", "The Collection". Those will give new Little readers a glimpse of what to expect. Enjoy!

It's a tie with me between Little's The Ignored and this one--Both are great horror novels. The Store is a demented "Little" read, guaranteeing that the reader will NEVER look at a Wal-Mart store the same way again. Unlike some of the other readers who've critiqued The Store, I thought the ending was just. The hero, faced with the ruined remains of his family and hometown, makes the inevitable, logical decision that completely breaks him as a man (and as a father)...but destroys the nemesis in the end. Most horror novels relate to that very classical theme of good vs. evil. The Store's ending, ultimately, worked.

I also liked the gradual buildup of the horror. From the dead animals on the site to the disturbing denouement with the hero. The best bits, in my opinion, were the ones involving the various customers, the salespeople and the "buys" (i.e. for those that have read it...the kids and the items on the bottom shelf...need I say more?). Every time the hero had to come in to buy something, the scenes would become more and more demented...

A good horror read over a weekend...Enjoy.

I loved this book! It is a different kind of horror novel in that it takes a disturbingly typical aspect of every day life, the chain store, and turns it into a horrorfest of strange yet sometimes believable circumstances. Of course a lot of it is far-fetched but the power, the greed, the exploitive nature of these stores rings disturbingly close to home. This book is great with details and each page has something disturbing, shocking and often hilarious to keep the reader hooked. Even more it makes you think about these homogenous stores and their influence on all of us. It is a must read for those who like something a little different, a little funny and really scary.

I usually would not go for a book with such a far-fetched and weird storyline. First of all because - this is one of the only books that you really can not put down if u tried since it is very very addictive and leaves you wondering from one chapter to another. It also pretty well developed and likable characters. and 3 - I have read many horror masters from Bram to Stephen King, as great as they are, no author scares me like Bentley Little. His work is really freaky although it is weird and nearly does not make sence - like some silly nightmare we might have that makes no sence but still manages to scare you each time you remember it. - Start from the first page, and you'll be hooked. A very entertaining and creepy novel!

Little is definately a welcome change of direction from the other authors I've been reading lately. He doesn't try to be eloquent or bog his stories down with overdescription--with brick by brick architectural rundowns of every house on the block and expatiations on the area's plant-life. He just tells a scary (and thoughtful) story in a direct, fast style that doesn't seem contrived. I got through this one--at over four-hundred pages--in a single day. On average, a book of that length takes me a good four days. If that's any indication of just how good this book was, then it deserved the rating I gave it. But...

...even though I gave it five stars, I do have one minor complaint. For others who read this: do you remember the chess games that Bill and Street had? How Bill would always win the computer games and Street the board ones, and how that streak eventually flipped? What was the significance to that? If it was ever explained or had some pertinance to the story, I missed it. Sometimes, when writing, one toys with an idea that never really goes anywhere. That's what the rewrite is for--scrapping that kind of stuff.

As for one other complaints that others have had, I LIKE an abrupt ending, in the tradition of Poe. And, while some of the stuff in the book did seem unrealistic, (like The Store getting away with selling illegal stuff,) remember, books create an alternate universe. It was realistic within the context of the story.

Little's style is refreshing and I'd highly recommend this, (and his other works,) to anyone who likes horror and can take a little shock-value.

This is the fifth Little novel I've read. While I didn't enjoy it quite as much as UNIVERSITY or THE IGNORED, I think it easily beats out THE WALKING and THE HOUSE. So I give it a definite thumbs-up. The whole premise is great. If you're somewhat disturbed by the fact that almost every town in the US looks identical--thanks to chain stores like Wal-Mart and Kmart and fast food restaurants--then this book should be right up your alley since it plays into those fears big time.

Like his other novels, his writing just carries you right along--you won't be pulled out of the story by having to get your dictionary out to look up an obscure word. Nothing I've read by Little reads like that. He's not attempting some type of "high brow" horror a la Kathe Koja. He's more concerned with telling a great story, and he does that in abundance, which is a rare thing these days, at least as far as horror fiction goes.

So, if you're looking for a novel that just flows and are more concerned with the story than pretentious themes and obscure language, you won't be disappointed.

Its greatly enjoyed..I am an avid horror book reader..and i would buy anything by certain extraordinary favourite writers...with this book i have added Mr.Bentley to my list as i would buy his books without any hesitation.. with my eyes shut:)