Customer Reviews

The Vanishing

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Bentley Little writes 2 types of books. Horrific satires of modern institutions, and ultimate evil books. The satires (The Store, The Mailman, The Policy, The Ignored, The Association) are excellent. The others (The Return, The Revelation, Dominion, The House) have some kind of ultimate evil that doesn't feel familiar to the reader. These don't usually come out too well and this is one of those.

I've read almost every one of his novels and I recommend many of them to anyone who won't get offended by taboo subjects in the name of horror.

Also a warning about his endings. No matter how good the rest of the book is, the ending always falls apart. He just can't write endings that live up to the rest of the book. But his great stuff doesn't really need a good ending. I'd go buy The Store, or The Walking (about witches and zombies) if you haven't already. Save this one for later if you want to read everything Little.

Being a fan of most genres of literature and a high school English teacher, I try to read as many authors as I can to have a wide range of knowledge. I consider myself a huge horror fan and this was my second book by this author.

I can't really recommend this book but I wouldn't say it was a waste of my time. It took me about 100 pages to start getting into it and after that time was invested, I thought it moved quickly and kept my interest. I liked the Brain and Carrie characters. I hated Andrew though (I guess that's good writing).

This book really isn't scary so much as it is disturbing. From the fathers killing their sons at the beginning to the "organic Milk" farm, it was pretty gross (again possibly because of good writing).

I wouldn't recommend it to my high school students to read, or my son for that matter who I give most of my books to read afterward.

Last note: If I was a distant relative of John Sutter, I would sue! :)

I am generally a huge fan of Bentley Little his stories are generally entertaining and at times when they are a bit more subdued they have much more depth then people give him credit for (The ignored).

I felt this novel was so grotesque and disgusting, it was only that, the story was ludicrous, the ending was just plain stupid and everything in between was completely un-entertaining. The bloody and violent scenes were disgusting but it seemed as though they were gross just for the sake of being gross.

This has got to be the worse story line he's ever had, and this comes from a Little fan!

anyway pick it up at your own risk.

Being a Little fan, I have read every novel so far without a real clunker. This is the first. I really had to struggle to get through this one. Usually Little hooks me right in and tells a nice story. His usual fault is having a bad ending. This one however is bad from the start. Strange runes, Lovecraftian images, demons, monsters, perversions, murder, and a back story that ties it all in to Sutter's Mill. The story has no real flow, and just isn't scary. The ending is just absurd. This one will get donated to the library.

This Bram Stoker Award winning author hits it out of the ball park with this latest offering. This is a genuinely creepy horror story by one of the best authors in the genre. I simply could not put the book down, finding myself compulsively turning the pages of this book until the very end. Once again, the author manages to hold fans of the horror genre in his thrall, making the reader believe the unbelievable.

Why is it that wealthy men are suddenly running amok and slaughtering their dearest and nearest? What is the meaning of the cryptic messages they are leaving behind? Why are some children that resemble little more than beasts being born? These are some of the mysteries with which reporter Brian Howells and social worker Carrie Daniels grapple.

This book is really two stories, each of which takes place in California, one in the nineteenth century and the other in the present. Both are compelling stories that are inextricably interwoven and intertwined. The author seamlessly weaves these two tales together, creating a highly inventive and entertaining story. As the connection between the past and the present is made clear and the two stories meld into one, the reader is kept spellbound.

Although the ending is the weak link in the book, as it is with so many of this author's other books, it will not diminish the enjoyment that the reader will get in reading this latest offering. The enjoyment lies in the journey to the end. Fans of the author will especially enjoy the author's sly introduction of his old pen name, Phillip Emmons, as a minor character.

So I picked this up at a bookstore that was going out of buisness having had the author recommended to me. I just happened to pick this one up first and was intrigued by the description on the back. It is terrible beyond description even in terms of crappy popular fiction. It is utter nonsense and manages not one scare or even a moment of suspense. Complete junk.

While not as bad as his last book, The Burning, this latest effort from Bentley Little was slightly disappointing. My problem? To quote an actual line from a character in the book, "Is there anything about this that isn't ridiculous?" Yes, folks, once the story unravels it becomes clear that Bentley added way too many elements that had to be forced to fit together. It was hard to build suspense when everything seems so implausible. I usually love Bentley Little's work, but this was only mildly entertaining. It helps that the novel is very fast paced, but other than that, I would recommend reading his better work like The Store, The Association, The Policy, or Dispatch -- tales of horror/satire, where his talent really shines.

I have really enjoyed most of Bentley Little's books but I feel like I have read this same story from him before. Crazy people that used to be normal, succubus like creatures, blood, gore, birth defects. Most of the story is so silly I couldn't believe it came from Bentley Little. I would skip this one unless you are a hard core Little fan and will read anything he writes. There is nothing new here.

I absolutely adore the first 3/4 of all of Bentley Little's books. I hate when an author tries to tie something from 100 years ago into a current story (and Bentley does it all the time) and when the ending is so fantastic that its impossible to believe. I think he sometimes gets so wrapped up in the story that he doesn't plan for an ending, and just tosses one in there. They are never satisfying to me, and seem like an afterthought. For the last quarter of almost every story to be so much weaker than the tremendous first 3/4 is depressing, but it won't make me stop reading. I'll just get to a certain point and fizzle out the ending in my own mind to keep the allure alive.

Across the country, strange things are happening. Millionaires--with hidden genetic deformities--are brutally killing their families. Children are being born with the faces of animals. Carrie Daniels, a social worker, and Brian Howells, a reporter, have personal ties to the occurences. Seperately, then together, they begin to investigate what these unexplainable events, trying to put meaning to madness.

But things are only getting worse...as the violence mounts, and blood flow escalates, Brian and Carrie will discover that some secrets are best kept hidden, that curses come true, and that all these incidents tie back to 19th-century California, to a prospector named James Marshall who stumbled upon one of the best-kept secrets of the American West...

Bentley Little has always managed to entertain me; with this book, he even gets a few genuine scares. "The Vanishing" is hardcore macabre/horror for the die-hard fan; if you are squeamish, if you don't like your horror novels soaked in blood, then skip on; I'm afraid you'll have to avoid the entire Bentley Little library, too, as he is one of the most brutal writers out there. Fortunately, he also one of the best; his novels are laced with potent sarcasm and satire--a Little novel is, in many ways, a thinking man's horror novel. If you're not into higher education and satirical writing, don't worry--you can savor the pure horror bliss that Little obviously delights in dishing out (he even manages to work his old pseudonym, Phillip Emmons, into this one). Little enjoys writing 'em...and we enjoy reading 'em. If you haven't tried Bentley Little yet, "The Vanishing" is as good a place as any to start. Just keep the lights on. Trust me on that.