HO. LEE. CRAP!!!
Okay, it's official, I am ALL IN on the Cutter train. I read and enjoyed his other book, The Troop, but gave it just four stars; this one however is EASY five. I would characterize it as action horror, because all the protags are gunslingers/mercenaries/bounty hunters and a good deal of the novel involves cool action scenes both on foot and in vehicles fighting monsters. And it's excellent action horror too, with a bit of good ol horror mystery thrown in as well.
It starts off with a hard-edged but decent man, Micah Shugrue, waking up at night in his house in 1980s New Mexico after he hears his daughter stolen away from under his (and his comatose wife's) nose by a bizarre, creepy demon-like thing. He calls (not literally, but supernaturally, they *feel* it) some old friends of his--Ebenezer, an Afro-British assassin settled in America, and Minny, a wandering bounty hunter with incredible skills; skill that draw from a supernatural source. The source of Minny's skills, as well as the abilities Micah and Ebenezer possess, is revealed through a flashback that takes up most of the book, interspersed with a few accounts of their present (in 1980) travel to find Micah's daughter. It all ties back to a strange settlement out in the Western wilderness called Little Heaven, where a cruel and fanatical preacher named Amos rules over a small congregation. Back in 1965, Micah, Ebenezer, and Minny were hired to rescue a woman's nephew from the compound, where the boy's father took him after falling under Amos' spell. But there's a dark force indeed looming over Little Heaven, and Minny, Ebenezer, and Micah will face it to save both their own lives and that of their client...but it won't forget them, which is why it sends one of its servants to kidnap Micah's daughter 15 years later, and its true agenda is more horrifying than any of them can imagine.
I don't wanna say much more than that, cause this is a novel you really gotta experience for yourself, other than this story was a hell of a ride! The writing is top notch, no grammar errors or awkward constructions I could find, and the characterization is excellent; all the characters have engaging dialogue with each other; their portrayal puts them squarely in the "low-life wandering gunslinger/mercenary" archetypes, but they're all differentiated from each other (Micah's nobility, Minny's simmering resentment, and Ebenezer, the least moral, most ruthless, but also most educated and affable of the bunch, having a distinctive English knack for cutting repartee) and end up making a cool team. Amos, the human antagonist of the story, is spine-chillingly cruel and deviant and you just love to hate him, while the supernatural antagonist is really, REALLY scary. Again, I don't want to give too much away because you have gotta see it for yourself, but the demon that shows up in the beginning is the LEAST scary monster it has under its employ, as the story goes on and Little Heaven falls deeper into the darkness, you see some of the most twisted creatures dispatching unfortunates in the most gruesome manners you can imagine, and the monster itself, when you finally do get to see it, is really REALLY weird and creepy. That would be my only real quibble, that the true nature of the main monster isn't really explained, but some things are better off unexplained especially if you like that sort of ambiguity, or like mysteries which aren't *totally* solved by the end. Awesome, awesome work, I love it! 5 stars easy!
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Cutter still unable to recapture the horror in The Troop
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2017
I wanted Nick Cutter’s third installment to be so good. And it just wasn’t.I read The Troop and The Deep. The first one terrified me. The second one had its moments of terror but wasn’t as effective and eventually fell flat.Little Heaven follows the latter, unfortunately. The novel takes place in several different time periods in the lives of the main characters. Micah, Minerva, and Ebenezer are three over-the-top and almost unbelievable individuals who face (and then later face again in the future) an evil creature in the desert. There’s also a town called Little Heaven where some cultists and a preacher live, but their backstories are never fleshed out to enough depth that the reader ultimately cares. It seems their existence in the novel was to provide fodder for the evil to kill, but this ultimately falls flat since not enough detail was placed into them for the reader to remember who is getting attacked.You can also tell the author did a lot of research into the 1960s and really, REALLY, wanted the reader to know the pain he went through. Constant, unnecessary references to things in the 1960s are placed through the novel with no reason. References to Hunt’s pudding, Nehi grape soda, Yoo-Hoo, the Incredible Spider-Man, Monster from Green Hell, The Brain from Planet Arous, One Grain of Sand, Roll over Beeethoven, Pocket Full of Rainbows, Bubble-Up Gum, Roi-Tan cigars, and Ken-L ration dog food are all listed in the span of 8 pages! I wanted to scream “No please keep going. I’m not convinced you’re in 1965 yet!” It’s so unbelievable and impractical as well. People don’t naturally talk to each other saying “oh there is my Apple iPhone where I use my Facebook app as I sip my Dr. Pepper and eat my Lays Frito chips.”There is also so much unnecessary filler and padded writing meant to take up space. Clearly this 500 page novel could be told in 100 pages if you removed the excessive, unneeded details. There is even a section where one of the characters tells a joke and the author then proceeds to explain why that joke is supposed to be funny!“Why is 6 afraid of 7?789! 789!A riddle, Micah said, six is afraid of seven because seven ate nine.”And the areas that should be fleshed out with detail are empty and without description. The creatures in this novel are all unique and different and they are referred to as ‘that thing’ or ‘those things’. The reader is left guessing at what they look like because they’re “too horrible to describe.” So get ready for a book filled with jokes explained to you and every possible reference to things that existed in the ‘60s and almost no description of the horror you came to read.All in all, if you find this book in a bargain bin or on sale on Black Friday, then pick it up. Otherwise, it’s not worth its price tag. I’d recommend ‘The Troop’ by the same author and really hope Cutter doesn’t continue on a downhill trend.
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2017
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Jake Dolsey
Great in parts, but too long to get going!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 11, 2022
Fraser Machin
my friend loved this book
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Pooklet
Stupid; pales compared to The Troop
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 14, 2021
