The Return

I've read many of Stephen King's books, but none of those ever scared me. They didn't even come close, actually. Dean Koontz was okay--still not that scary to me though. But Bentley Little....HE knows how to write good horror! I get chills every time I read The Return, and I don't know how many times I've read it over the years. The opening chapter is quite horrifying on its own--the book just gets better from there. The use of Anasazi objects as possessed horror items was just brilliant. The ending is a little lame, but the rest of the story makes up for that. I really connected to the kid and I am glad he had such a big part in the tale. The two main adult characters were okay, if a little too normal/boring. Writing-wise, it was brilliant. I felt as though I was right there, and I could see every part of every scene playing out in my head with clarity. An awesome book I wholeheartedly recommend.

After reading this great book and being thoroughly terrified by some of the most disturbingly original imagery I've come across this year, I was shocked to see the low scores this book got from readers. Maybe you have to be from the southwest to appreciate the achievement here. Compared to Dean Koontz's BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON, which seems to have taken its Four Corners info from a map, Little knows this country and creates an epic novel of horror from this epic landscape. Scary, intense and original. By the way, I liked the ending and thought it DID tie up all loose ends.

I read THE RETURN on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm so glad I did. This is a great book. Intelligently written and intricately plotted, it stands head and shoulders above most of today's horror fiction. There are ambitious, truly scary set pieces such as the descent of a small town into hell, a boy's horrific surreal loss of his parents, a delinquent's encounter with an ancient god in an Indian cave and an abusive father's comeuppance by the ghosts of his family that will haunt me for a long time to come. Bentley Little is as good as King, Koontz and Barker in their prime. While I can understand the frustration of some with the ending of the novel, climaxes in horror fiction have always been problematic (The ending of King's classic THE SHINING? The boiler blows up and destroys the hotel. the end.)The conclusion of THE RETURN is at least consistent with Little's Lovecraftian premise that evil is inherently unknowable. I can't wait to read the rest of this talented author's books.

I bought this novel because I was so impressed with THE COLLECTION, Mr. Little's book of short stories. I am blown away by this man's talent. Not only does THE RETURN contain some of the creepiest imagery in recent memory (I don't think I'll ever forget the shaking creature hiding beneath the butcher paper), but it has a lot to say about the colonization of America and the British-centric lense through which our history is perceived. Scary yet serious, this is one damn good book.

Bentley Little is one of the few current practitioners of epic horror: horror fiction that takes place over a broad geographic area and weaves together disparate events into one large tapestry. In THE RETURN, he tackles the disappearance of the Anasazi Indians in the Southwest and marries it to a series of contemporary events that are occurring throughout the U.S. Archeologists are uncovering strange and creepy objects at their digs, artifacts are becoming sentient in museums and everything seems to be connected to a series of spooky mummies with orange afros who are suddenly appearing. It's a complex plot with some of the scariest scenes I've read in years. One spooky book.