The House

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By Bentley Little

Publisher Description

Five strangers from across America are about to open the door to an unspeakable evil in this horror novel from “master of the macabre!”* Bentley Little.

They share a dark bond. A haunted childhood. A shocking secret. A memory of the houses they lived in—each one eerily identical to the next. From the remote foothills of the west to the green lawns of suburbia, they are returning—to the past, to the unspeakable events they long to forget...to the house.

Now, their journeys are about to converge in a terrifying challenge to confront their nightmares—or be trapped inside them forever....

*Stephen King

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90 Reviews

3.5

Taylor

Created about 1 month ago

“📖”

Explicit sexual content Violence Suspenseful Dark Eerie Otherworldly

Sami

Created about 2 months ago

“Overall I thought it was kind of boring; had a good plot and was intense but the last couple chapters were so hard to get through. Idk I was hopeful because I like Bentley Little. Wouldn’t recommend or reread”

Explicit sexual content Sexual assault Bleak Dark

Danny Welch

Created 3 months ago

“It's been a while since I last read a Bentley Little novel. Honestly, despite how incredibly imaginative and unique his writing style is, there's always a lot to his stories that taking big breaks between books of his is probably the best thing to do, that's by no means a bad thing as his stories are filled to the brim with everything you could ever want from a horror novel and hopefully you'll end up leaving satisfied. I adored The Summoning and thought The Return was pretty good too. The House is a novel I've been wanting to read for a very long time but due to some mixed reviews, I didn't want to make it my first of his just in case. Five strangers who grew up in five different houses are about to discover their childhoods were eerily similar and that someone or something is trying to convince them to return. What connects the five houses, why are their childhoods similar and are the butler and the mysterious child from each abode the same individuals? The borders between worlds are breaking down and it's up to these five individuals to return home and uncover the disturbing truth. Bentley Little has written a haunted house story that doesn't follow the familiar rules and tricks a haunted house does, so much so some people may even argue that it isn't a haunted house story. I think it is but a haunted house story that's done uniquely, that throws away the familiar rules and puts together something original. The first half of this novel is pretty much all of our characters being given reasons to return home and regain their memories of the house, since none of them remember their childhoods. It's a very eerie first half with some chilling and disturbing imagery that caught me off guard at times, the second half is equally disgusting and frightening, but it's nice to see the five main characters come together to fight off a mysterious evil that not even they understand. The villain of this story Donna (she goes by numerous names, all starting with D.) is a mysterious being taking on the guise of a young girl, and not going to lie she is by far one of the most grotesque, unsettling, and disgusting villains I've ever read. She manipulates and toys those around with lust and desire, which is incredibly disturbing considering the form she takes, which I'm aware is the point because she's very much the opposite of all that is innocent and childlike. It's a perversion of what we all believe and it's grotesque. I will add a couple of warnings here because oh boy this novel is a lot: pedophilia, mentions of rape, mutilation, gore, explicit sex scenes. Overall: It's an incredible haunted house story that is unlike anything I've ever read in this genre and I loved every minute of it. It's a genuinely frightening read that's also bizarre in typical Bentley Little fashion.”

Cheri

Created about 1 year ago

“Sixty pages in and already too many instances of sexualizing an adolescent girl for my taste. The fact that it’s described as “sensual” is grotesque. Not the kind of horror I’m interested in. Closing this one unfinished.”

Mike North

Created about 1 year ago

“Was definitely a Bentley Little style book! Was a good read. My 3rd B.L. book that I've read. Will highly recommend it!”

About Bentley Little

Bentley Little is the author of numerous novels, short stories, articles, essays, and reviews. After earning a BA in communications and an MA in English, Little sold his soul and abandoned all artistic integrity, working for eight years as a bureaucrat for a midsized city in Orange County, California. His first novel, The Revelation, won the 1990 Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award for best first novel.