Stale Book Review #28 (actually #15) - The Association

The Association by Bentley Little

Cost: $3.95US

Page Count: 438

Bentley Little is most likely the creepiest author that is actively writing today.  King might be more prolific, and very creepy himself, Mr. Little is...damn his stuff is strange.

So, The Association.  I really enjoyed this reading this one.  In fact, once I picked it up I had an extremely difficult time putting it down.  Yes, it was on a sick, sadistic level, but it was very good.   I read it in two sittings.  Hey, my eyes get tired and need to take a break...suck it! 

The story goes like this:  Barry and Maureen are a couple that have bought a home in an exclusive, gated-type, fancy-pants neighborhoods somewhere of in them quiet hills of Utah.  The land of beauty, legend, and men with six wives and forty children.  But, I digress...  Barry and Mo (as I called them), begin to realize that something is just a little bit 'off' about their new homestead.

You see, this neighborhood is overlorded by a homeowner's association that takes the idea of the HOA to a whole new level.  The application process to even be allowed to buy in the exclusive, gated community must've been a strain on the buyers.  That sucks because Barry and Maureen are likable folk.  They're good people and appear to get along well with one another.  However, that yard sale is just not fucking cool in the eyes of the HOA.  The yard sale attempt and fine (yes, fine) are just the start of the madness.  It slowly snowballs from there.

So, over a relatively short amount of time, neighbors just suddenly start to up and disappear.  No trace.  Nothing.

Then there are the murders.

Then there are the dildos.  Seriously.

The Association is fucked.  But, in a really, really good way.  It's a mind-bender and I love that about Little.  He's never afraid to breach a subject or just take it one step too far.  As a writer, Bentley Little has some balls.  I respect that.

On a side note:  I live in a neighborhood with a homeowner's association.  I am petrified of them, now.

Stale Book Review #19: The Resort

The Resort by Bentley Little

Cost: $0.50US

Page Count: 310

Oh Bentley Little.  You are forever a sick fuck.  Every single one of his books, that I have read anyway, have ended up being a mind bender and twisted in the most extreme of ways.  The Resort was no different.

Tucked away in the Arizona desert lays the Reata.  The Reata seems a typical five star resort where the rich and famous go to relax their cares away during the nicer months of the desert.  However, in the depths of the summer when temperatures soar, The Reata cuts their rates dramatically, giving normal folk a chance at some luxury.  That's exactly why Lowell Thurman and his family decided to take their family vacation in the desert.

In typical B. Little tradition, the resort is not what it seems.  There are ghosts, and phantoms, and visions, and a myriad of other fucked up situations that arise.  The Thurmans' sons get caught up in the whole mess and try to do a little Scooby Doo investigating.  Needless to say, their investigations do not turn out well.  There is no old caretaker hiding under a sheet spooking the guests like in the cartoon.  Nope, this is some real deal shit going on down at the Reata.

This book...it's messed up.  But, in a good way.  Bentley Little can write a page turner and I plowed through this one a day or so.  Not exactly Tolstoy.  However, you won't be disappointed when you put down The Resort.  

Good book.  Fun times.  Just a little twisted.

On a side note:  Bentley Little has a very limited presence on the internet.  He's one of the few writer's that I have noticed that does not have his own web site.  Odd.  But, to each his own.