If You Like King, You Will Like Bentley Little !!

I am a very picky reader, and often don't give books a fair shot. They have to capture my attention from the beginning.. no matter what genre I'm reading. Bentley Little and Joe Barrett team up for a great performance that keeps my attention. Bentley Little loosens up a little on the gore and gives us a more mature and developed horror novel. (Don't worry B.L. fans... there is still plenty of blood slinging in this novel). " Influence" gives the reader a more original and grounded storyline than many of his previous books, and is noticeably more up- to-date. You know the characters well in this novel, and root for them. If you like King, you are almost gaurenteed to like Bentley Little. "The Haunted", another Bentley Little audible selection, is also excellent.

41 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Fun and scary!

A solid horror story, kept me entertained throughout the entire book.
If you enjoy horror stories, you'll like this one.

16 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Obviously written by a man...

The author seems to have some misunderstanding about how a woman's body works, in one passage commenting from a woman's perspective that she "could be very confused about what's going on because she was on her period and her hormones were swirling." Give me a damn BREAK! The rest of the story was lackluster and boring with seemingly no point. Not worth the listen.

14 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Big build up that lead to a lackluster ending. Oh

A little closure and a better ending would have made it possible for me to enjoy this book more than I did.

10 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Classic Bentley - Crazy Stuffed with Weird!

Would you try another book from Bentley Little and/or Joe Barrett?

Yes. I'm a huge fan of Bentley Little. I've read all his novels. I wish (HINT HINT) there were more of his books on Audible. Joe Barrett did a good job narrating.

What other book might you compare The Influence to and why?

The only thing to compare this book to is another novel by Bentley Little (The Policy, The Association, The Ignored…). There aren't too many authors that can combine unemployment, a New Year's Eve party, scowling flowers, whistling cats, pissed off chickens and jumping eggs into a pretty good story. And that is just a little bit of the weirdness. If you are familiar with Bentley Little you know how his characters rationalize the most insane and creepy situations. Like being out of work for a year and then getting a six figure job offer from the president of the company...right after he excuses himself to poop in the corner of his office. But you take the job anyway because you need the money and well maybe the guy is having a bad day or something... And you could almost see yourself doing the same thing. Almost. My only problem with The Influence is the ending. I’ll just leave it at that. If you are a fan of Mr. Little, by all means get this one. It's not his best work but it's worth the listen. If you are not familiar, you’ve been warned. It is crazy, nasty, creepy.

8 persone l'hanno trovata utile

It's alright.

There were some creepy and some completely out of the whack parts. The ending should have matched the rest of the book.

7 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Not one of my favorite Bentley Little books

Any additional comments?

I started liking Bentley Little when I read his book, "The Haunted." I knew he could be sick and twisted but he went pretty far out there with this book! I was very surprised at how many sexual scenes were referenced throughout the book. I thought they were unnecessary and a few made me feel very uncomfortable.

Ross is down on his luck. He is the one that is always so giving to everyone in need and now that he has lost his job, no one is willing to help him but his cousin, Lita. He moves out to Magdalena, Arizona to live with Lita and her husband, Dave, on their farm. On New Years Eve, most of the people in town attend a party where at midnight they shoot down a demon in which they call it an "angel."

Everyone's luck starts to change and then all of these creepy, alien like distortions of regular animals and insects start coming out of the woodworks and pipes! Everyone starts acting weird. Their mind is basically controlled by this dead demon that happens to be holed up in Cameron Holtz's smoke house and is guarded/worshipped by his Mexican work hands. People start getting killed. This nutty cult-like religious group steals a freakin baby and sacrifices it!!! I thought that was demented and a little much.

All the while, Ross is in this relationship with a girl named Jill. She's a telemarketer and artist that lives in Magdalena. They met at the farmer's market. A lot of walks and having sex. They both did not attend the party that night but they notice the weird things going on. Jill starts to paint and draw this demon in an egg so apparently it's not dead but is cocooning itself to emerge into something more fierce!

People leave and some come back. The town goes nuts with the people that stay. Ross decides that he needs to go back and defeat the demon once and for all!

Not going to spoil the ending but it definitely is not one that I'll read again.

6 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Think X Files, Stephen King and HP Lovecraft

I have read a lot of horror and Little is a master at making the mundane into terror. This book is just pure horror. It's spooky, gory and terrifying. I loved it. The narrator was spot on and the story has great flow. I highly recommend.

5 persone l'hanno trovata utile

crazy!

this book was crazy and very scary! I hope they will puut more of his books on audible.

5 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Big fan of this man's work.

I have read everything he put out, and I will continue to do so, but it was a good experience listening to his work for a change. Probably the best shock-horror writer out there.

3 persone l'hanno trovata utile