The Haunted

This is one of the better modern horror books I've read in some time, since the last Stephen Graham Jones probably. It owes quite a bit to Anne River Siddons' [The House Next Door], and, I suppose, to Lovecraft and Shirley Jackson in the end. A family moves house to escape a declining neighborhood in a small New Mexico town. Quickly, the house reveals itself to each of the members of the family as ill-intentioned and malevolent.

Two nits to pick: first, each of the family members suffers in utter silence, never daring to share with the others what's happening to them individually. It strains believability just a bit, though the author puts it down to the house itself, threatening and mind-controlling. Second, though the author is from show more the southwest, the setting never gets much billing. Neither the small town nor the desert get much play at all. That felt like a missed opportunity. There's some flashbacks to the history of the place, but it features only on the malevolent presence rather than the character of the larger setting. And there's never any attempt to identify the origins of the bad thing at all - given the culture of the setting, that also seemed like a missed opportunity.

So, a good book, that could have been a really good one. On balance, though, I'd recommend the book and the author.

4 bones!!!!
Recommended!!!! show less

The historic district of Jardine, New Mexico seems like the perfect place to live for the Perry family. Julian and Claire Perry and their two children, Megan and James, have just recently moved into a beautiful Victorian house which is bigger and much, much nicer than their old house. They are ecstatic to be living in the house, but something isn't right...Something is definitely odd.

The neighbors seem reluctant to visit. They seem so strange and somewhat standoffish towards the Perry family, although not actually hostile toward them. Claire just can't shake the feeling that someone is watching her. Teenage Megan receives increasingly menacing and obscene texts, and she inexplicably starts to carry out the titillating commands of an show more unseen presence. Ten-year-old James has a sudden onslaught of dreadfully bizarre nightmares and unsettling, ghostly visions.

Then there is the strangely sickening odor emanating from a specific corner of the basement. It smelled very strongly of soil, but there was absolutely nothing in the basement that could cause such a peculiar smell - at least nothing visible. It's a pity no one warned the family about the house; someone really should have. Now it's much too late. Because the darkness at the bottom of the basement stairs is rising...and there will be no escape.

I really enjoyed this book. In my opinion, it was a wonderfully creepy mix of an understated, almost mundane life being haunted by an inexplicably horrific supernatural presence. I appreciated that the horror in this story was well-maintained right until the end.

I find that so often the horror in some of the books that I've read either falls apart towards the end, or becomes entirely unbelievable; at least for me. I do love reading books about haunted houses, though. This is the third book by Bentley Little that I've read, and he is an author that I definitely want to read more from in the future. I give The Haunted by Bentley Little an A+! show less

This was a wonderfully horrific listen thru audiobook. A classic haunted house tale, but it was very original on the path it takes. It has suspense building and nailbiting bits of horror. I really enjoyed it! The "boogeyman" here is not the average ghost you read about everywhere else.
I almost quit on Bentley Little after reading The store, but now I think I will be visiting with his characters more often. 4 solid stars!

The Perry family's new house is perfect-except for the weird behavior of the neighbors, and that odd smell coming from a dark corner in the basement. Pity no one warned the family about the house. Now it's too late. Because the darkness at the bottom of the basement stairs is rising.
Wow, the author is at the top of his form with this hair raising, scary haunted house story. Bentley Little is one of the best authors in the Horror genre and his earlier works are far superior than what he has been producing over the last few years.
But this book brings him back to the forefront of horror.
He lays out scenes that are so frighteneing they stay with you long after you turn the page.
And you begin to feel as helpless as the Perry family.
More than show more things go bump in the night in this story...faces appear in the fogged bathroom mirror and on the shower curtain....music plays...voices are heard...shadows and mists that form figures in the night...and then there is the basement.
You slowly open the door and look down to see a Man at the bottom of the satirs...grinning with a mouth full of silver teeth....Even though I highly recommend this to those that love this genre, don't say I didn't warn you.... show less

I honestly couldn't decide between 3 or 4 stars. This is when half-stars would come in really handy. It was good. I enjoyed the story and it was definitely creepy. There is a lot left open though about what it was and what it wanted and why it was there. Which was something I was really interested in learning.

I didn't like Julian at first. I thought he was a bit selfish and it bothered me that he kept things from his wife and sometimes only because he was too cowardly to deal with her disappointment in him keeping secrets in the first place. However, he did completely redeem himself. I still don't agree with all of his choices, but in the end, his choices were what was best for his family.

Megan and James had a real aggressive show more relationship at first and as someone who is close to her sister, it was a bit sad. Claire was actually pretty decent. I can't say I found anything particularly amazing about her personality, but she was likable enough.

It was a slow read but only because it was so scary. I could only read it when my husband was home AND when it was daytime. It was too scary to read alone and if I read it too late I had a harder time sleeping than I already do and I had nightmares. I mean it was a good thing as you are looking for a good scare when you read horror, but I like my thrills when I can still feel safe. Contradictory, I know. show less

The Basics

The Perrys are having trouble in their neighborhood and decide to move. They’re fairly sorry they did when they’re beset by nightmares, apparitions, eerie neighbors, and something in the basement.

My Thoughts

I don’t like ghost stories. And yet I keep coming back. Because there are some that are scary despite ghosts being so unscary. Like The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and The Shining by Stephen King, just to name a couple. This is not among those ranks, sadly. I’d hoped it would be, because Little does have a penchant for taking an old idea and make it shiny and new. He tries here, but it wasn’t enough.

I say he tries, but in some ways the writing here is damn lazy. I don’t remember the names of any of show more the main characters, which is telling. His attempts to write a teenage girl in the family fell horribly flat in many ways. By the time the end rolled around and things were dire, I barely cared. So not great in the character department.

There were also times when it felt like he was trying to throw in everything but the kitchen sink as far as scares. He threw the whole batch at the wall, and some moments stick and some don’t. Definitely don’t look for subtlety here though, as we get everything from the daughter being threatened with ghost rape to faces in the toilet to the son uncontrollably eating dirt to poltergeists to… The list doesn’t end. I understand that most hauntings, whether “real” or fictional, tend to have a lot of different signs and omens regarding an unseen entity in the house, but this got really ridiculous. That was part of the fun, part of what saved it from being terrible, but it also leaves me at a loss when trying to describe what happened. Everything happened. Every single thing you could imagine and some you can’t.

It did have some very scary moments. One of the aspects of this particular haunting is that the house compels people to stay, to come inside, to not run or save themselves. That was played with nicely, often ramped up the suspense, and resulted in some truly jarring moments.

But would I recommend it? If you love haunted house stories, probably. Because I’m aware that part of my problem is a numbness toward that horror sub-genre. For me, as much as Little tried, it doesn’t shine, if you get my drift.

Final Rating

3/5 show less

Does not disappoint with a nice charge of uneasiness that kept the bedside lamp on after dark. And escapes the sameness of many of Little's other "The" books.