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Book Review: Behind by Bentley Little

cover art for Behind by Bentley Little

Behind by Bentley Little

Cemetery Dance,2024

ISBN: 978-1-58767-970-4

Available: Kindle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

 

A new Bentley Little novel is always cause for celebration for horror fans. The author has made a living playing off our primal fears through the lens of what truly causes us terror– school, corporations, identity, dysfunctional families, and the DMV. This time, Little tackles something a bit more recent– the big C (no, not that one. The one that kept us on lockdown and showed us who had brains and who didn’t). Yet instead of focusing on the pandemic itself, the author dives into how life itself changed.

 

Alex Lowry finds himself out of work, thanks to downsizing. He could go the normal route, as many did, seeking another corporate job to bore the life out of him:. his wife, Jennifer, begs him to use her father’s connections to find something “respectable.”. Of course, that doesn’t happen– and that’s where the Bentley Little we know and love, unfolds his story in prime fashion.

 

His ex-colleague, Britta, brainstorms a cool idea. It’s like DoorDash, GrubHub, or one of the other delivery services that rose to prominence during the dark years. Yet, instead of food or toilet paper, they deliver odd items to even odder clients. It begins innocently enough, as most of Little’s plots do, but soon takes a hard left turn. It pays well, once the business takes off. Alex finds himself enjoying his strange new profession.

 

There’s one problem, though. When he was a child, he saw a house behind his own. It wasn’t supposed to be there. By the laws of physics and reality, it can’t be there, but it is.

 

His parents died in an accident, and he moved on– until now.

 

The house is back. His in-laws notice it– and reality begins to unravel.

 

What’s behind it?

 

If you’re familiar with Bentley Little’s work, you know this is where things can get truly odd, but still relevant to the social issues of the day, complete with characters who embody us– although that includes the darker, stranger, hidden sides of us that we keep from the scrutinizing eyes of those on our block, our workplace, and our relationships.

 

Part satire, part horror story, but all entertainment, Behind  is Little’s best work in a long time. Some might say it’s a straight-up ghost story or haunted tale, but fans know it’s something deeper.

 

The writing is smooth and deceptive. It might appear simple at first, but readers will find themselves immersed in the language and relevance to who and what we are.

 

It’s a fascinating, terrifying novel, and one that comes highly recommended. What makes a great horror novel is the people who inhabit them. Little has always known this and loves to screw with his readers– and they love him for it.

 

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on August 22, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston

Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston

HarperCollins, 2024

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0358616382

Available: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, Kindle edition

Buy:   Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com 

 

Fourteen Days is a collaborative novel written by thirty-six American and Canadian authors, benefiting the Authors Guild Foundation. It takes place during the Covid-19 pandemic in a dilapidated apartment building during fourteen days under a shelter-in-place edict in New York City. Yessenia, the new super, is stuck in the building without the resources to do her job and unable to get through to the nursing home where her father is a resident. The previous super left his things behind, including a journal with notes about and a nickname for each tenant.

 

Unable to stand staying isolated inside, the residents start gathering on the rooftop each evening to tell stories, each night over the course of fourteen days. Yessenia never refers to them by name, only their nickname, and she secretly starts to record the stories on her phone and transcribe them into the super’s journal.

 

The structure of people isolating themselves to tell stories during a plague reminded me of  The Decameron but the editors specifically say it is not… and one of the stories, told by a professor who attended a book group that read from it, acts as a critique that suggests that this is actually a counter narrative, including people from different ages, belief systems, backgrounds, and races: the people who, unlike the characters of The Decameron, don’t have the wealth to escape the city as the plague rages.

 

At first the book seems grounded in realism: maybe it’s not something likely to occur, but it seems possible, with events that did occur, like the inability to get through to nursing homes, and unlike many stories set during the pandemic, here it is integral to the story. But unexplained events start to occur. Is the building haunted? Did a spider girl really interrupt their gathering? What’s the noise in the apartment above the super’s?

 

The stories also get weirder, more confessional, and gruesome, such as the story of Elijah Vick, who lost his arm to an alligator gar, and a story of retribution against a rapist. Other readers may guess the ending sooner than I did, but it managed to surprise me.

 

Fourteen Days does not have many contributions from horror writers, but it does have many “literary” authors contribute strange, unsettling, and disturbing tales, including Dave Eggers, Tommy Orange, and Margaret Atwood. It is a haunted novel, and worth the time to untangle.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on May 28, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

cover art for 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

56 DAYS by Catherine Ryan Howard.

Blackstone Publishing, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982694654

Available: Hardcover, hardcover large print, CD ( Bookshop.org )

 

We knew it was coming. Just as 2020 had to finally hang up its tainted spurs and 2021 decided it needed some negative attention, a novel about COVID-19 was inevitable.

 

The only mystery was whether it would be any good, or just capitalizing on the modern plague.

 

Set in Dublin, Oliver and Ciara meet 56 days ago, just as the virus hits Ireland. 35 days ago, the lockdown begins. Yet, instead of doing what most fledgling couples would, Ciara moves in with Oliver. I highly recommend NOT doing this in real life. Relationships are tough enough; the virus can cause isolation to drive the most “normal” person to near homicidal tendencies.

 

Oliver is not who he seems to be, and with the pandemic, prolonged time together shaves away the masks we wear, leaving behind the true faces underneath. What did Oliver and Ciara learn about each other? What drove one to kill the other?

 

Catherine Ryan Howard takes a chance with allowing 56 Days to build at a slow, steady burn. If readers hang on, they will be rewarded in a blistering second half that delivers on what is promised.  She has produced a quality suspense novel here that will undoubtedly win her new fans with this story that refuses to play by the rules. That’s a very good thing.

 

The format is interesting, beginning with the discovery of the body and then jumping between the lovers and the pair of officers, Kurt and Lee, who struggle to piece together this timely mystery.

 

The reader is immediately thrust into a story that is narrative heavy, describing the scene where a dead body is found.

 

Is it Oliver or Ciara?

 

It’s an intriguing puzzle that will keep readers buzzing.

 

Recommended for any suspense/mystery readers who are ready for the first big COVID hit.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on August 30, 2021 by , Reply