The House

By: Bentley Little

Narrated by: David Stifel

Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Five complete strangers from across America are about to come together and open the door to a place of evil that they all call home.

Inexplicably, four men and one woman are having heart-stopping nightmares revolving around the dark and forbidding houses where each of them were born. When recent terrifying events occur, they are each drawn to their identical childhood homes, only to confront a sinister supernatural presence which has pursued them all their lives and is now closer than ever to capturing their souls....

©1999 Bentley Little (P)2017 Journalstone Publishing

CAUTION ⚠️ ⚠️ Heavy pedophilia

its a good book and I tend and like Littles works, but I could not complete this one, there are extremely graphic content including very graphic pedophilic sex scenes with just an over arching pedophilic tones. I can see the merit behind the book, little always does a great job at creating unsettling and down right terrifying scenes, but this was to much for me.

Must read finally a good ending

It started out a bit all over the place with many characters. I had to keep notes to who was who and their part in the story. It didn’t really come together until everyone was finally in the house. That’s when the book came to life. The story flowed easily and the characters were no longer flat and boring. The ending was perfect, you will be pleased having finished it just for the ending. Fare warning, there are some very disturbing moments of pedophilia in this book that were very off putting. I think this would have been a great book without that but at the same time. The ending would have suffered greatly by changing it. When you get to the end you understand why this path was taken. Still very disturbing.

Great Story!

I received this audio book for free in exchange for my honest review. The story was a bit confusing at first but it came together nicely and turned into a really good story.

I love Bentley Little

absolutely the best author that I have ever had the honor to read. I have read all his books and is nice to get to listen to them.
I can't Click on any of the stars under rating but I definitely rate this story five stars

Good story, but...

Loved the story, but the man reading it sounded very mechanical almost computer-like. At several points in the story, I really honestly didn't think it was a human. Still worth a listen!

A Misunderstood (near) Masterpiece

There are a lot of terrible reviews heaped on this book. I can understand why from people spoiled by Little’s usually concise and fast-moving storytelling. Maybe because this was the first book I ever read by Little I bring a different perspective to it. It’s a complicated story with multiple themes. That said, it is also heavily weighted with much menacing and foreboding horror. The humor that runs through virtually all Littles work is sadly missed but I think the labyrinthine if not hyperactive evolution of ‘The House’ amply compensate. It’s long and it’s sloppy but it’s also a feast which I imagine Little himself had a tough time controlling. But I love the fact it’s equal parts rambling and horrific. There are some extreme scenes which involve pedophilia so be warned. However it’s nothing that might alienate fans of Richard Laymon for instance (though he got away with it by making his sexy heroines 17 which is the age of consent in a lot of states). I’ve now read or listened to ‘The House’ three times and get something new from it each time. The narrator is wonderful and always is. He’s not perfect at female voices but that’s par the course for most male narrators I feel.

The House

A rather complicated read,but it all comes together.Written by a master of horror,this is a really good spooky story.If you see someting out of the corner of your eye,someone has left the house unattended.David Stifel was the perfect narrator.I was given this book by the narrator,author or publisher free for an honest review.

Not bad at all

Enjoyable and off putting images. Takes a little bit to build up but very rewarding

Horror house with creepy side-kicks

The House by Bentley Little

The story revolves around five people, four men and one woman, who start to have supernatural events happen around them, all relating to the houses in which they grew up. Eventually, they all come to the realisation that they must return to their childhood homes, which seem to be the source of the problem.

I found the novel to be confusing due to the number of character POVs, all their background stories, relatives, friends. It was information overload sometimes and I often found I had forgotten who had done, what, where and with whom. Plus there is a lot of overlap in each character’s ‘childhood house’ stories which can get repetitive.

This is definitely not one for those who like mild horror and there is a lot of sex scenes (child involved) which many readers will find disturbing. But this is a horror novel which includes that as a shock value.

The pace moved along okay, but as said before, it can get repetitive. The plot does keep you wondering if anyone will survive until the end.

The narrator did a good job. I didn’t have to speed the audio up, although there were a couple of occasions when I thought there had been a little editing mistake or the wrong voice was in use for a character.
Overall, the story was interesting and the production good.

Too Long and Offensive

What an imagination Little has. I really like the narrator’s performance; he’s very good with Littles books. Once again, tho, I must question the authors use of sex-so much of it-in a depraved manner and with a child this time. It almost made me sick every time I heard those parts.

There were so many characters, it was hard to keep them all straight.

Little is a great story teller with quite the imagination! So far the least sexually offensive book, and one of the scarier ones, is the Haunted.

Mr. Little if you’re reading this, your books are good enough without all the nasty depraved sex. Try a book without it! 😉