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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780451192240
ISBN number: 0451192249
Label: Signet
Manufacturer: Signet
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: April 01, 1999
Publishing house: Signet
Sale Popularity Level: 271759
Studio: Signet
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A Bram Stoker Award winner. Five 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 was 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 of their lives, and is now closer than ever to capturing their souls.
Amazon.com Review:
If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Bentley Little, then The House will give you the perfect opportunity to get to know this fine sorcerer of horror. Haunted houses are an endless source of fascination for writers of the macabre--Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Henry James's classic The Turn of the Screw are excellent examples. But Bentley Little still manages to add something new to this well-trodden territory--and The House will scare your socks off.
Five strangers simultaneously experience terrifying nightmares and strange hallucinations. These unnerving events reacquaint each of the individuals with a childhood they would rather forget and memories long repressed. It soon becomes apparent that each of these four men and one woman once lived in identical houses--right down to the arrangement of the furniture. Each character must return to that childhood home to confront the demons of the past and liberate their souls from the shackles of despair. Reading this battle of good versus evil is a nail-biting experience. For more of the same by this author, try The Store and The Ignored. --Naomi Gesinger
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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The only good part of the book is the very beginning. I have always found airport terminal's a bit creepy. From there it went down hill fast. The characters were marginal, no one really stood out. The sexual aspect was disturbing, I'm open minded and can over look a lot if it lends to the story. The sex in this story was just gross. To bad Mr Little couldn't convene terror without having to use a little girl as a sexual object.
I put this book in the trash can. I usually pass them on to the library but hated the thought of someone else having to read this.
After reading this I won't be running out finding anything else written by Mr. Little.
Save your self the 0.1 this book is selling for, you will be much richer with the penny (trust me). My time is valuable I'm sorry I spent time reading this swill.
Rated by buyers -
did lead me to read more of his books.
The book has 5 main characters, one I liked, one I hated (because I am a teacher I guess) and the rest that were just kind of there.
There were parts to it that did keep my attention (the paper doll the boy kept making, the character meeting his dead mother), and there were parts that I couldn't wait to get past (Doreen).
The book reads fast, but it can be a bit confusing since it has five different characters and five different background stories converging together. To keep from constantly having to look back at previous chapters, I kept short character notes. This seemed to help.
Rated by buyers 
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I've only read two Bentley Little books (so far), and they have one thing in common: they both started out absolutely brilliantly and then faded. In both cases the setup was more entertaining than the payoff. Though in both cases the setup was astounding.
In the case of "The House," its opening is about as creepy and unnerving as it gets. You know that feeling you get when you're in an empty, silent house all by yourself and you can't help but feel someone (or something) is watching you and you're reluctant to look into a mirror because you just know someone is going to be there staring at you? Well, the early goings of "The House" is that feeling in novel form. I can't remember the last horror book that so jangled my nerves the way "The House" did.
The story finds a diverse group of adults, living in different parts of the U.S., who have somehow had very similar childhoods in very similar houses. They've all blocked out the horror they experienced in their respective houses, but start to remember, and get beckoned back there as odd and frightening things begin to happen to them. Though they all grew up in different parts of the country, they somehow all had the same helper growing up (a man who goes by Billingsly, Billings and various other names) and all had some sort of sick relationship with an evil little girl. What these people go through, what they see, often left me feeling paranoid with fright.
In "The House," Little is masterful at taking seemingly mundane, everyday things and having them send a shiver down your spine. When one man's son begins to build a doll made of a fast-food cup, string and toilet-paper rollers, it's just a silly little thing, but Little makes it seem repulsive and horrifying.
Of course, as you'd expect, once these people arrive back at their houses, things slow down a bit. Once the house is explained and they are actually in it, and all the creepy suggestion is gone, the story loses power.
One problem with the latter part of the novel, when the house becomes an actual presence, is that the characters have no idea what's going on and they don't have a single reliable guide. Billings might be telling the truth, but he might not be. So you're never really sure what's real or what things mean.
I didn't have a problem with the explanation of the house. It wasn't a total letdown. The plot does become increasingly convoluted, though, and it just feels like nothing happening in the house right now could possibly compare to the road that got the people back there.
I found myself reluctant to pick up the book to finish it off. I have to admit I lost interest in it. Which is a shame, because I greedily devoured it early on.
I don't really have any complaints. As stale as the book becomes, the early sections aroused in me actual feelings of fright, which probably hasn't happened in over a decade.
Little is a talented writer, and "The House" is another example of his offbeat, unconventional horror stories.
Rated by buyers -
"The House" started off good, but fizzled.
Part One was good, Part Two was too drawn out. I found myself rushing to get to the end.
Also, what did the Prologue have to do with the rest of the story?
Not one of my favorites from Bentley Little.
Rated by buyers -
It starts off pretty nicely. Then gets completely ridiculous !!! I can't believe I paid full price for this !! Such a horrible book !!! ugh It makes me sick to think I read the entire thing !!!!!!! The ending was so bad !!! They should've just kept the very first couple of chapters, and left it unfinished. Then maybe it would've had a chance.
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