Little Heaven

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Instead, Cutter’s story plunges us deeper and deeper into madness, slowly increasing the level of horror around the characters and never letting up. As an aside: I don't get the reviewers who are saying New Mexico isn't accurately depicted in the novel -- we do have forests in New Mexico! If the story had been written in a more "streamlined" way, with bits about the characters past somehow interspersed throughout the story without having the reader virtually stop the action to read about, this story could have been a much more engaging read overall.

While this book is just under 500 pages, which isn’t terrible in terms of length, it felt much longer.

Four old university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. Little Heaven represents a different twist-- an attempt at literary horror that really wants to be epic. Mercenaries and bounty hunters should have been up my alley too, but for some reason I just couldn’t bring myself to care about their plights. Because, yes, this religious compound in the woods is surrounded by something dark, malevolent, and unspeakable.

Normally this would be good but the characters of the novel doesn't stand apart enough to make us care. Before we get there, though, Cutter divvies his antihero protagonists' stories across the time stream, jumping back and forth between 1980 and 1966. For some reason, I had some trouble with the back and forth - perhaps because it took so long for things to develop. In some ways, this is a traditional monster horror novel — there's an evil, inhuman thing with lots of disgusting minions and it kills people in gruesome, violent ways.The setting: an isolated backwoods compound where the work of a cult leader ends up heightening the fear factor of his flock, especially when relating to their children. Interestingly, the most believable thing in the novel is the strange creature in the forest and that is because we are given a creepy and scary glance at his development in the prologue. If you loved The Troop (and I did), you might wonder if this is the same author; he seems to have moved from gross out/body horror to something more lofty. I didn't like Little Heaven quite as much as I liked Cutter's The Troop, but this was still a meaty and visceral horror novel very suitable for October reading, and plenty to keep you jumping at bumps in the night if that is the sort of thing that scares you. Your history was a lonely hound pursuing you over field and fallow, never resting, always hungry, tracking you relentlessly until one night you heard its nails scratching at your door.

An African American British man, who in my opinion brought some much needed "snark" to the book at times.It originated in a group of cabins built by local farmer Jahu Reed in the 1870s for the Irish workers he employed in his orchards. Amos Flesher turned out about as horribly manipulative and sadistic as I expected, but he worked well because he was part of a larger story, rather than driving villainous presence. While I didn't feel necessarily scared while reading the book, I certainly did get the creepy crawlies. the premise is definitely cool - it follows three characters: micah, ebenezer and minerva, from the beginning of their complicated relationship in 1965; which origin story is more of a meet-kill than a meet-cute, where they'd all been contracted to kill each other, although one of them had an additional, personal motivation for homicide. A “gripping and terrifying story…and one not to be missed” (Robert McCammon) from the acclaimed author of The Troop and The Deep!