Bentley Little is one of my favorite horror authors however The Revelation is a lesser quality work. The structure of the story is similar to many of his other books but I sense he had less of a connection with the darkly religious theme. i didn’t feel the book was particular scary, in fact I cannot pinpoint any scene that evoked a fear response. It didn’t hold my attention such as The Handyman, Death Instinct, or The Haunted, all of which I felt had a more believable storyline despite deviation into the impossible. Generally I dig in to a new Bentley Little book but this one dragged a bit. I found the storyline unbelievable to the point of disinterest. The mysterious priest character was confusing as the antagonist turned savior/hero, I couldn’t connect. I always like Little’s down-to-earth protagonist character who runs through most of his books, the logical family man or traditional male husband character whose heroic efforts save the day. I was bored at the end and was wishing Little tries a new theme, he is extremely talented and never immature or cheesy. You’ll find some extreme sexual content in this book, for example brief sex interludes between married couple, bizarre unexplained pregnancy of 80 yr old woman resulting in grotesque birth scene. The narrator did a good job to create interest. I feel Bentley Little has many more great books in him if he feels connected to the subject matter and continues to work on character development to add a human touch to mitigate the gore.
Review from The Revelation →