Little Heaven

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In fact, the novel does tend to borrow from Stephen King’s classic but only from a structural point of view (time periods going forward and backward). Unfortunately I could see them very well in my mind because they were described so well, and honestly a couple of parts in the book made me gag just thinking about how gross and awful it was! Nick Cutter (Craig Davidson) roared onto the horror scene with his novel THE TROOP, quickly following up on that success with THE DEEP, THE ACOLYTE and most recently LITTLE HEAVEN. Cutter has carved himself a splendid little niche of visceral thrills with The Troop and The Deep but Little Heaven pales next to them. 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 lot of the material seemed extraneous and unnecessary, and a more directed storyline with one focus would’ve made for easier reading. The pace did pick up a bit but there were still random thoughts/remembrances the characters have that continued to make it drag to me. Cutter is obviously inspired by King - but what horror author these days isn't inspired by the Master? 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.I've seen mixed reviews of "Little Heaven" and not having read Cutter's other works, I can't honestly tell you if this is where to start with him. It is very obvious that Cutter was influenced by King; even if the author didn’t admit it himself (which he does, often), any fan of King’s would easily see the similarities. Cutter did a great job on that front, creating an intense and all-encompassing sense of “wrongness” that never quite leaves you. Little Heaven" is the story of three mercenaries hired by a woman to go to an isolated religious community to find her nephew, who has been taken there by his father - and hopefully, get him out. Whether that’s because they’re blinded by faith, or something supernatural, doesn’t matter; what matters is that it happens.

A trio of bounty hunters meet up in the 60’s, well they actually almost kill each other, but this story is not really about that. This hard to believe bond takes them to a religious commune and eventually a confrontation with a misshapen creature in the wilderness. there are still elements of the king tradition here - the synopsis compares it to IT, but there's also some dark towery stuff, with the guns and the dusters and the journey bits. 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.

One thing I like about Cutter is that he is never formulaic; each book of his I have read ( The Troop, The Acolyte, The Deep) are wildly different, transcending the lines from extreme horror to urban fantasy. Long before this group, who have to abandon their vehicle and travel through the woods on foot, ever reach Little Heaven, the religious settlement, they are unsettled by strange and disturbing events in the woods where they camp for the night. Nine times out of ten I don't like horror stories, but I've found myself reading more tense and suspenseful mystery and sci-fi that verges on horror in moments. After Micah's daughter is lured away from home by a demonic Pied Piped, he hurries to put the band back together, reuniting with fellow gunslingers Ebenezer and Minerva. An African American British man, who in my opinion brought some much needed "snark" to the book at times.

LITTLE HEAVEN, by Nick Cutter is a book that had all of the things that I generally love in a horror story: gore, supernatural, dark comedy (the three "heroes"), and action. What they find has very little to do with the divine, as an ancient evil lurks in the dark woods around Little Heaven. The religious retreat seems like any other such encampment created by a bunch of Bible-thumpers led by a charismatic Reverend Jones-type huckster; mostly decent if naive and easily led folks seeking an escape from the sins of Babylon (in this case, appropriately, San Francisco, the city from which they fled).Now that I'm examining Little Heaven, a book that is surely entertaining but lifts quite a lot of its material from King's cannon, I'm growing a bit leery of Cutter's ability to create original works of horror wholecloth. To its credit, Little Heaven really takes the creeps and scares to a whole new level, which is extreme even for Cutter.

I have no problems reading about morally ambiguous characters—in fact, I enjoy them, and it’s great when their authors manage to make them sympathetic and likeable.However, like you, I would never tell someone not to read it because it seems plenty of people have liked it. I am only left with recommending either The Troop or The Deep to the reader or telling them to wait for Cutter's next book. Thank you to Gallery Books for providing a free copy of Little Heaven in exchange for an honest review!