The Store by Bentley Little
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️
Social Horror is one of my favorite subgenres of Horror.
For me, it’s a safe way to explore and consider a lot of pressing issues plaguing society. It feels safer than being out in the real world anyway.
Clever authors are able to create stories that reflect society back to us, making the issues maybe more in your face than a quieter, more literary-style narrative would.
The issues are exaggerated, but not to an extent that lessens their significance, it’s done more in a way that says, how ridiculous is this that this happens?
I feel like in the past few years, Social Horror has had a real heyday. Rightly, as there’s a lot of oppressive societal issues that deserve this spotlight and attention.
The Store, published in 1996, explores a major topic that was of very serious concern at that time, which was the expansion of certain retailers in small town markets.
Reading this I was transported back in time. I graduated high school in 1996, and the circumstance set-up brilliantly in this story by Little, actually happened in my hometown of Oxford, Maine.
If you grew up in small town America, and are around the same age as me, let’s just say Gen X, you may find this book as horrifyingly relatable as I did, and I would definitely recommend it. Who doesn’t love a terrifying trip down memory lane?
Before Wal-Mart came to town, our area was populated with family-run businesses. You know the kind where you know the owners and their kids go to school with you.
After the Wal-Mart announcement, like why are they coming to some random town in the mountains of Maine, now we all know, but at that time, it was a puzzler, I remember the adults in my life were not happy.
They tried to put up a fight, as did many others, but all to no avail. A piece of real estate was purchased, previously home to nothing but trees and wildlife, this was stripped and the largest building, by far, in our area was erected.
Within a few years, when I would go home to visit, after leaving for college, most small businesses had closed. Now when I go back to the area, it’s hardly recognizable as the place I once knew and called home. You would be very hard pressed to find a family-run business now.
Bentley Little beautifully captured this unique period of time in such a brilliant way. I feel like, after scanning some other reviews, this story would be most appreciated by those of us who may have shared in this type of experience.
I think for those who watched this scenario play out, it’s very easy to get into the mindset of these characters and to understand their motivations and the types of pressures they were experiencing.
I love how Little told this story as well. You get snippets from numerous characters that help to build out the town and the events occuring with the coming of The Store.
For many Readers, you can think of it as a sort of Stephen King style, ala Salem’s Lot or Needful Things, where you get a piece here and there from characters all over town to create a sense of place and building drama. I love that style, as it really allows you to dig into what makes these places tick.
Our main focus however is Bill, his wife, Ginny, and their two teenage daughters, Samantha and Shannon. Their involvement with The Store provided me with all I needed to keep me absolutely glued to the pages.
This is a truly unsettling story. I loved the Horror elements, the uncomfortability I felt while reading it, it was no joke. Little definitely didn’t hold back on the horrors of The Store.
Overall, I was really impressed with this. I’ve heard so much about Bentley Little, and even own a few of his books, but this is the first one I have picked up. I am definitely interested in getting to more from this author.
If they are anything like this one, I’m in for a good time!