Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #537618 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 432 pages

Customer Reviews

NOT JUST NINE TO FIVE...
This is an entertaining work of contemporary horror by its Bram Stoker Award winning author. It is a creepy, inventive tale of horror that also works as a parable. Once again, the setting is in the Southwest, where in the sleepy, remote desert town of Juniper, Arizona, a lumbering retail giant called The Store has decided to put down stakes. The Store, reminiscent of a Wal-Mart, offers just about everything a consumer could ever want at prices that are unbelievably low. More importantly, it will be offering jobs to the towns constituents, jobs that are sorely needed. Yet, instead of bringing prosperity to the town, the town takes a turn for the worse.

When this retail giant disregards environmental concerns and destroys a beautiful meadow on the outskirts of the town, where it will be based, it succeeds in making an enemy of Bill Davis, a technical writer who works from home, where he lives with his wife. Ginny, and their two teenage daughters, Shannon and Samantha. As time goes on, Bill notices that The Store has brought evil into his town and fostered a cult-like devotion to its existence. He notices that there seem to be strange goings on at The Store, especially at night, where a black clad army of night managers seem to be holding down the fort. Moreover, against his wishes, both his daughters start working there. Bill finally tackles the store head on, as do a few others. All who come up against the store run into trouble. Even Bill, who already suspects the worst, is unprepared for how truly and fiendishly evil The Store and its President, Newman King, actually are.

This is a clever, allegorical story that suffers a bit from some moments of total implausibility having nothing to do with the horror aspects of the story. It is, nonetheless, an entertaining tale of horror, although it does have some sexual moments built into the plot, moments that segue into a sub-plot that some may find offensive and is, at the very least, quite startling. It does go, however, to the underlying theme that The Store will stop at nothing to get its hooks into one. Those who love the horror genre should derive some enjoyment from this spooky work of fiction.

Terror is open for business!
Little has done it again!He has written a classic tale of terror with a novel twist. A mysterious department store has relocated to a sleepy arizona town and slowly takes it over.Little minimizes the gore and maximitzes the terror.This is one of the most chilling books I've ever read.The terror just creeps up on.The novel's sinister premise is back up with creepy atmosphere and a sense of dread that you can almost feel.You will never forget the store and especially the night managers..

A disappointing waste of real potential
The Store represents my first encounter with Bentley Little, and while he is clearly a talented writer who never allows the story to sag or slow down at all, what I viewed at first as a terrific book began to fall apart as more and more unlikely events occurred, and then the ending really disappointed me. The central theme of the book, the danger of corporate power run amuck doing much more than destroying Mom and Pop businesses, is a good one, but Little does not know when to stop, pushing the story far beyond credibility and then obviously finding himself at a loss as to how to conclude it. Horror writers in particular must beware of cowardly endings, yet the ending of The Store is, in my opinion, a cowardly one. The totally unnecessary epilogue is incredibly stereotypical of this type of fiction, but the real damage is done by Little's refusal to offer any real explanations and to confront one very important plot twist that stopped me dead in my tracks when it first appeared.

Juniper, Arizona is a nice, quiet, idyllic town out in the middle of nowhere, the perfect place for Bill and Ginny Davis to settle down and raise a family. Then The Store comes to town. At first, Bill is upset by the fact that The Store was allowed to build on the most beautiful nature spot in the town, but unsettling, unexplainable things begin to happen immediately upon construction. Animals of all sorts drop dead on the premises every day for no apparent reason, giving rise to a sense of menace. Then Bill discovers that the town council has made one exception after another to attract the big retail chain to build there. The Store's increasing expansion into all sorts of products and industries, backed up time and time again by an obsequious mayor and town council, soon begins driving local businessmen out of business. As unemployment rises, the town becomes increasingly dependent on The Store as its major job provider, and the fact that so many people work there helps the town leaders to forestall financial bankruptcy by privatizing even the most basic of community resources - fire, police, education, etc. The Store graciously offers to begin funding all of these programs, eventually securing a firm grip on the entire community which is soon augmented by their newly acquired control of the local media outlets. The efforts of Bill and his friends to stop The Store's usurpation of power comes to naught, and Bill's horror is only increased by the fact that both of his daughters work there. People begin disappearing or dying, and the inhuman characteristics of The Store's CEO Newman King and the dangerously mysterious Night Managers sparks such a fear in Bill's heart that he resorts to drastic measures. The novel really took a bad turn for me at this point, as I lost all respect for a character I had been championing up to this point.

The Store never takes on a frightening "it can't happen here" atmosphere, unfortunately, because the job requirements and special training provided by The Store for its new employees is completely unbelievable. There is no way anyone would subject themselves to the things the god-like Newman King requires of his cultish employees, nor do I believe a town would give in to such wild and obviously illegal and unconstitutional moves as The Store makes rather easily. This only neutralizes the novel's valid point that people can lose control of their own towns and ways of life if they take no interest in local government. By the mid-way point of the novel, the story was becoming ridiculous to me, and even though it kept my interest at a high level until the highly disappointing ending, The Store proved incapable of winning me over.