This is the second of this author’s novels that I’ve read (the first being his excellent book, The Deep) and once again I’m impressed. Nick Cutter has been compared to Stephen King, not least by the great man himself, and it’s not hard to see why; a definite King vibe runs through this novel, from the general scepticism of religious fanaticism, to the mounting air of menace that builds and builds to nerve-shredding heights. But equally, some of King’s faults can be found here, not least the text’s length and the corresponding suspicion that it would have been a better book had some prose been cut.

The plot revolves around a bunch of gunslingers – the book description calls them mercenaries, but really, they’re more like gangsters – are employed by a woman to accompany her to a remote religious community. She’s concerned that her nephew has been taken there against his will by his deadbeat dad and she wants their help should she need to bust him out. Seeing this as an easy gig, the mercenaries/gangsters agree and go along for the ride. This being a horror novel of course, things don’t turn out so easy.

Nick Cutter is a great writer, a brilliant wordsmith, and undoubtedly this novel is a great read. The author really imbues the religious community with a sense of the sinister and one just knows that this isn’t going to be some paradise. He also imbues a real sense of terror to the characters’ first encounter with the supernatural element of the story. That scene I suggest you read during daylight hours, or at least with the light on.

This leads me to my first criticism of Little Heaven. Now to be fair, this might be because horror isn’t my preferred gene. My first choice of read is crime/thriller, horror coming a distant second. So, this might be a tad unfair of me. But I kept finding the supernatural/horror elements getting in the way. The author does such a good job of portraying the religious cult, it’s charismatic and crazy leader, that I kind of wanted him to write a book about a Jim Jones/Jonestown death cult, a study in a madman leading his followers to disaster. But of course, that’s not the focus of the novel – though it does form a strand of the story – and the horror is what the author is all about.

To be fair to Nick Cutter, the supernatural elements are all handled effectively. As I indicate above, many scenes are really scary, the sort of thing that may well give you nightmares. If horror is your thing, if you’re a fan of Stephen King, then this is a book you should read. Until the end that is. And that leads to my second criticism. The ending.

Now I must stop you here because I can’t discuss this without delivering a major spoiler. No, seriously, MAJOR SPOILER COMING! Seriously people! Stop. Reading. Now. SPOILER ALERT!

Ok. Can’t say I didn’t warn you. The main threat to the characters in this novel are ancient demons. The main demon, the big baddie, lives in people it kind of captures. Like a parasite, it feeds on their souls until there is nothing left. So far, so horror affair. But these demons can be killed, right? With just weapons. And throughout the book, the mercenary/gunmen kill demons. That’s Ok, too. Now at the very end, one of the gunmen’s daughter is captured by the main demon. He travels into its lair with his buddies and he has a bomb secreted with him. He makes a deal with the demon: let my daughter go and you can have me. The demon says ok and lets the daughter go. The gunman tells his buddies to take his little girl away. As she escapes, he blows up the tunnel, trapping himself and the demon. So, the demon can have him but can’t escape and prey on anyone else. But why? Why not run off with his daughter and blow up the tunnel, trapping the demon alone? There is literally no sense in this ending. The demon is unable to move fast, it’s like a little slug thing. He could have killed it, trapped it, anything. The only sense in this ending is to hold it open for a potential sequel (and indeed, the other mercenaries/gunmen discuss going back for him at the end). Other than that, it makes no sense whatsoever. And that annoys me.

All in all, this is a good book. A little too long, would rather there was more on the cult (but to be fair, that reflects my own reading tastes). My biggest complaint is the ending, which to me at least, made little sense. But if you like Stephen King, you could do a lot worse than read this.

I had to put this down after two chapters, it alternately terrified me and grossed me out. It was much more supernatural than I had anticipated, and the writing style didn't appeal to me.

I really enjoy the older writing style of this author's work. Sometimes the descriptions were a bit odd, but over all I ok with it. I think the author read a great deal of Stephen King's work, but I happen to like King so that is also ok by me.

Bouncing from 1980 and 1966, three bounty hunters agree to go check on a young man who has been sucked into a cult. The cult is Little Haven. There are serious monsters in the woods. Ones you don't expect and they are pretty gruesome There is the good twists, the "religious" angle that works so well for me in most cases.

I could have used a bit more strength in my characters, but that is ok. I would read another book by this author. My copy came from Net Galley. I was not required to leave a review, I do so because I wanted to. This review is my own thoughts and feelings.

This was an unexpected read. I loved Nick Cutter’s THE DEEP last year, so I was expecting a lot from LITTLE HEAVEN. Too much maybe? The author has distinct style of writing fucked up characters. You think you know what to expect. The author invites you to judge these characters, then he throws you for a loop with their backstory. This was an okay read, but not as good as the author’s earlier books.

LITTLE HEAVEN is set in the 1960’s. This story begins with the introduction of three killers for hire; Micah, Ebenezer and Minerva. We get there terrible backstories into how they became the killers they are today. The backstories are really important. The story doesn’t really get going until about 25% or so when all three of these killers band together to rescue a boy from a religious cult. The cult is run by Reverend Amos Flesher who is obsessed with his religion. The job goes horribly wrong and 15 years later they get together again and return to Little Heaven to rescue Micah’s daughter from the horror of Little Heaven.

This story had some really scary parts. There was a lot of gore and some really, seriously, creepy bits. If you are afraid of bugs, just skip this one. There were some descriptions in the writing that flat out frustrated for my gruesome curiosity. When it came to a certain face-off we only get reactions and I really wanted to “see” the thing. Other than that I could clearly envision the horror.

The cult itself was one of the mos macabre places I have ever read about. This place is rotting away beneath black rock, the scariest part of this story. I was horrified learning about the abducted child. There was a real sense of urgency as these people try to escape, have every route cut off by absolute evil, and then are forced to take a stand.

The characters were well described, but…. here we get more telling and less showing. I didn’t feel close to understanding any of the characters and unfortunately this left me feeling a little detached from the story itself. The only one of he mercenaries that I even liked was Micah. His plight to get back his child was noble.

This story was good, but not great. I think having so many characters did this story a disservice. The ending almost saved the slow start and waning middle, but not completely. I will admit that I will never again enjoy a glass of Kool-aid again, so there’s that.

This author continues to scare me. He gets better with each novel. Can't wait for the next.

A set of mercenaries are hired by a woman to escort her into the wilderness to find her nephew who has been forced to live with a fanatical cult by his father. What they find, is not what is expected or entirely of this world. Something is stalking the wilderness and it is anything but holy. In order to save their charges, the trio must face something ancient and cunning while struggling to survive the slow twisting of Little Heaven towards evil.

Little Heaven snuck up on me and before I knew it I was jumping at shadows.

First off, Little Heaven scared the hell out of me. I began this novel confused by the characters: who was who and how did the fit into the novel? Little Heaven also skips around in time a lot at the beginning: a man's daughter is abducted by a dark force, three gun toting associates set off to find her and memory of a town created by a cult in the shadow of evil..yet, once the novel got rolling, the descriptive language, masterful story telling and the slow, but still riveting unraveling of the history between the gunslingers and Little Heaven had me hooked.

Slow and realistic, Little Heaven is a novel that sneaks up on the reader. A well researched and well developed plot contribute to a skin crawling read of exceptional portions.

Little Heaven is a novel that highlights Cutters' skills as a horror writer. The tale is coherent, semi-realistic and deliciously creepy. Additionally, unlike Cutters' novel The Troop, there is less description of horrific animal abuse and less "in-your-face" creepy crawly action which is evidence of Cutters' progressing skills in horror writing. Anyone can write horrific scenes. A master horror writer can utilize language and manipulate their readers using the understated to create a chilling scene. Cutter does this wonderfully. Maybe it's just because Cutter did not use giant tape worms, but I found that the disgust factor was less the focus of Little Heaven and the creep factor was more prominent. A welcome evolution for Cutter.

The part I appreciated the most about Little Heaven was the research Cutter put into the cult People's Temple, a cult who drank poisoned Koolaid under the directions of their leader Jim Jones. The fanatical belief and the manipulative speeches by Preacher Flesher were all very loosely based on the People's Temple. The obvious care in developing Little Heaven as a cult, the creation of complex main characters and some really intense, skin crawling imagery is what made Little Heaven great.

The novel starts off slow with character backstory and history which bogged down the overall plot, but once the characters reached the cult of Little Heaven, it was well worth it since it created a rich tapestry of history which made the characters more real.

The only part of this novel I found lacking, was the beginning filled with backstory. Although necessary for setting up the rest of the novel and the intricate relationships between characters, it was somewhat boring and difficult to wade through. The over abundance of detail, if I had not received this as an ARC, probably would have caused me to give up reading this novel..I couldn't remember the synopsis of the novel by the time the group was headed to Little Heaven. However persevering through all the details and backstory paid off. The novel, once Little Heaven came on scene, was exceptional and probably Cutters' best work to date. Insidious and covert, the fear slowly builds during this read and catch up to the reader without their realizing..this is what real masterpieces in horror are all about!

This book will appeal to readers who enjoy horror, novels about cults and are willing to put in the effort to learn about the world before the main action starts. I do not suggest this to readers who do not like a lot of gore or inappropriate language.

This book felt a little disjointed. I had a difficult time getting into it. It was dark in places, but I honestly was only able to muddle through about half of it before giving up on it. I wish the author lots of luck in his future endeavors! This book just wasn't for me.

I did a small happy dance when I finished this book (who am I kidding, I was thrilled) but not for the obvious reasons. I did the dance basically because I was done. This book had such promise. I own "The Troop" and "The Deep" and after hearing such good things about them, I probably should have started my Cutter experience there. "Little Heaven" reminded me of a lot of things. It was slightly reminiscent of Stephen King (in character development and in that the setting of the book was almost a character of its own), and caused flashbacks of The Twilight Zone. Let me explain. In the beginning, when it's talking about the formation of the Long Walker (A.K.A. the Big Bad - my name, not Cutter's) I kept thinking of my favorite Twilight Zone episode, "It's a Good Life," where little Anthony Fremont, a 6-year-old, wishes anything he doesn't like into a cornfield, even the horrible creatures he makes to play with (like a three-headed gopher). The Big Bad needed wished into that cornfield and the book could have been about 100 pages shorter. I don't mind long books, in fact, I love them, but not THIS long book.

"Little Heaven" has dual timelines. The reader is taken into the past, where we see how our team of bounty hunters comes together and where they first encounter the Big Bad. Then we are treated to Micah's current life where he wakes up one morning to find his daughter Petty has been kidnapped by a Long Walker and only he and his gang of misfit bounty hunters know what must be done to save her. For some reason, I had some trouble with the back and forth - perhaps because it took so long for things to develop. I spent the first hundred pages or so utterly confused.

There were some things I liked about "Little Heaven." I liked the team of bounty hunters, with Ebenezer being my favorite character. An African American British man, who in my opinion brought some much needed "snark" to the book at times. I also thought the end was pretty terrifying and if I hadn't been so thrilled to get to it and be done, I probably could have really enjoyed it. I also must admit that Cutter's mind scares me and it's a place I'd hate to visit alone. Now I think that's a good quality for a horror writer to possess and I'm sure I'll pick up both future and past works to see what else he creates.

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. If you aren't turned off by horror novels, "Little Heaven" might be a good choice for you. I think I set myself up for failure with this book because I wanted to love it and I just didn't. Oh, and I almost forgot, there are some truly awesome illustrations in the novel so because Goodreads won't allow 1/2 stars, and because of the Cutter's imagination, and given the great pictures, I'm giving "Little Heaven" a weak 3/5.

Little Heaven is pure hellfire and horror, the sort of novel that makes a person check the closet at bedtime and leave a light burning in the hallway. I received my copy in advance from Net Galley and Gallery Books in exchange for an honest review. The title is available for purchase now.

This story is set in the present, alternating with events from the past that help us understand what’s happening now. In this sense the story is a bit like All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda, in that part of it takes place in the past and moves its way toward the present. The method is a powerful way to build suspense, but it’s not the only tool in Cutter’s tool chest by a long shot.

Our premise is that Petty, child of Micah and Ellen, has been kidnapped by the Long Walker. Micah has foreseen this event and dreaded it, but he’s been unable to prevent it:

“And he’d felt it coming, hadn’t he? Something gathering toward his family—a feeling not unlike the thunder of hooves as a stampede of horses approaches. He might as well have tried to outrun his own skin. You cannot outfox the devil. You may be able to stay his approach if you’re lucky and a little crazy, but in the end, his black eye will ferret you out.”

He calls upon two other gun slingers, Ebenezer and Minerva, both of whom shared the same horrific past event as Micah. Each owes him a favor, and he’s calling it in. He wants his daughter back.

There are a lot of twists and turns in the plotting of this story, and you’ll need to bring your full attention to keep track of it. Ultimately the three find themselves at a cult in the mountains of New Mexico named Little Heaven.

I have never been so conflicted about a book so far into the narrative. On the plus side we have some outstanding word smithery, interesting characters, and some of the best monsters I’ve read in any horror novel. The narrative is fresh, confident and at times jaunty, dropping moments of drollery into unexpected places to help lighten an otherwise dark, dark, dark story. For these factors, I wanted this to be a five star read.

Unfortunately, there’s no denying that there are problems here. There are plot details that are too obvious, to me at least, to just read past, and when these occur, it’s like Toto pulling the curtain away from the wizard’s booth; the Great and Powerful Oz is just human, and at such moments, this is just another book. Examples that occur fairly early on include a character with a full load of morphine successfully racing out of town on the back of a horse; soon after this, another character who’s bleeding profusely decides to tell her life’s story.

Then there’s what is fast becoming a disturbing issue not limited to this author, but which I find unacceptable wherever I find it, and that’s when a character’s bad nature is demonstrated by the writer using ugly racist, sexist, anti-gay, and xenophobic language. When it happens once or twice in a novel, I grimace and move on, but this author finds such a variety of anti-Black slurs to fling at the Afro-British character named Eb and distributes them through so much of the text that an overall sour taste is left behind, and it’s not the sort that comes of reading good fiction. Cutter is skilled enough to use other methods to demonstrate the presence of evil, and he should do so.

Likewise, we don’t need sexist terms or a rape to show us that a character is sexist or that a woman has a traumatic past. Here I point, as I’ve done before, to director Jodie Foster, who said in an interview that she is dumbfounded by the way that so many male directors, when searching for a female character’s motivation, come over and over to the same conclusion: well, she was raped, and that’s why she behaves this way. It was rape, it was rape; she must have been raped! To Cutter and to others I say, stop it. It’s trite, it’s ugly, and it’s obnoxious. For the same reason that most horror and suspense writers don’t deliver us into a warehouse full of kiddy snuff films and describe them in fine detail, authors should find other ways than hate speech and sexual assault to develop a character or display his or her malevolence. Let’s not wear this one out any worse than has been done.

In other regards the story shines. The plot overall is complex and woven in a way that neatly brings us back to the problem at hand at the end. Teenagers that enjoy horror as a genre may especially like this book, given its plethora of gore and the host of skittering critters. In fact, I found myself wondering whether there could be a Little Heaven video game. I’ve never wondered this about a book before, but the monsters are splendid, and so I could see it.

This book was released January 10 and is for sale now. Recommended with the caveats mentioned above.

Good, but outside the limits of the imagination. An unlikely group of characters against an unlikely group of creatures. There is also a cult, led by a creep, that brings forth memories of certain news headlines. Yet the story held my interest and I enjoyed the lack of political correctness, just say as you see it. Several quips, being an old sailor I had heard them before but they still bring a chuckle. It is certainly a horror story and will likely be enjoyed by fans of such. Echoes of Stephen King and Alfred Hitchcock if anyone is old enough to remember. Guns and gore. Need I say more?

From the start, I was into this one. Sort of a Stephen King-inspired story ... not as good as the master, but really good. Will be looking into some more stories from Cutter.

I really enjoyed this authors book called The Troop, but this one just didn't have what I hoped. It drug on forever and there was just so much filler and things I just deemed unnecessary that could have sped it up and made it a bit more enjoyable.

So because I was tag teaming it with Barb, I really tried hard to finish it. I also heard a lot of good stuff about it despite them saying it was slow. So I plotted on and on and on, but by 49% I just gave up. I did try skimming through it to see if I could try and finish but I really had just lost any interest. Barb was nice, to sum up the last 50% in four easy paragraphs for me, but I still couldn't find it interesting.

It starts off so confusing and I just stayed that way through most of it though I knew it all had to do with the three bounty hunters going to Little Heaven and the thing that happened there changed their lives. They went there to find a kid back in the 1960's and in the 1980's they are going back to find another kid, this time Micah's, who was one of the bounty hunters. Evil was in them woods but not really sure how it got there or what it really was, I feel like I missed that at the beginning or something or it was never really mentioned.

Anyway, I know a lot of people have enjoyed it, but in the end, it just wasn't for me. I have decided to not torcher myself with reading something if I am not finding any kind of delight or satisfaction with what I am reading, too many books to little time.

This is a decent horror story. It's somewhat reminiscent of Stephen King stories, but not quite as good. It is entertaining and engrossing, terrifying and disturbing. Not for the faint of heart but true horror fans.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. This is my honest opinion of it.

Believe me, no one is more surprised than I am at my rating. I wanted to like Little Heaven so much, not only because it sounded so intriguing but also because I am a fan of Cutter’s The Troop. However, his newest novel simply did not appeal to me in the same way, despite it feeling like the next step for the author and the story being well put-together.

The book opens with an introduction to a trio of rough mercenaries who have reunited to stand against an evil from their past. Back in 1965, Micah Shughrue, Ebenezer Elkins, and Minerva Atwater were forced to set aside their differences (i.e. stop killing each other) in order to help a woman named Ellen Bellhaven rescue her nephew from a religious cult in New Mexico. Everything that happened during that fateful year is told in a series of flashbacks chronicling their harrowing mission into the wilderness to infiltrate Little Heaven, the cult’s compound run by a fiendishly insane megalomaniac named Amos Flesher. And yet, compared to the true terrors our three protagonists find lurking in the darkness surrounding them, even the human kind of monsters will seem like small fry.

Fast forward to fifteen years later, Micah wakes up one day to find his daughter missing, abducted in the night. When his greatest fears are confirmed, the former mercenary has no choice but to call on his one-time allies, beseeching Ebenezer and Minerva to join up with him once more for round two against the horror that has come back to haunt them.

Since I like leading with the positives, I’m going to first talk about the things I enjoyed about this book. To its credit, Little Heaven really takes the creeps and scares to a whole new level, which is extreme even for Cutter. His writing style has clearly evolved since The Troop, no longer relying solely on the “gross-out” factor to strike terror into readers’ hearts. That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of blood, guts and gore in this novel, because there is (not to mention, those with a fear of snakes or creepy crawlies will have especially rough time with this one). Still, in order for a horror novel to be effective, graphic descriptions are only half the picture. The other half of it requires a bit more finesse, a way to bring the atmosphere of dread and suspense to the surface. Cutter did a great job on that front, creating an intense and all-encompassing sense of “wrongness” that never quite leaves you. The scenes in Little Heaven are especially well-written, where it feels like the squalor, degeneracy and madness are constantly closing in on you from all sides.

Now, if only I felt the same love for the character development. In theory, the protagonists should have worked better for me. Micah, Ebenezer, and Minerva are the tough-as-nails sort, killers and bounty hunters with checkered pasts. 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. But regretfully, I found it really hard to care about anyone in this book, which also likely dampened my enthusiasm for the story. All the characters were too thinly sketched for my tastes; they were flat, unchanging, and I just didn’t think enough attention was paid to them overall.

The term “old school horror” also seems to get tossed around a lot when discussing this book, which I’d say is pretty spot on. Good news, perhaps, for readers who enjoy the older stylings of Stephen King. Bad news on the other hand for yours truly, who has always found King’s earlier work to be excessively wordy and bloated (which is why I could never get through his books like It). As such, I was really not all that surprised when I came to experience the same ennui with Little Heaven.

Which all comes down to why I’m sure this is simply a case of “wrong book, wrong time” or “Sorry, Little Heaven, it’s not you, it’s me.” As much as I’ve enjoyed Nick Cutter in the past, sadly this one didn’t quite live up to my expectations, though of course that doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Personal taste being what it is, and with mine being more capricious than most, I hope this won’t dissuade anyone from trying the book out for themselves if the description sounds like something you might enjoy. Indeed, take everything I say here with a grain of salt since the vast majority of other reviews I’ve seen so far have been positively glowing. If the premise interests you, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Horror is not a genre I read often. And maybe that’s why at the end of this book I was thinking…What did I just read? I’m starting to think that question is one I will always ask at the end of a horror novel. Because I did at the end of N0S4A2 by Joe Hill. And The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. And pretty much after every horror movie I’ve ever watched (which is actually a LOT considering I don’t read a lot of horror – thanks stepdad #2 for dragging me and my young impressionable brain to drive-ins to see every horror movie made in the 70’s and 80’s). But it isn’t a bad “What did I just read?” It’s more of a contemplative, “this is compelling and I can’t stop thinking about it, but what is it really about” kind of thing. And I love books that make me question, make me think, that keep my brain whirring into the wee hours (I’m up anyway).
Now, I imagine there are subgenres of horror, and naturally I know nothing about them. But for me, this was almost absurdist. It isn’t the kind of horror that hits so close to home that you obsessively check to see if your doors are locked and sleep with the lights on for three weeks straight. It’s the kind of horror that brings the impossible to life in a grotesque and nightmarish kind of way. And I think it is that sense of impossibility, the fact that it strays so far from what most of us can imagine, that makes it somewhat absurdist in nature.
In the first few chapters, before I got to the more bizarre bits, I thought it felt like some Dean Koontz novels I’ve read (and I’m a big Koontz fan). Once it got to the more grotesque imagery, I immediately thought of Stephen King’s Creepshow, the movie, and even better…the comic book/graphic novel (which was utterly amazing, and which I read so many times I’m amazed it didn’t fall to pieces). In fact, I paused to find images of the comic book online so that I could enjoy it once more, and then returned to the book thinking – this needs more pictures. I would LOVE to see this book as a graphic novel. I’d buy it and read the crap out of it. Seriously.
The writing was good. The characters were intriguing, as was the storyline. The style was different. Not in a bad way, but it reminded me of something else that I can’t quite put my finger on, and I’m struggling to find the words to properly describe it. It was very matter of fact, unemotional, a little removed. But that doesn’t quite explain it either. The voice in this book is quite distinct, and it threw me at first, but ultimately I loved it. It just felt right.
Another thing worth noting it is does jump around in time, back and forth between then and now, and it can be a bit confusing at times, but it works.
I suspect I would do this book more justice if I were a horror aficionado, but as that is not the case, all I can say is: despite not being a self-proclaimed horror fan, I really enjoyed this book. It was entertaining, thought-provoking, well-developed, and made me nostalgic for similar works I enjoyed in my youth. I’d definitely recommend it.

I enjoy a good horror story and was hoping more from this. It's certainly has horror aspects and it is not horrible, just not scary or surprising enough to really enjoy. In 1965, three people are hired to try and find a child that is living at a religious cult called Little Heaven in the middle of the woods. These three characters I really liked and kept on reading to see how they develop. But in the woods, they encounter an evil thing and fight it and survive. Fifteen years later they go back to this evil because it has taken the child of one of them. This is a long book and is slow at times, me wanting to stop reading. But if finished and wasn't satisfied with the ending or the story as a whole. Oh, well...

Little Heaven is destined to be a horror classic, right up there with the vintage epics of King, Simmons, and McCammon. Seriously, it's that good. As much as I enjoyed the horrifying darkness of The Troop and The Deep, Nick Cutter takes his craft to a whole other level here, establishing a cast of characters who are wholly worthy of the story's grotesque terror.

The story wastes no time getting to the dark stuff, opening with the creation of a monstrous abomination, and following through to its abduction of a young girl. Cutter establishes so much atmosphere and so much dread in those first few pages, it's genuinely chilling.

From there, we go on to meet the tale's three protagonists, each of them suffering under fifteen years of having their fondest wish granted. They're all unlikable scoundrels, bounty hunters and assassins who we could easily dismiss as having earned their fate . . . yet, as the story draws on, our sympathy for them grows alongside a grudging sort of admiration.

As for the Little Heaven of the title, it's a secluded religious cult, rotting away beneath the cursed shadow of Black Rock. Its leader, Reverend Amos Flesher is instantly one of the most despicable villains of horror fiction, a righteous, self-important, dangerously deluded man. Even without having been warned about him beforehand, the sight of his camp and the condition of its faithful instantly put us on our guard, and his reaction to the return of a cursed abomination of a missing child is enough to turn even the strongest stomachs. Black Rock is a monument to old, earthbound evil, and its shadow looms large over the hearts and minds of the faithful.

Like those doorstopper epics of the 80s and 90s - IT, Swan Song, and Carrion Comfort immediately come to mind - this is a horror that's equal parts human and monstrous. Unlike those books, however, there's a complexity to Little Heaven that I appreciated almost as much as its rejection to the genre tropes. There is no hand of God here to save the day, no precocious child to show us the error of our ways, and no noble sacrifice to defeat evil at its own game. I honestly wasn't sure where the story was headed in either thread, 1965 or 1980, and I loved the fact that there was no attempt to put a familiar mythological face on the evil. This is a big story, told on an intimate scale, and despite its length there's not a single scene I would see cut.

Achieving the perfect trifecta, the writing here is just as strong as the story and its characters. Little Heaven is a smart story, full of big words and almost poetic descriptions, with a narrative style that pulls the reader down, submerses us in the story, and drags us along its steady treacherous current. It takes everything Cutter did best in his first forays into horror, brings it all together, and delivers something truly epic.

Nick Cutter's latest novel is a large and dark story. As an epic, it moves across time and space, sometimes drastically, but for the most elegant, seamlessly.

Little Heaven is a tribute to the genre, a brazen paean to literature's darkest corners. The book is pitch black, bloody. In the novel, the author demonstrates his wide readings in the genres: thrillers, horror. The plot is taken from Stephen King's massive novel It, but are presented here in slightly stripped down form. The dual narratives is from King, and the cosmic horror sensed all the time under the tightening surface.

The reader never stand on sturdy legs. Genre is slightly drawn through the quagmire. The novel, which at one moment acts like a horror novel, can suddenly be transformed into a high-octane noir thriller. The reader will also notice that horror and noir is something that marries. Although Cutters genre games are not as advanced as example Laird Barron's, the novel works brilliantly. Time and again, the author delivers tight, thrilling action sequences that left my heart pounding.

Little Heaven is a brilliant novel. A shamelessly entertaining nail-biter that ultimately leaves the reader in a very dark and unpleasant place,

Recommended to horror fans, but be careful! There are few writers who handles the language as Nick Cutter in top form. Which he is here, on every page.

The thing about Little Heaven is, I feel there’s a really great book somewhere in its 500 pages. If only an editor had thrown it all in a blender before publication and only salvaged the substance spattered against the lid, maybe this review would be more positive. Little Heaven is overflowing with unnecessary descriptions that could have easily be trimmed or cut.