- Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Signet (MM); Reissue edition (July 1 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0451192192
- ISBN-13: 978-0451192196
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.4 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #225,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Bentley Little is a top craftsman of the horror tale in long form. He has the ability, more unusual than you might think, to imagine 300 to 400 pages' worth of horrific incidents that add up to a long-lasting and powerfully unsettling mood. In The Store Little examines the steadily expanding influence, over all of us, of chain stores. Listen to what one character says: "A lot of these loonies ... are so worried about the federal government, and I never saw a government agency that worked worth a damn. These guys're so afraid of Big Brother and creeping totalitarianism, but our government's always seemed to me to be full of inept bunglers, not brilliant organized master planners. Hell, they couldn't even pull off a third-rate burglary. It's the corporations we have to worry about, I think. They're the ones with the money. They're the ones who can afford to hire the best and the brightest, to competently carry out their plans."
The Store builds paranoia by starting with simple descriptions of the picturesque landscape and the deceptively banal Western town that is Juniper, Arizona. Then The Store arrives. The Store razes a lovely hill to build its huge parking lot. The Store offers well-paying jobs and an astonishing variety of consumer goods. The pattern of delight and worry in the citizens, as The Store spreads its tentacles into local concerns, is believable--disturbingly so. The Store seems like any other of the familiar chains that reproduce like rabbits, invade communities, wipe out small businesses, and turn unique localities into a generic America that looks just the same from Alaska to Florida.
But what exactly goes on, when Samantha and Shannon meet with their boss in the basement of The Store? And who are the Night Managers?
This is dystopia in microcosm. This is horror fiction at its subversive best. --Fiona Webster
Book Description
In a small Arizona town, a man counts his blessings: a loving wife, two teenage daughters, and a job that allows him to work at home. Then "The Store" announces plansto open a local outlet, which will surely finish off the small downtown shops. His concerns grow when "The Store's"builders ignore all the town's zoning laws during itsconstruction. Then dead animals are found on "The Store's" grounds. Inside, customers are hounded by obnoxious sales people, and strange products appear on the shelves. Before long the town's remaining small shop owners disappear, and "The Store" spreads its influence to the city council and the police force, taking over the town! It's up to one man to confront "The Store's" mysterious owner and to save his community, his family, and his life!
* Bentley Little is the author of The Mailman, The Ignored,Dominion, and University
* Stephen King praised both University and The Ignored
* Bentley Little's books appeal to the same readership asNew York Times bestselling authors Stephen King,Peter Straub, and Dean Koontz
* Bentley Little is a recipient of the Horror Writers Association'sBram Stoker Award
* We have much more coming from Bentley Little
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Bill Davis quietly closed the front door of the house behind him as he stepped outside. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Bill Davis quietly closed the front door of the house behind him as he stepped outside. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Decent,
By
This review is from: Store (Mass Market Paperback)
This book started off slow but quickly picked up pace about midway through. The premise is a great one, a evil huge box store takes over control of a small town along with its people. Sound interesting? Maybe...My one gripe with this book was the scene where 'THe Store' took the first born from a woman in the hospital who owed payments on her microwave through The Store's layaway plan. The very idea was over the top and I couldn't wrap my mine about it to make myself believe it. Another bad moment was the ending which came and passed very easily. It was dissapointing to say the least since I expected some big blowout with The Store's CEO and the Manager. I give it four stars for originality and the writing was better than average. And while the book had its low points, I think it's still worth the read.
4.0 out of 5 stars
NOT JUST NINE TO FIVE...,
By
This review is from: Store (Mass Market Paperback)
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.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good but imperfect,
This review is from: The Store (Hardcover)
At first glance, The Store might appear to be a rehash of Stephen King's Needful Things. Both deal with rather sinister shops, but the similarities essentially end there. Bentley Little's novel is a dark satire that is well-written and suspenseful, although it does fall apart a little at the end.The story focuses on Bill Davis, whose family resides in the small Arizona town of Juniper. Juniper is one of those middle-of-nowhere towns in which there is not much in the way of shopping choices, and in fact, most of the times, the residents must go out of town to get what they need. Into this sleepy village comes The Store, a generically-named, sinister (but obvious) version of Wal Mart. The Store offers a great selection and low prices. Unfortunately, The Store also offers much more to those who wander down the wrong aisles: racist video games, snuff films and cheap explosives. It also has a rather rigid employment policy which requires dark rituals to get hired and severe consequences for disobedience or quitting. Then there are the mysterious Night Managers... As with most of Little's best novels, this succeeds both as horror novel and satire. It is exciting reading, but as with many horror novels, the ending is a bit weak. Also, while we are expected to suspend our disbelief for supernatural fiction, there should at least be plausibility, and in some of the events of this story, such plausibility is a bit lacking. These flaws keep The Store from being a great book, but it is still pretty darn good and - though not Little's best effort - it is a fun read.
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