Review: "Dominion" by Bentley Little

I really like Bentley Little, despite some of his glaring flaws, and I do believe that he is the next best thing in horror fiction, and could easily take the place of Stephen King. He has a large output, his books are affordable and easy to find on Amazon.com, and they are not very long, with most clocking in at 400 pages, give or take. What really makes him standout his the utter uniqueness of the stories he tells, what sets him back sometimes his very poor dialogue and run of the mill descriptions. But most of the time the attitude and originality make up for that, and when it does not you end up with a lukewarm book like Dominion. It starts out with a really gross description of a serial killer attempting to drown the women he keeps in his basement, all of which have recently given birth, by placing a garden hose in the entrance. The basement fills up, but the babies are still alive, and end up eating the man when he attempts to drown them. We then cut to the present story, where Dion, who, with his alcoholic mom, move from Phoenix to Mesa, California. Dion, the typical teenager who blends in to the crowd to go unnoticed, which is better than being bullied, is not very developed and so damn mopey for me. While at school, he sees Penelope, a girl who lives with a group of women who own a winery, and they soon catch each other’s eyes. Penelope is a little bit better of a character, but is still nothing to cheer about. All the while brutal murders are taking place, people are drinking more and the crime rate is rising, and all this is somehow tied to the two young lovers. What follows is probably Little’s most gory novel, with violence that is both graphic in its depiction, and unsettling in its context. Little, while not one to relish the gory details like Edward Lee or the disturbing context of the violence like Ketchum, Little’s stories can be pretty violent. I think he went a little over the top with some of it, especially when we find out how Dion and Penelope are connected. The novel turns into a kind of Crazies like scenario, with the town being overrun by a god-like force that extends from the wine they are drinking, and the few survivors are left to fend for themselves. The ending, not to spoil it, kind of reminded me of Christine, which is an apathetic coincidence. Overall, a weak entry in Little’s oeuvre. He usually tends to be less on the ball when he tries to tell a story with genre conventions, like this or even The Town. He really shines when his stories are unique and startling like Dispatch, or my favorite, The Ignored. It is where is talent shows and why he is such a damn good storyteller, while not the best writer. I’d say skip Dominion, unless you like the subject matter (Greek gods), or like Bentley Little as much as I do.

Rating: 3/5