University

"University," Bentley Little's 1995 effort, is the archetypical Little novel. Loaded with lots of humor, gore, and oddball observations about a normal American institution gone amuck, Little delivers his usual wallop to the stomach with this effective shocker about a university gone mad. It is important to classify Little's novels into two categories: the first is social satire, the second straight horror. "University" falls into satire, firmly ensconced with "The Mailman" and "The Store." For Little's straight horror novels, check out "The Walking" or "The Return." While "University" is not as gripping as Little's other satirical novels, it still offers the casual reader or diehard Little fan plenty of fun landscapes to traipse through.
The University of California at Brea seems to be your normal run of the mill university. With an enrollment of roughly 25,000 students, UC Brea serves the needs of students of all types, including ethnic minorities and the physically disabled. Like other universities around the country, UC Brea occasionally has some problems with violence, rape, or theft on campus. But something sinister is occurring at UC Brea, something that at first appears unexplainable. Why are rapes gradually increasing on campus? Why are the students in Ian Emerson's literature courses more apathetic than usual? And what in the heck is happening on the sixth floor of the university library?
Gradually, UC Brea is becoming psychotic. You see, UC Brea is alive, inhabited by a living organism slowly growing more powerful with each passing semester. The university feeds off its students, gaining greater strength as the students become crazier. Students start disappearing, either inexplicably or due to "experiments" conducted by faculty and staff. Minorities begin to experience disturbing episodes of blatant racism, especially when elections for student president result in a race riot. Finally, sickening murders and suicides become the norm as the university prepares to "graduate" with its students. UC Brea is one huge, raving madhouse with only a few stalwart souls wandering the tree shrouded campus and the hallowed halls of learning.
As is par for the course in a Little novel, we meet the few good people struggling against an unfathomable evil. There is Ian Emerson, a burned out professor trying to forget his ex-wife's infidelity while forging a new relationship with girlfriend Eleanor. Ian's only real friend in the English department is Buckley, a rambunctious Chaucer scholar with a fondness for drink and dirty movies. As the madness increases in danger and intensity, Jim and Faith join the fight. Jim is the editor of the school paper and has a front row seat to the bloody carnage unfolding on campus. Faith, Jim's girlfriend, does work study in the library while trying to avoid her dysfunctional family life. Finally, there is Gifford Stevens, a former professor on a crusade across the country to hunt down evil springing to life in our nation's institutions of higher learning. Stevens acts as the catalyst for our heroes, bringing them together to fight UC Brea's burgeoning horrors.
Little always loves inserting gore scenes in his novels, but "University" may be his most brutal novel to date. In an effort to satirize America's university system, Little injects his violence with a huge dose of steroids. The book contains scenes of animal murder, violence directed against ethnic minorities, and nauseating scenes of sadistic torture. I understand what Little is trying to accomplish here, but that knowledge does not make reading this book easy. On a lighter note, the story contains what is arguably the funniest (and grossest) description of a body falling off a roof ever captured on paper. Overall, for those with weak stomachs, be aware that "University" is chock full of sickening scenes.
In terms of style, "University" has its ups and its downs. There is a coherency in this book missing in many of Little's works, as all the story threads reach resolution and the conclusion is fully developed and lengthy (something not seen in many of Little's books). Even the characters attain greater likeability here than in his other stories, although they still are one-dimensional at times.
Regrettably, the editing job in this book is poor. At one point, the word `perpetuated' appears in the place of `perpetrated.' Even more egregious is the extensive padding in the book. For long stretches of the story, Little inserts repetitive statements where none should be. This complaint appears elsewhere, and those statements are essentially correct. I suspect that the story was not long enough, so the editor sent the manuscript back for beefing up. Instead of extending the storyline, Little threw in tons of dependent clauses. These revisions are unnecessary and annoying.
Despite a few glaring flaws, "University" is a prime candidate for inclusion into the top five books produced by Bentley Little. The plot ideas are entertaining, the characters are engaging (to some extent), and the conclusion works. This book is not as entertaining as "The Store," but newcomers to Little should definitely pick this one up.

I read "The Summoning" by Bentley Little a few weeks ago, and was absolutely blown away. I quickly scrambled into action, and bought up every single book Little has written; But as I started reading University, I thought of something REALLY scary....What if I had just wasted a ton of money on books that stunk? What if The Summoning was a fluke, and all his other books reeked...?
Shouldn't have worried! While not quite as good as The Summoning, University is a fun read. Little goes your typical haunted house/bad place story one better, giving readers an evil, sentient College campus getting ready to "graduate", I.E. move on to its next stage of evolution. Little is well-versed in Horror vernacular and traditions/cliches, and he makes good use of that knowledge here, referring to classics like Hell House, The Shining, Burnt Offerings, and Shirley Jackson's infamous Hill House; He even throws in a character named Eleanor! The cool thing is his CHARACTERS are also aware of the Horror cliches; At one point they even try to pick out which member of their group will die by ticking off the Horror-Novel death list: The weirdo, the unattached character, etc. I did feel that certain parts of the ending were a tad corny, and I was disappointed that, after telling us how a standard Horror novel would handle main-character-deaths, Little took the same cliched route, killing just who we'd expect. Other than that small beef, University is a fun, gross way to spend a few days. Looking forward to reading more of Mr. Little's work.

This book has so far given even more credence to my belief that Bentley Little just doesn't have any shame, he likes the shock value that's for sure. Some of the reviews before mine have been pretty damn ignorant, slammming the graphic violence and the character development, and I just can't figure out what the hell these people were looking for! If you look to a book to bring new, profound meaning to your life you need to get out more, maybe socialize some, it is ok to not read sometimes. Picking up a book and trying to analyze while you read is extremely boring and takes away from the experience and let me just say that graphic violence, unabashed, does have its place in horror fiction. There is something about the things that do evil without any remorse, without any emotion at all. Evil for evil's sake should always pop up in the so called "fresh faces" of horror. You can't think deep all the time, treading through that water takes too much energy. Every once in a while you just need a no brainer that just gives you a kick in the pants, a little sense of the what ifs, and sets you back on your way. I doubt this book will change the course of horror fiction, it certainly isn't subtle in any respect, but you never know. I just can't help thinking that the people who said the intensity of the violence was degrading to the story never saw The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or maybe they don't think an educational establishment would ever be possesive of an evil entity. Aaah, those lucky Catholic school kids, so naive. Bottom line, if you have any liking of Bentley Little's works and it doesn't take you long to get through books (as in you can read) you should probably check this out. If not for the little instances of guilt certain scenes will stir within you, for thinking those dirty thoughts.

Bentley Little serves up another of his signature horror stories with this book. Though it is one of his earlier works, some of his later ones, such as "The Store" and "The Association", have their roots in this book. This book is not for the squeamish, however, due to the sadistic sexual content and extreme violence.

As the title indicates, all the fun and games take place at a University, specifically the University of California at Brea. The school has always had a high incidence of violence on its campus, but this one semester, it takes it to the point of no return. Murder, rape, sodomy, sadism, maiming, castration, and animal cruelty are just some of the extracurricular activities to be found on this campus. A small group of students and professors band together to try to stem the tide of evil at the University, and therein lies the tale.

The author is a tad self-indulgent, as the book is somewhat repetitious, at times, and the story seems to falter or meander every now and then. Moreover, the characters tend to be somewhat one dimensional. Still, it is a new riff on the classic tale of good versus evil. Diehard Little fans, and I am one, should enjoy it.

Highly recommended by Stephen King, this novel embraces some of the most perverted scenes of horror imaginable and constitutes a great achievement by Bentley Little.

Remember Anne Rice Siddon's The House Next Door which attempts to portray the ugliness of unrestrained extra-marital sexual relations and intercourse in a quite sedate fashion? Well, there's nothing toned down about the sexual perversions described in this novel that attempts to draw audiences to the effects of an institution of higher learning that by virtue of its unrestricted evil and perverted morals draws and attracts students who are predisposed to straying from the ethical path and delve into activities and actions that are driven by corrupt moral principles that will eventually lead to the destruction of the foundations of a sound society.

Although the story is well written and finely crafted and contains some captivating events and memorably perverted scenes that entirely enraptures, some of the time the horrors themselves seem over blown and a bit ridiculous.

However, this remains a fine contribution to the genre by a new and talented writer who has a unique voice and whose story telling prowess is hard to match.

Although I must admit, I was taken by the book during the first half, but I was surely LOST in the last half section. I mean, the characters became uninteresing to the point that I just did NOT care anymore! And the whole concept of "The Computer Monster" became simply just stupid.

This book once again proves why Bentley Little is a master of the genre. He takes what people don't even associate with evil and flips it out. He us a master of satire, that us a genre crossing ride. I really recommend for people with a taste in hardcore, no holds bar horror.

Love this guy's work. How does he turn a safe place like a University into such an evil presence. Just keep doing it

Yeah--I don't want to go to this university.
Little is a fantastic veteran author, Bram Stoker award-winner and an all around talent for the macabre.
You don't want to miss this novel.
Enroll in the University.

--Joseph McGee, author of In the Wake of the Night, Phil's Place and Darkness Won't Rest: Phils Place II

Arrived in a timely manner and was as described.