It pits the coolest and most unlikely bounty hunters against an old time religious cult and the ickiest creation this side of John Carpenter's The Thing. Ebenezer Elkins, “The Englishman,” is delightfully cordial, clever as a whip, and unyieldingly deadly.

The non-linear narrative was cleverly executed, but I didn't have a lot of patience for it, or for the slow build-up.

Their respective relationships with each other were distinct too, keeping me just as invested in how these developed as the story itself. Not that I'm putting myself in their league, no way no how, but I'm just saying that was the idea behind the name. Witty, gross, explosive and full of morally flawed characters finding redemption in the most twisted of ways. In fact, I think some of the scenes with the leader, (read: insane cult leader), the baby, (oh, that baby: SHUDDER), and the "Long Walker" (you'll see), would have made Stephen King himself jealous.

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.I do recommend this one if you are a Cutter fan, however if you haven't read anything by him before then I suggest reading The Troop or The Deep first. because what i appreciate the most about cutter's brand of horror writing is his old-school flair, where he seems to be channeling stephen king at the height of his powers and writing these contemporary spins on themes that king popularized: the ordinary horrors of childhood made less ordinary with the introduction of a spooky element, the inherent creepiness of children, suppressed memories resurfacing in adulthood, wonderful descriptions and atmosphere giving a weight to the threat that is taking its time to appear, making it all the more effective for its insidiously slow reveal. I’m passively trying to read more horror that isn’t written by the typical authors I go to for it, and Nick Cutter continues to be a great new source. 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. In some ways, this is a traditional monster horror novel — there's an evil, inhuman thing with lots of disgusting minions and it kills people in gruesome, violent ways.

Maybe their brains did this as an instinctive protective measure, to spare them the true contours of the thing. While the dark and disturbing elements worked well, it was everything in between that forced me to bring my rating down. Reading of their coming together as an unlikely trio was fun and established a strong dynamic that prevailed throughout.Overall I liked Little Heaven, but I feel like it had so much potential to be great and it just wasn't. 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. Little Heaven has a few stand-out moments, and the reveal of the Big Bad is effectively chilling, but if you're well-versed in the works of Stephen King a lot of these elements will feel like a retread at the least, and like an altered xerox at the worst. A trio of bounty hunters meet up in the 60’s, well they actually almost kill each other, but this story is not really about that.

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. It's like 1980's era Stephen King merged together with the real life tragedy of the Jonestown Massacre.The remaining occupants are forced to take a stand and fight back, but whatever has cast its dark eye on Little Heaven is now marshaling its powers…and it wants them all. This was a really interesting feature, especially because there was no real rhyme or reason to when an illustration would be inserted. 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. rounded up because the parts i liked were quite good indeed, and the parts i didn't like are probably good if you are not a defective reader, and while i wasn't scared-scared, there are some excellent creepy moments. Stuff ensues, but besides their differences, including one actively aiming to kill one of the others, they band together on a job to infiltrate a religious cult ( I KNOW) to just sort of get the lay of the land for a client.