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| CD Issue #1 |
Why? Writing. Advertising. Teaching.
Blah blah blah. I'm back, so read on...
Richard Chizmar founded Cemetery Dance Magazine in 1988. It’s still in production today (now managed by author/ editor Brian James Freeman) & is considered one of the best horror mags of all time, having published and even discovered many of the genre's most famous and successful authors. This blog series is my attempt to read, review, and research every story CD has ever printed. As of Issue #71 (May. 2014), there are more than 530.
AUTHOR: Bentley Little
CD APPEARANCE: Issue #1 (Dec. 1988: Vol. 1, Iss. 1), story 9 of 12
CD APPEARANCE: Issue #1 (Dec. 1988: Vol. 1, Iss. 1), story 9 of 12
PLOT:
Steven is the new kid at his elementary school and the playground is filled with other happy children, but all he wants is to lay low and avoid making enemies. He succeeds in this, however when he turns to go inside he runs into the janitor, a man that looks like a pig and smiles too widely, and Steven immediately doesn't like him. Inside, Steven observes several watercolor paintings on the bulletin board. One of them is a green monster with pointed teeth, pushing a broom, and with the same ring of grey hair as the janitor.
A nerdy kid named Timmy Turner sees him admiring it and claims ownership. Timmy is missing several teeth, and through the window Steven sees the janitor watching the two of them while fingering his necklace made of teeth.
In class, the teacher asks who wants to take the erasers to the janitor to get them cleaned. Nobody volunteers. Eventually, a kid named Eddie Trerise gets pegged for the job, but by lunchtime Eddie hasn't returned.
A nerdy kid named Timmy Turner sees him admiring it and claims ownership. Timmy is missing several teeth, and through the window Steven sees the janitor watching the two of them while fingering his necklace made of teeth.
In class, the teacher asks who wants to take the erasers to the janitor to get them cleaned. Nobody volunteers. Eventually, a kid named Eddie Trerise gets pegged for the job, but by lunchtime Eddie hasn't returned.
Steven & Timmy sit together at lunch, and Steven is surprised to find the food is not so bad. Timmy explains that the janitor is just as horrible as he looks. He claims the janitor stole Timmy's teeth and suggests that the two boys with broken arms and the two girls with limps are other victims of his abuse.
After lunch the teacher announces that Eddie Trerise had to go home sick, then asks for a volunteer to retrieve the erasers from the janitor's workroom. This time Steven gets chosen. When he gets there, the janitor leads him to a much larger, back room of the workroom. In that back room Steven finds precisely what we expect to find: a horrorshow in the form of a butcher's workshop. Teeth necklaces hang from the walls, scalps hang from the ceiling, mason jars are filled with "red and squishy things", and the centerpiece of it all is a big chopping block in the middle of the room still wet with blood. On it is a piece of Eddie Trerise's shirt.
Steven screams. The janitor laughs.
Steven threatens to tell his parents. The janitor tells him his parents don't give a shit about him & that he is living with his trampy mom & his dad left them & lives in Oregon.
Steven is shocked by this accurate description, but fights back anyway. The janitor hardly notices, easily pinning him down, and picks up a pair of long shears before asking which Steven is more important to him... his little finger or his toe.
Steven manages to kick him, sending him off balance, which opens the opportunity to smash a mason jar over the old man's head. Except it does nothing. It doesn't even break the janitor's skin. Instead, the janitor explains that Steven has been a bad boy and must be properly punished.
The next day at lunch, Timmy Turney thinks the lunch that day is the best they'd had in a long time.
REVIEW: 3 out of 5 stars.
Before explaining myself, it's important to first note the following details about the name "Bentley Little":
1) I've heard many great things about Bentley Little over the years, and I'm embarrassed to say I've never read any of his novels. (He IS on my To Read list)
2) Little became a favored Cemetery Dance contributor over the years.
3) The little blurb offered by CD in this issue alludes to the fact that Little was already becoming a well-known name in horror, even as early as 1988.
4) Little was the winner of the Bram Stoker award for Best First Novel ("The Revelation", 1990) & was nominated for the Bram Stoker Best Novel of the Year ("The Summoning", 1993).
5) Little has written more than 20 novels in the past two decades, and is high on the list of respected horror novelists.
When you put all that together, I think it's pretty obvious I was really looking forward to this story. Sadly, I was greatly disappointed.
The story is classic horror, this time of the psychological kind, but it is woefully simplistic in its execution. The characters are flat. The sentences are stilted and (other than the janitor's workroom scene) almost completely lacking in visual appeal. The plotline is so single-dimensional the climax was evident before the reader gets halfway.
The ending, though, is pretty cool. And it is perhaps that ending that saves the whole story. It's what kept it from being a 2-star story, and it's what nevertheless makes this story gut-wrenchingly nasty. What Little does do well is leave a bitter taste of unease in our mouths. School, after all, is supposed to be the one place outside of a child's home which can guarantee their safety. And while having one rogue janitor is certainly creepy, knowing that the entire school is in on it (enough to serve kids up for lunch!) takes it to a whole new level.
What is most intriguing to me about this story, however, is the TIMING of it. Little was presumably writing his award-winning novel, "The Revelation" at almost the exact same time this story was published ("Revelation" was published slightly more than a year after this one, and with edits, rewrites, & the slower pace of the publishing world back then, the timeline seems to fit very nicely). Whether the exact months match or not is irrelevant. The same Bentley Little that wrote an award-winning novel is- at the heart of it- the same Bentley Little that wrote this... well, this plainly sophomoric tale.
It's not that I'm trying to say "While he didn't quite nail it with this piece, I can nevertheless see the great
writer he would one day become". The point here is that he proves in another, simultaneous piece that he DOES have the chops to write great horror, and yet this one was completely lackluster. I guess what I've learned from this reading experience is that it's an illustration of that age-old saying: You can't win 'em all. If I keep this in mind, maybe... juuuuuust maybe next time I write a relative stinker of my own I won't let it get me down. (Fat chance).
I'd love to hear your comments if you have any. Thanks. :)
After lunch the teacher announces that Eddie Trerise had to go home sick, then asks for a volunteer to retrieve the erasers from the janitor's workroom. This time Steven gets chosen. When he gets there, the janitor leads him to a much larger, back room of the workroom. In that back room Steven finds precisely what we expect to find: a horrorshow in the form of a butcher's workshop. Teeth necklaces hang from the walls, scalps hang from the ceiling, mason jars are filled with "red and squishy things", and the centerpiece of it all is a big chopping block in the middle of the room still wet with blood. On it is a piece of Eddie Trerise's shirt.
Steven screams. The janitor laughs.
Steven threatens to tell his parents. The janitor tells him his parents don't give a shit about him & that he is living with his trampy mom & his dad left them & lives in Oregon.
Steven is shocked by this accurate description, but fights back anyway. The janitor hardly notices, easily pinning him down, and picks up a pair of long shears before asking which Steven is more important to him... his little finger or his toe.
Steven manages to kick him, sending him off balance, which opens the opportunity to smash a mason jar over the old man's head. Except it does nothing. It doesn't even break the janitor's skin. Instead, the janitor explains that Steven has been a bad boy and must be properly punished.
The next day at lunch, Timmy Turney thinks the lunch that day is the best they'd had in a long time.
REVIEW: 3 out of 5 stars.
Before explaining myself, it's important to first note the following details about the name "Bentley Little":
1) I've heard many great things about Bentley Little over the years, and I'm embarrassed to say I've never read any of his novels. (He IS on my To Read list)
2) Little became a favored Cemetery Dance contributor over the years.
3) The little blurb offered by CD in this issue alludes to the fact that Little was already becoming a well-known name in horror, even as early as 1988.
4) Little was the winner of the Bram Stoker award for Best First Novel ("The Revelation", 1990) & was nominated for the Bram Stoker Best Novel of the Year ("The Summoning", 1993).
5) Little has written more than 20 novels in the past two decades, and is high on the list of respected horror novelists.
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| CD Blurb about author Bentley Little |
The story is classic horror, this time of the psychological kind, but it is woefully simplistic in its execution. The characters are flat. The sentences are stilted and (other than the janitor's workroom scene) almost completely lacking in visual appeal. The plotline is so single-dimensional the climax was evident before the reader gets halfway.
(Why do I get the feeling that the gods of horror are about to smite me?)
The ending, though, is pretty cool. And it is perhaps that ending that saves the whole story. It's what kept it from being a 2-star story, and it's what nevertheless makes this story gut-wrenchingly nasty. What Little does do well is leave a bitter taste of unease in our mouths. School, after all, is supposed to be the one place outside of a child's home which can guarantee their safety. And while having one rogue janitor is certainly creepy, knowing that the entire school is in on it (enough to serve kids up for lunch!) takes it to a whole new level.
What is most intriguing to me about this story, however, is the TIMING of it. Little was presumably writing his award-winning novel, "The Revelation" at almost the exact same time this story was published ("Revelation" was published slightly more than a year after this one, and with edits, rewrites, & the slower pace of the publishing world back then, the timeline seems to fit very nicely). Whether the exact months match or not is irrelevant. The same Bentley Little that wrote an award-winning novel is- at the heart of it- the same Bentley Little that wrote this... well, this plainly sophomoric tale.
writer he would one day become". The point here is that he proves in another, simultaneous piece that he DOES have the chops to write great horror, and yet this one was completely lackluster. I guess what I've learned from this reading experience is that it's an illustration of that age-old saying: You can't win 'em all. If I keep this in mind, maybe... juuuuuust maybe next time I write a relative stinker of my own I won't let it get me down. (Fat chance).
I'd love to hear your comments if you have any. Thanks. :)
