This is ONE HELL OF A NEWBORN! -- Bentley Little's THE REVELATION

Late in the year of 2000 I turned my eyes towards a feller by the name of Bentley Little; it was, as usual, in manner the manner of "you want to read similar things by other writers?". And so I got stuck on this guy that, beside computers and modern technology, hates everything to do with religious fanaticism, large-scale corporations, gated communities ... and mailmen!

The book I read (a novel from the latter part of the 90s when, unfortunately, ha started going downhill) was not that great, but it incorporated one of the most nasty, absurd and hilarious horror elements I've ever encountered -- a woman giving birth to a humanoid cactus! Now how can I go wrong from here, I thought, and began persuing every little work of his...

So, a few months later, I got hold of this author's debut: The Revelation (1989). By far, this is not the greatest achievement of this man. However, it's quite a forceful first novel that does not yield at all in the ways of the absurd, macabre and grotesque. The most disturbing scene of the entire book would pehaps be where a demented and geriatric old woman of almost 100 gives birth to a dead and deformed, humanlike creature... To sum it up, though, it's a fast paced read and tells the story of the small town of Randall, California: A strange preacher has come to fight the Devil, as always since the beginning of time, in this very place. He has to have the unfailing help of a few townies whose ancesters fought by his side the last time, ages ago.

The Dark Forces has gathered the lost souls and corpses of all the aborted and miscarried, abandonned and buried fetuses of the town, now and through endless time... And with this army Satan will wreak havoc on earth. The only once able to stop Him from defeating God and mocking the whole Creation is four men with pitchforks, fresh blood and a dried up fetus (you know about Communion, don't you...)

The Revelation is well recommended should you decide to try this Arizona born gentleman on for real. It is quite an easy read and it's basically only focusing on the die hard repulsive and offensive material, and not concerned with the more apparent social commentary that Little later on began to mix with his more or less strange atrocities.