Little Heaven (2017) by Nick Cutter
Nick Cutter first came to my attention when researching the sub-genres of body horror and survival horror within the context of modern horror literature at large. His book The Troop was my introduction to his work and I was blown away. Its plot hurtles forward and embraces both body horror and survival horror while achieving an escalating sense of dread and terror that becomes uncomfortably difficult to endure. I count it among the top 5 best horror reads I’ve encountered. I recently was researching recommendations for folk horror (do others do this?) and found a list of the best examples that listed Little Heaven near the top. So, it was with both excitement and not a small amount of trepidation that I waded into this one. In simple terms, the book is seemingly a mash-up of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, mixed with a fanatical religious cult clearly inspired by Jim Jones and his People...