If Stephen King's Under the Dome felt like a Greatest Hits rehash of of his own earlier, better books, then Nick Cutter's Little Heaven is a tribute cover band rendition of several of King's biggest moments. Little Heaven represents a different twist-- an attempt at literary horror that really wants to be epic. Micah, Ebenezer, and Minerva are the tough-as-nails sort, killers and bounty hunters with checkered pasts. Witty, gross, explosive and full of morally flawed characters finding redemption in the most twisted of ways. Placed throughout the book are illustrations by Adam Gorham as well, who helps bring the characters to life and gives face to things you’d rather not see.

Full of downtrodden inhabitants, who appear unhealthy and emaciated, and children who are demonstrating pretty cruel behaviour, Little Heaven tells the story of a settlement that might actually be a little closer to Hell than Heaven. I was actually terrified and I needed to look at something happy and full of light for a little while. The trio of bounty hunters were each really well realized as characters; I’m not sure there’s one among them I could pick as my favourite. But it kind of made my heart hurt a bit too much along with the lots and lots of nopes that it bubbled up inside of me.but this one is characterized by an old school horror that is too old school for my tastes, edging into that lovecraft territory i just do not dig. Their respective relationships with each other were distinct too, keeping me just as invested in how these developed as the story itself. Its features were both distinctly described yet made so nebulous that I had trouble pinning down an image of it in my mind’s eye, which was nicely unsettling.

Through it and its underlings the nature of evil is touched upon as well in really interesting ways, though the plot is never overburdened by philosophical waxing. If you are curious as to what the story of Jonestown would be like if it had been mashed together with Stephen King's "IT", then absolutely check this book out. 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. 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.There were some truly unique and hideous elements here that stood out well, so I was very conflicted as to why I didn't enjoy the book as much, overall, as I felt I should have. A lot of reviews have criticized this as "copying" Stephen King--while I see obvious references to King's novels, I didn't feel as though they were "the same", more of a "tribute" to. so, yeah, the pen name is a little bit of an honorific for my son, too; we'll see, in time, if he thinks that was such a hot idea!