January 12 - "The Sanctuary"

“The Sanctuary”
by Bentley Little
The Collection (2002)

* * (Okay) Horror

Cal came home from school to find that his mother had sinned again, given in to The Rage. Torn between turning his mother in to the authorities, or something much worse, Cal notices that familiar glint in his mother’s eye.

A fan of Little’s novels, I purchased the collection on whim to read the story, “The Washingtonians,” because of the Masters of Horror episode based on the tale. Both turned out to be adequate, but not near as good as the other stories I’d read of his. The same is true of “The Sanctuary.” There’s nothing overtly wrong with the story, and it contains enough creepiness to succeed in its genre, but there’s nothing special or newly unique. Originally published in 1989, it appears to be one of the earliest stories in the collection, and his strength as a horror writer has only grown. It does win a couple of points for examining – rather harshly, but maybe accurately? – the home life of certain religious extremists. (I’m sure that’s an unfair generalization, but jeez, those people creep me out.)