The Academy

“Master of the macabre” Bentley Little offers a new lesson in fear with this terrifying horror novel.With a promise of more freedom and a chance to get out from under the thumb of a reactionary school board, the teachers of Tyler High have voted to become a charter school. Instructors and parents alike are thrilled with the prospect of independence. And yet.... The formerly laid-back principal has become unusually strict. And with her toadying secretary, she seems to be running the show. That isn’t all. The janitors no longer work nights because of what they hear. The students are frightened by what they see. And things are happening on school grounds that defy rational explanation. But there is an explanation. It’s just not anything that anyone can begin to believe—or hope to survive.

From Publishers Weekly

School principal Jody Hawkes, known for being easygoing, decides to turn John Tyler High into a charter school without notifying any of her staff. At first, as Jody promises additional freedom and autonomy, most faculty embrace the changes—but it soon becomes clear that a evil bait and switch is underway. Students and faculty who embrace the charter get steadily darker and more sadistic; teachers and students who oppose the charter find strange things happening and people disappearing; and the school seems to have taken on a life of its own. The resolution is painfully simple, but overall Little crafts a tightly allegorical piece of horror. (Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

*Stephen King

“The horror poet laureate.”

Midwest Book Review

“[Bentley Little is] on par with such greats as Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Peter Straub.”

Publishers Weekly

“Little possesses the uncanny ability to take everyday situations and turn them into nightmares.”

Horror Reader

“Little has the unparalleled ability to evoke surreal, satiric terror.”

About the Author

Bentley Little is the author of numerous novels, short stories, articles, essays, and reviews. After earning a BA in communications and an MA in English, Little sold his soul and abandoned all artistic integrity, working for eight years as a bureaucrat for a midsized city in Orange County, California. His first novel, The Revelation, won the 1990 Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award for best first novel.

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