Themes such as "Sex As A Threatening Disease" or "Violence As A Passion Akin To Sex". It is somehow less embarrassing to discuss the embodiment of conservative values in the traditional western or the deconstruction of those values in the atypical western, than it is to discuss the straight-up enjoyment of things that no supposedly healthy person should be considering for too long. These are tendencies that are in some ways shameful – a fear of sex, so sexuality is made horrific a fear of violence and the unknown, so violence becomes both a threat and an object of fetishization. Horror is not a respected genre when viewing it as the embodiment of reactionary tendencies within human nature. On the one hand, it is hard to see why: both genres have their critically respected authors who sell a lot of books (Cormac McCarthy, Stephen King) and both genres have thousands of paperback examples of dross that is easily available in all chain outlets – so why is the western seen as classic, while horror is seen as disreputable, an embarrassment? But on the other hand, it is very easy to see why. Both genres leave themselves open for regular deconstruction, but for some reason the western has gained acceptance as a serious genre, while horror still struggles. If the western is the most conservative of genres, then horror is surely the most reactionary.
This is a smart and fast-paced novel, and its attack on consumer culture is so obvious yet so smoothly encapsulated within the traditional horror genre, that the genuinely sharp critique - the entire reason for this novel's existence - may pass almost unnoticed by the frequent and possibly jaded horror reader. Bentley Little established himself as the premier expert of institutional deconstruction with The Store.
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