A cheesy horror story, The Policy is about a supernatural insurance company that really pushes their policies down your throat. Offering home insurance, if you feel your current policy is sufficient, overnight you might be woken (or not) with a tree falling on your roof. employment insurance? Not what you think. If you tell the pushy agent no, the next day at work you'll find yourself fired. And if you buy one of their policies? It's never enough; the push for additional coverage is never-ending. But is this company omnipotent, or what? How can they control these things? The answer lies in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, but the ending was really cut short and lame. My first Little; probably not his best work. ( )

Hunt Jackson is an ordinary guy, newly divorced and returned to his childhood city of Tucson, Arizona, where he rents a house, finds a job, reconnects with a childhood pal, meets a new woman….and finds he needs various forms of insurance in his new life. But his insurance agent is *very* unusual, popping up at his home at odd times, demanding that he buy policies for more and more insurance against some ordinarily uninsurable life events. Like keeping his job, or not being convicted of crimes he didn’t commit, or living forever. The agent’s demands keep rising, until finally Hunt has no choice but to fight back, against astronomical odds…. This is a nice example of what my husband calls suburban horror, meaning the horror-fication of ordinary suburban hassles, in this case the need for insurance policies for home, vehicle, health, life. I’ve read other books by Bentley Little and I like his matter-of-fact style, all the while increasing the tension and the stakes until the story reaches (and passes) the heights of, well, absurdity. This *is* horror fiction, after all. I found the marginalization of the female characters a bit grating, and it’s always a crapshoot to throw contemporary pop-culture references into the mix; in this case, the book was published in, I think, 2003, whereas I’m reading it in 2021 - yes, there’s still an internet, but far different from that depicted here, and while I remember Encarta, most young people wouldn’t have a clue, to cite a couple of examples. Still, a fast read which delivers the chills it promises; mind you, I’ve always been terrified of *all* suburbs, just never thought to add insurance salesmen into the mix! ( )

The Policy by Bentley Little is a story based around insurance, and for Hunt Jackson it is more than just insurance that he finds himself purchasing.

Bentley Little has a bizarre way of getting his stories across to the masses. With great writing and a fantastical imagination, Bentley gives you more than a story. This was such an intriguing read for me. ( )

Bentley Little books have pretty much been hit or miss for me over the years. On the negative side, there's been, "The Return", "The Town", and "The Burning". On the positive side, I've enjoyed "The Store", "The Resort", and "The Summoning". Happily, I can add "The Policy" to those that I've liked.

In this novel, Little takes on the insurance industry and how invasive and obnoxious members of that profession can be. (Can't they just take "no" for an answer.) Generally, that is not the case and it's certainly not the case in this book. Hunt Jackson and his new wife, Beth, along with many of their friends in the Tucson area are badgered, threatened, and cajoled into adding all kinds of insurance into their lives. When some of the friends finally stand up to the strange insurance and say "no more", bad things begin to happen.

Little does a solid job amping up the paranoia and chills as he takes the reader on this journey. The characters in the novel are well-written and believable. The only negative for me is an ending which seemed contrived, rushed, and didn't fit in with the rest of the book. With that said, though, it didn't detract from a fun and intense reading experience. If you're a Little fan, you'll like "The Policy". ( )

Little is great at tapping into the frustration, anger and yes, even fear that we all feel towards certain parts of life that we just sort of accept. THE ASSOCIATION dealt with homeowner's associations. THE STORE dealt with the corporate take over of small mom and pop stores. And now we have THE POLICY to deal with our despisement of insurance companies.

The story follows Hunt Jackson as he resettles in his home town of Tucson. He quickly settles in, finds a job, makes new friends of old friends, and starts to have problems with his insurance.

Like usual, Little takes things farther than you would ever find in real life but that is part of the fear, that there really isn't that much to stop insurance companies from doing some of the stuff detailed here. Things follow through nicely and come to a much nicer and cleaner ending than I thought was going to occur. If you're not already a fan, reading this novel will put you well along the path to becoming one. ( )