Reviews

Books of Blood, Volumes 1-3 by Ramsey Campbell, Clive Barker

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kurbanski's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny tense fast-paced

4.0

matt357's review against another edition

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4.0

So a few stories from the end, I can already see how I'm going to be summing this up. It's a very solid 4 stars, with the only thing stopping it from scoring higher being occasional prose issues, mainly the clarity and being overly descriptive for my tastes.

That being said, Barker easily successed with what he set out to do. A lot of the ideas in here still come off as original, even 30 years after it was first published. While there are stories in here that prey off of established fears (loss of self, nameless hells, killer clowns) in each of the 3 books there is at least 1 story almost incomparable to traditional horror, so filled with ideas not seen elsewhere, covering setting, antagonist and even the type of terror being targeted

geckghost's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

billymac1962's review against another edition

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4.0

I've only read volumes II and III of these early short stories, but I'm only reviewing volume II here. Or more specifically, the first story, Dread. Think about the word, and what it means to you. Chances are it won't come close to the dread in this story.