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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
Unbelievably good. F*****g terrifying. I stayed up many nights with this book, not wanting to stop reading but also wanting to savor it. Once or twice, I even had to put the book down and take a breather from these stories, they were legitimately fear-inducing.
I don’t know how I’ve missed out on reading Barker before now, but horror fiction will be different for me from now on. This sets a new bar for horror in its niche, this kind of brutal, bloody, animalistic terror that weaves through horror, science fiction and myth.
More than anything, I feel like Books of Blood has accomplished something I wouldn’t have thought possible: it provides a glimpse past the veil to a believable version of the world of the damned, and what waits there is true evil and brutality. The imaginations of authors over centuries have grasped at descriptions of Hell, but Books of Blood feels like it conjures the kinds of things Hell might actually contain, while at the same time telling believable stories of human cruelty that remind us of the Hell we keep in our hearts.
There are several stories in this collection that are not only terrifying and visceral, but utterly unforgettable. Book of Blood, The Midnight Meat Train, In the Hills the Cities, Dread, and Rawhead Rex are the standouts to me. There wasn’t a single story in this collection that was a miss for me, but those were above and beyond.
I don’t know how I’ve missed out on reading Barker before now, but horror fiction will be different for me from now on. This sets a new bar for horror in its niche, this kind of brutal, bloody, animalistic terror that weaves through horror, science fiction and myth.
More than anything, I feel like Books of Blood has accomplished something I wouldn’t have thought possible: it provides a glimpse past the veil to a believable version of the world of the damned, and what waits there is true evil and brutality. The imaginations of authors over centuries have grasped at descriptions of Hell, but Books of Blood feels like it conjures the kinds of things Hell might actually contain, while at the same time telling believable stories of human cruelty that remind us of the Hell we keep in our hearts.
There are several stories in this collection that are not only terrifying and visceral, but utterly unforgettable. Book of Blood, The Midnight Meat Train, In the Hills the Cities, Dread, and Rawhead Rex are the standouts to me. There wasn’t a single story in this collection that was a miss for me, but those were above and beyond.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Tracked down this book just to read the story "In the Hills, The Cities," which is excellent.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Crazy, imaginative and dark short-stories. Surprised that more of them have not been made into movies - some really novel ideas even now years later.
Would not say I enjoyed all of them - some of them are ‘what did I just read…??’
Mostly the monsters, bad guys and overall evil wins - or more correctly everybody looses. If there are survivors they are changed - and not really for the better.
The short intro by Clive Barker is interesting. He writes about revisiting earlier work. How short-stories are like time-capsules of the authors life, as it was when he wrote story.
"I look at these pieces and I don't think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore...We are our own graveyards; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were."
Made me think both about how I view myself and also how I review books. With some authors I love their early books - the later ones not so much. But it is kinda unfair to criticize author for this - after all they are not the same as when they wrote books 10 or 20 years ago. Also I am not the same as when I read books for the first time. Tho there are books that I enjoy just as much now as when I read them for the first time.
Barker writes different kinds of stories now - he still liked the old stuff - even if he would like not to be primarily know for the early horror novels and being a ‘horror writer’. But still they please him and ‘That’s the most you can hope, I think: that the work you do pleases, both in the doing and the revisiting’
- we should all be so fortunate.
Would not say I enjoyed all of them - some of them are ‘what did I just read…??’
Mostly the monsters, bad guys and overall evil wins - or more correctly everybody looses. If there are survivors they are changed - and not really for the better.
The short intro by Clive Barker is interesting. He writes about revisiting earlier work. How short-stories are like time-capsules of the authors life, as it was when he wrote story.
"I look at these pieces and I don't think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore...We are our own graveyards; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were."
Made me think both about how I view myself and also how I review books. With some authors I love their early books - the later ones not so much. But it is kinda unfair to criticize author for this - after all they are not the same as when they wrote books 10 or 20 years ago. Also I am not the same as when I read books for the first time. Tho there are books that I enjoy just as much now as when I read them for the first time.
Barker writes different kinds of stories now - he still liked the old stuff - even if he would like not to be primarily know for the early horror novels and being a ‘horror writer’. But still they please him and ‘That’s the most you can hope, I think: that the work you do pleases, both in the doing and the revisiting’
- we should all be so fortunate.
A terrific collection of short stories. With Clive Barkers writing style even the slightly goofy stories come across chilling or at least entertaining.
A lot of the stories had resonance with me as one is about a run in London, which I have done a few times, one was about people who work in a cinema, which I do and one was about a fictional small town Kent which was great, being from Kent, and it's the first time I've heard Goudhurst be mentioned in a book. So a lot of the stories were really interesting and varied.
The best ones for me were...
Vol.1
- The Book of Blood
- Pig Blood Blues
- Sex, Death and Starshine
- In the Hills, The Cities
Vol.2
- Dread
- Jacqueline Ess: Her Will And Testament
Vol.3
- Rawhead Rex
- Human Remains
And maybe New Murders in the Rue Morgue (Vol.2) and Son of Celluloid (Vol.3).
But Scape-goats (Vol.3), Son of Celluloid (Vol.3) and Jacqueline Ess (Vol.2) were particularly good because they had the novelty of featuring a female protagonist which was somewhat amiss amongst the variety of his stories as well as their questionable representations.
Volume 3 is probably the weakest out of this set but I can't wait to read more. Even if some can be a tad naff. Barker is a terrific writer non the least.
A lot of the stories had resonance with me as one is about a run in London, which I have done a few times, one was about people who work in a cinema, which I do and one was about a fictional small town Kent which was great, being from Kent, and it's the first time I've heard Goudhurst be mentioned in a book. So a lot of the stories were really interesting and varied.
The best ones for me were...
Vol.1
- The Book of Blood
- Pig Blood Blues
- Sex, Death and Starshine
- In the Hills, The Cities
Vol.2
- Dread
- Jacqueline Ess: Her Will And Testament
Vol.3
- Rawhead Rex
- Human Remains
And maybe New Murders in the Rue Morgue (Vol.2) and Son of Celluloid (Vol.3).
But Scape-goats (Vol.3), Son of Celluloid (Vol.3) and Jacqueline Ess (Vol.2) were particularly good because they had the novelty of featuring a female protagonist which was somewhat amiss amongst the variety of his stories as well as their questionable representations.
Volume 3 is probably the weakest out of this set but I can't wait to read more. Even if some can be a tad naff. Barker is a terrific writer non the least.
3 stars
It pains me to say this, but my reread of this was not as enjoyable as my first read of it over twenty years ago.
The books of blood, vol 1, 2 and 3 contain quite a bit of gore and I think this is probably why I enjoyed them so much when I first read them. I've read my share of gore since then and it takes more than just that to entertain me now. That's not to say that Barker's writing is bad, but for the most part the stories just didn't grab me and the characters didn't stand out. I started this book in December and put it aside for long periods at a time before I finally finished it in February.
I did enjoy some of the stories so this is why I rated this a 3 as a whole.
The third volume was by far my favourite. Here are the stories I enjoyed the most:
Pig Blood Blues (vol. 1)
Sex, Death and Starshine (vol. 1)
Confessions of a (Pornographer's) Shroud (vol. 3)
Scape-Goats (vol. 3)
I read many reviews that state some of his novels are much better than these stories, so I am planning on trying some, especially since I own a few. I recently acquired the Books of Blood, volumes 4, 5 and 6 (before this reread) but I'm not apt to pick that up very soon.
It pains me to say this, but my reread of this was not as enjoyable as my first read of it over twenty years ago.
The books of blood, vol 1, 2 and 3 contain quite a bit of gore and I think this is probably why I enjoyed them so much when I first read them. I've read my share of gore since then and it takes more than just that to entertain me now. That's not to say that Barker's writing is bad, but for the most part the stories just didn't grab me and the characters didn't stand out. I started this book in December and put it aside for long periods at a time before I finally finished it in February.
I did enjoy some of the stories so this is why I rated this a 3 as a whole.
The third volume was by far my favourite. Here are the stories I enjoyed the most:
Pig Blood Blues (vol. 1)
Sex, Death and Starshine (vol. 1)
Confessions of a (Pornographer's) Shroud (vol. 3)
Scape-Goats (vol. 3)
I read many reviews that state some of his novels are much better than these stories, so I am planning on trying some, especially since I own a few. I recently acquired the Books of Blood, volumes 4, 5 and 6 (before this reread) but I'm not apt to pick that up very soon.
The crazy premise of these stories is enough to give it four stars. A few of the stories could have been a lot shorter though. I am really glad I finally read this book, and I look forward to reading more by Clive Barker.
Quality ranges from pretty lame to absolutely brilliant. For my money, "Pigs Blood Blues" hits the hardest.