Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
I was expecting more gore from this but I feel like it ended up being an interesting sight into the human mind of hopes and fears.
Clive doesn’t write women characters very well, but god damn can he write a good scary story. My favorites were: Midnight Meat Train, Dread, Hell’s Event, The Skins of the Fathers, and Confessions of a (Pornographer’s) Shroud.
I’m fully expecting to receive boos and hisses for not liking these short stories but I’m prepared for it. I just could NOT get into any of them. I dreaded having to pick up the book and read and every time I did I had this pit of dread in my stomach, and not a good pit of dread. I thought I might actually DIE of boredom while I was reading these stories. This isn’t my first read by Barker, I’ve ADORED everything else I’ve read by him, but Volumes 1-3 of Books of Blood was just NOT for me. I found the stories lacking Barker’s usual beautiful and lyrical writing style and so damn set and uninteresting and plain old boring. Maybe it’s just because his writing style is so expansive that it’s not suited to short stories? I don’t know, I just know I did not enjoy this collection and will definitely not be reading Volumes 4-6!
I thought I knew horror. When I first read these stories in 1987, I’d spent the last year or so reading everything Stephen King had written. Because none of my peers were reading this kind of thing, my fevered dive into King’s work led me to an unearned cockiness about the horror genre.
But then, based solely on King’s recommendation, I picked up Clive Barker’s Books of Blood & had my brain completely rewired. Full of grotesque violence & graphic sex, these stories were a lot for a 14-year-old to process. This was horror that stood in stark counterpoint to King’s admittedly folksy take on the genre. It was a revelation.
Rereading these stories more than 30 years later, it’s gratifying to see just how well they hold up. Rather than try to review this collection (containing the 16 stories that comprise the series’ first three volumes) as a whole, I thought I’d give some quickie reviews of a few of my favorite stories, which should be more than enough to tell you if this will be your kind of thing.
“The Yattering & Jack”: Like a great lost Monty Python sketch, this tale of an incompetent demonic presence is laugh out loud funny & proves that Barker can do humor in a way most of his horror brethren can’t.
“In the Hills, the Cities”: A bizarre phantasmagoria about rival towns that literally become giants. This one contains nightmare imagery galore, & a truly unsettling ending.
“Dread”: My favorite story in this collection, it still gets under my skin. An experiment in psychology taken to its most disturbing extreme, I’d put this story in a time capsule.
“Jacqueline Ess: Her Will & Testament”: This story of a woman discovering psychic abilities & the vengeance she subsequently metes out on the men in her life is ripe for rediscovery in the #metoo era. There’s an image in here that creeped me out for years.
“Rawhead Rex”: Resembling nothing so much as a slasher movie about the resurrection of a centuries-old murderous creature, this story is pure high-octane bloody violence.
But truly, there’s not a bad story in the bunch, making this the perfect place for the uninitiated to dive into Barker’s work.
But then, based solely on King’s recommendation, I picked up Clive Barker’s Books of Blood & had my brain completely rewired. Full of grotesque violence & graphic sex, these stories were a lot for a 14-year-old to process. This was horror that stood in stark counterpoint to King’s admittedly folksy take on the genre. It was a revelation.
Rereading these stories more than 30 years later, it’s gratifying to see just how well they hold up. Rather than try to review this collection (containing the 16 stories that comprise the series’ first three volumes) as a whole, I thought I’d give some quickie reviews of a few of my favorite stories, which should be more than enough to tell you if this will be your kind of thing.
“The Yattering & Jack”: Like a great lost Monty Python sketch, this tale of an incompetent demonic presence is laugh out loud funny & proves that Barker can do humor in a way most of his horror brethren can’t.
“In the Hills, the Cities”: A bizarre phantasmagoria about rival towns that literally become giants. This one contains nightmare imagery galore, & a truly unsettling ending.
“Dread”: My favorite story in this collection, it still gets under my skin. An experiment in psychology taken to its most disturbing extreme, I’d put this story in a time capsule.
“Jacqueline Ess: Her Will & Testament”: This story of a woman discovering psychic abilities & the vengeance she subsequently metes out on the men in her life is ripe for rediscovery in the #metoo era. There’s an image in here that creeped me out for years.
“Rawhead Rex”: Resembling nothing so much as a slasher movie about the resurrection of a centuries-old murderous creature, this story is pure high-octane bloody violence.
But truly, there’s not a bad story in the bunch, making this the perfect place for the uninitiated to dive into Barker’s work.
4.5
“There is no delight the equal of dread.”
Books of Blood volumes 1-3 packs in sixteen gruesome and gore filled short stories. I love short stories, I’ve read my fair share, but Clive Barker has mastered the horror short. He tackles some terrifying fears and just doesn’t stop. I am dying to get to the other volumes. I read volume one in a standalone edition, but I carried my ratings over to this one:
Volume One
The Book of Blood
“There is no delight the equal of dread.”
Books of Blood volumes 1-3 packs in sixteen gruesome and gore filled short stories. I love short stories, I’ve read my fair share, but Clive Barker has mastered the horror short. He tackles some terrifying fears and just doesn’t stop. I am dying to get to the other volumes. I read volume one in a standalone edition, but I carried my ratings over to this one:
Volume One
The Book of Blood
Only reread a few selections, but I can confirm this is still great stuff.
My first Barker book and I was not disappointed.
My favourites were
The midnight meat train
Dread
Son of celluloid
Rawhead Rex
Some really gruesome but awesome stories!
My favourites were
The midnight meat train
Dread
Son of celluloid
Rawhead Rex
Some really gruesome but awesome stories!
Honestly, I'm not sure how to even begin to describe the way I feel about Barker and his work. Even when I'm not particularly into a story of his, I'm still absolutely in awe about his imagination. Each story is an adventure, an experience, and I'm just very much here for it.
Of course, some stories are better than others - or at least I liked some of them a lot more, they just clicked and are truly some of his best work. To list them all would be a long list, there's sixteen short stories in this collection after all. But some of them, like The Yattering and Jack, were just one of the best short stories he's ever written, while others, like In the Hills, the Cities or Rawhead Rex, that were just such... experiences.
Of course, some stories are better than others - or at least I liked some of them a lot more, they just clicked and are truly some of his best work. To list them all would be a long list, there's sixteen short stories in this collection after all. But some of them, like The Yattering and Jack, were just one of the best short stories he's ever written, while others, like In the Hills, the Cities or Rawhead Rex, that were just such... experiences.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No