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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Range from 4 - 4.5. Full review to come
Clive Barker has gained a new fan.
I really enjoyed the majority of these short stories. I usually go for lengthier storytelling as I think short stories often struggle to convey enough detail. Somehow Clive Barker can put more detail and humanity into 30 pages than most authors can over 300.
My main issue is that some of the stories didn't go the way I'd hoped. Some just go plain batshit for no reason when they could've been genuinely scary. I'll rate them individually below:
1.1 - The Book of Blood - More of an into to the other 15 but sets the scene well enough 3.5/5
1.2 - Midnight Meat Train - Didn't realise this was a Clive Barker creation. My dad has been banging on about the film for years. I've never seen it but will definitely track in down now. The book is very good 4.5/5
1.3 - The Yattering And Jack - Very funny. Probably the only story in the books that's supposed to be funny. 5/5
1.4 - Pig Blood Blues - General consensus is that people like this one. Didn't click with me, was just a bit of a mess imo. Worth noting however, that the writing style throughout is impeccable and would stop me rating any of these lower than 2. 2/5
1.5 - Sex, Death and Starshine - Again, well written but was a pretty simple zombie/ghost story. Nothing wrong with it, nothing earth-shattering either. 2.5/5
1.6 - In The Hills, The Cities - My favourite of all the stories in the book. Such a bleak but cool, imaginative story. 5/5
2.1 - Dread - Really liked this one. One of those stories that's creepy because it's pretty well grounded in reality. Be interested in watching the movie for this one. 4/5.
2.2 - Hell's Event - Another one that didn't go in the direction that I'd hoped. But a decent enough story. 3/5
2.3 - Jacqueline Ess: Her Will And Testament - Creepy as fuck. The imagery in this one is awesome. 5/5
2.4 - The Skins of the Fathers - Gotta give this one a high score again for the imagery. 4.5/5.
2.5 - New Murders in the Rue Morgue - This is a play on an Edgar Allen Poe story so I''m told. Not familiar with his work apart from the Raven (thanks, The Simpsons) but pretty cool story nonetheless. 3/5
3.1 - Son of Celluloid - Seems to click with others but didn't work for me. Just wanted it to end. 2/5
3.2 - Rawhead Rex - Really liked this one. Creepy, unique monster story. Again, would like to see the film if only to find out why even Clive Barker thinks it's a load of shit. 4/5
3.3 - Confessions of a (Pornographers) Shroud - Liked this one. Didn't love it. A small twist on a standard ghost story. 3.5/5
3.4 - Scape -Goats - This starts pretty good but quickly goes downhill. Quite creepy I guess. Could have done with another ten pages to bulk it out a bit. 3/5.
3.5 - Human Remains - Well written but didn't go in the direction I'd hoped. Just a bit of an odd premise and didn't work for me entirely. 2.5/5
A quick calculation gives me an average rating of 3.59, which I don't believe reflects my overall feeling of the book. I loved it as a whole even when I didn't love the stories because Barkers writing here is just incredible. If anything brings it down slightly, it's book three and I wonder how long these stories were written over because if he bashed 16 out over a short period he may have been low on ideas at that point.
Pick this up, highly recommended.
I really enjoyed the majority of these short stories. I usually go for lengthier storytelling as I think short stories often struggle to convey enough detail. Somehow Clive Barker can put more detail and humanity into 30 pages than most authors can over 300.
My main issue is that some of the stories didn't go the way I'd hoped. Some just go plain batshit for no reason when they could've been genuinely scary. I'll rate them individually below:
1.1 - The Book of Blood - More of an into to the other 15 but sets the scene well enough 3.5/5
1.2 - Midnight Meat Train - Didn't realise this was a Clive Barker creation. My dad has been banging on about the film for years. I've never seen it but will definitely track in down now. The book is very good 4.5/5
1.3 - The Yattering And Jack - Very funny. Probably the only story in the books that's supposed to be funny. 5/5
1.4 - Pig Blood Blues - General consensus is that people like this one. Didn't click with me, was just a bit of a mess imo. Worth noting however, that the writing style throughout is impeccable and would stop me rating any of these lower than 2. 2/5
1.5 - Sex, Death and Starshine - Again, well written but was a pretty simple zombie/ghost story. Nothing wrong with it, nothing earth-shattering either. 2.5/5
1.6 - In The Hills, The Cities - My favourite of all the stories in the book. Such a bleak but cool, imaginative story. 5/5
2.1 - Dread - Really liked this one. One of those stories that's creepy because it's pretty well grounded in reality. Be interested in watching the movie for this one. 4/5.
2.2 - Hell's Event - Another one that didn't go in the direction that I'd hoped. But a decent enough story. 3/5
2.3 - Jacqueline Ess: Her Will And Testament - Creepy as fuck. The imagery in this one is awesome. 5/5
2.4 - The Skins of the Fathers - Gotta give this one a high score again for the imagery. 4.5/5.
2.5 - New Murders in the Rue Morgue - This is a play on an Edgar Allen Poe story so I''m told. Not familiar with his work apart from the Raven (thanks, The Simpsons) but pretty cool story nonetheless. 3/5
3.1 - Son of Celluloid - Seems to click with others but didn't work for me. Just wanted it to end. 2/5
3.2 - Rawhead Rex - Really liked this one. Creepy, unique monster story. Again, would like to see the film if only to find out why even Clive Barker thinks it's a load of shit. 4/5
3.3 - Confessions of a (Pornographers) Shroud - Liked this one. Didn't love it. A small twist on a standard ghost story. 3.5/5
3.4 - Scape -Goats - This starts pretty good but quickly goes downhill. Quite creepy I guess. Could have done with another ten pages to bulk it out a bit. 3/5.
3.5 - Human Remains - Well written but didn't go in the direction I'd hoped. Just a bit of an odd premise and didn't work for me entirely. 2.5/5
A quick calculation gives me an average rating of 3.59, which I don't believe reflects my overall feeling of the book. I loved it as a whole even when I didn't love the stories because Barkers writing here is just incredible. If anything brings it down slightly, it's book three and I wonder how long these stories were written over because if he bashed 16 out over a short period he may have been low on ideas at that point.
Pick this up, highly recommended.
Horror stories are not something I usually read, but after liking Imajica, I had to try his other works.
First off, Clive Barker’s prose is amazing. In such a short space, he’s able to establish his characters and deliver a coherent story, although the endings are sometimes confusing.
Volume One has six stories. Book of Blood, Pig Blood Blues, and In the Hills, the Cities turned out to be complete head scratchers as you wonder what the heck just happened, though the last story presented a kind of monster I would never have thought of. My favorite of this volume was the Yattering and Jack - a dark comedy, it’s the story of a demon who’s desperately trying to get his “victim” to go mad.
Volume Two has five more stories that are easier to grasp and very straight forward. Although they are very imaginative and evocative in the images they conjure, only two stood out. Arguably, the most forgettable story of this volume is Hell's Event - the plot is rather simple, and there's hardly any interesting twists to keep you interested.
Now, my favorite two are Dread and Jacqueline Ess. The former delves into the mind of a man who wants to understand fear - what people fear, why they fear it, and more importantly, how they react. It is the only story without a supernatural element. The monster here is not a fantastical demon but rather an ordinary human, a welcome change from the other short stories in these volumes. Second, Jacqueline Ess is a story about a woman who recovers from a botched suicide with an extraordinary but terrifying power over the flesh. It's an erotic, romantic story with a tragic ending.
Volume Three sees the gore and the sex ramped up even more in some stories, especially in Rawhead Rex. That one just had a bit too much for me to stomach. On the other side, Confessions of a (Pornographer’s) Shroud was much lighter in gory imagery, and I am convinced that Barker took the phrase “white as a sheet” and wrote that story. Human Remains was an instant favorite, dealing with the idea of identity when a doppelgänger steals a man’s appearance and in the end becomes much better at being human than the original.
Overall, this book is alive with creativity and gory imagery. Most stories are a hit while others are either forgettable or too much in their visceral details.
First off, Clive Barker’s prose is amazing. In such a short space, he’s able to establish his characters and deliver a coherent story, although the endings are sometimes confusing.
Volume One has six stories. Book of Blood, Pig Blood Blues, and In the Hills, the Cities turned out to be complete head scratchers as you wonder what the heck just happened, though the last story presented a kind of monster I would never have thought of. My favorite of this volume was the Yattering and Jack - a dark comedy, it’s the story of a demon who’s desperately trying to get his “victim” to go mad.
Volume Two has five more stories that are easier to grasp and very straight forward. Although they are very imaginative and evocative in the images they conjure, only two stood out. Arguably, the most forgettable story of this volume is Hell's Event - the plot is rather simple, and there's hardly any interesting twists to keep you interested.
Now, my favorite two are Dread and Jacqueline Ess. The former delves into the mind of a man who wants to understand fear - what people fear, why they fear it, and more importantly, how they react. It is the only story without a supernatural element. The monster here is not a fantastical demon but rather an ordinary human, a welcome change from the other short stories in these volumes. Second, Jacqueline Ess is a story about a woman who recovers from a botched suicide with an extraordinary but terrifying power over the flesh. It's an erotic, romantic story with a tragic ending.
Volume Three sees the gore and the sex ramped up even more in some stories, especially in Rawhead Rex. That one just had a bit too much for me to stomach. On the other side, Confessions of a (Pornographer’s) Shroud was much lighter in gory imagery, and I am convinced that Barker took the phrase “white as a sheet” and wrote that story. Human Remains was an instant favorite, dealing with the idea of identity when a doppelgänger steals a man’s appearance and in the end becomes much better at being human than the original.
Overall, this book is alive with creativity and gory imagery. Most stories are a hit while others are either forgettable or too much in their visceral details.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence
The whole thing is worth reading just for IN THE HILLS, THE CITIES. I don't think I will ever read anything as unique as this again. It's a truly extraordinary piece.
Clive Barker is my favorite gay man ever. Well my favorite famous don't-know-in-real-life gay man ever. Seriously. These books are super scary! Yipee!
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.
Oh, this is a treat! The stories that started Barker's career--a wonderful combination of gross body horror and weird psychosexual nastiness. Smart inversions of unsavory genre tropes, like Lovecraftian racism ("Hell's Event" and "The Skins of the Fathers") and the woman-as-victim narrative ("Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament"). Plus, Barker's a really good writer. More people should read his stuff.