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3.02 AVERAGE
3.02 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was overall a little scattershot for me — "The Toll" was *really* good, and builds upon Kirsty's story from Hellraiser/The Hellbound Heart; despite this only being co-written with Barker, I actually dug this more than the original novella. But the subsequent three stories were a bit more inconsistent -- "Nesting" was decent and unsettling, "The Dive" was absolutely terrible and just felt like a monster mash fever dream, and "What The Body Does" was actually really compelling. Honestly, this was a borderline 4 for me, but "The Dive" absolutely dragged it down (no pun intended, haha).
Hellraiser: The Toll by Mark Alan Miller is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in early March.
Rather a lot like a shortform Barker story, The Toll is about a prison built on Devil's Island in French Guiana. Kirsty/Christina from the original Hellraiser is lured back to the home where her dad and stepmom, Julia, lived, before being directed to Devil's Island, the alleged domain of Pinhead/the Cold Man. There, he speaks of the stars aligning to have them meet, that she'll witness the end of days, and then they fight for awhile.
Rather a lot like a shortform Barker story, The Toll is about a prison built on Devil's Island in French Guiana. Kirsty/Christina from the original Hellraiser is lured back to the home where her dad and stepmom, Julia, lived, before being directed to Devil's Island, the alleged domain of Pinhead/the Cold Man. There, he speaks of the stars aligning to have them meet, that she'll witness the end of days, and then they fight for awhile.
dark
tense
medium-paced
As a huge fan of the Hellraiser franchise, I was surprised to learn of this book. Hellraiser: The Toll tells the story of what happened between Clive Barker's iconic works The Hellbound Heart and its follow up, The Scarlet Gospels. Thirty years after Kristy Cotton escaped from the clutches of the Hell Priest, Pinhead, and lived to fight another day, her life has never been the same. Every few years she fashions a new name, a new identity, and a new home for herself; She is a woman who is running from her past at all costs, which is why it comes as such a surprise when she receives a mysterious letter in the mail, addressed to the woman she's been running from over half her life. Answering the letter's query, she begins a descent down a rabbit hole to the ultimate confrontation. Her actions stir something unnamable in the ether, and throw her into a game where nothing, not even what she sees in front of her very eyes, can be trusted. Unlike many Hellraiser and Clive Barker fans, I enjoyed The Scarlet Gospels very much, despite how outrageous it was. While I love novellas, I was apprehensive of reading this novella because I often find that novellas are very hard to get right. Most times, it is hard to capture a reader and make a good impression. I find that horror novellas are often too short to be effective, because they end before they can really begin. Despite all this, I chose to read this story because of my love for Hellraiser as a franchise, and I was excited to see The Hell Priest, Kirsty Cotton and Harry D’amour again, as I have much love for these characters. I loved the short and small interaction between The Hell Priest and Kirsty Cotton. These two characters have such a cosmic and otherworldly dynamic. I like that The Hell Priest even comments that their relationship is a kind of romance. I was disappointed that Harry D’amour was only mentioned and never appeared, but I understand that this novella is a direct prequel to The Scarlet Gospels. This book was a nice bite from the Hellraiser universe (from the book continuity/timeline), but it did leave me hungry for more. I understand why some reviewers felt displeased with this entry in the book series. While this was a nice bridge novel between The Hellbound Heart and The Scarlet Gospels, it left me with more questions than answers. This story is billed and marketed as a sequel to The Hellbound Heart and a prequel to The Scarlet Gospels, but there are some inconsistencies with that. Firstly, The Hell Priest (or lead Cenobite) from The Hellbound Heart is described here as the same as Pinhead from the movies, and not the (almost) female Cenobite from the first book. Secondly, Kirsty’s backstory here is described closer to the movie version than the character we met in The Hellbound Heart. Thirdly, The Scarlet Gospels features a Pinhead that closely resembles the movie version and characterization than the one from The Hellbound Heart, which makes me believe that The Hellbound Heart and The Scarlet Gospels most likely exists in different continuities. Despite all of this, I am left with many questions by the end of Hellraiser: The Toll no matter how I look at the timeline or continuity of the books. What happened to Kirsty Cotton during the events of The Scarlet Gospels? Are the Pinheads from The Hellbound Heart, Hellraiser and The Scarlet Gospels all somehow the same being? And the most interesting and compelling question of all: Who or what is Pinhead’s daughter, and what became of her? With seemingly no mention or cameo in The Scarlet Gospels, I can’t help but wonder and crave the story of Kirsty Cotton hunting down Pinhead’s daughter. I want to know how Pinhead’s progeny fits into this world and this mythology. Is she half-human, half-cenobite? Or is she a full cenobite or some sort of demon? She could be something entirely new, but I would love to read her story, especially if Kirsty is involved. While this was a fun novella, the choices that it made has left me questioning so much, and I find myself curious and hungry for more, despite not knowing if Clive Barker will ever return to this world, or continuity.
Its an interesting P.S. and bridge between the two books, but it also feels rushed. It felt more like a chapter that got edited out of Scarlet Gospels
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was a very quick read, but it left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, there were some evocative word choices that left a good impression. On the other hand, it felt a little... pointless? I've yet to read The Scarlet Gospels, so maybe this is necessary connective tissue, but as other reviewers have pointed out, it felt a bit like filler.
Firstly, the book felt miserable in a more directionless fashion than either The Hellbound Heart or Hellraiser. It makes sense that Kirsty would hold with her the trauma that she experienced, but at the same time, good God, give her a break. Her confrontation with the cold man feels metaphorical for choosing to push through trauma, even though it's definitely supposed to be literalistic, which is a neat reading. However, the state that it puts her back at is the state that we already see her in at the end of the movie, so it feels like we're just back where we've started. You could make the argument that she's the same, but different, permanently changed by what she's gone through and yet still kicking. But the way that the cold man addresses this development makes it feel circular. (Also, on the topic of pointless misery, why on God's Earth did Kirsty compare her suffering to that of someone in a concentration camp? Not necessary at all.)
The writing also had its ups and downs. There were some passages that made it feel good to read, like when you're cutting with scissors and you finally hit that glide. Other parts, though, particularly some of the dialogue, made me chuckle in a way that did not feel intentional. I don't think "That's what you get for bringing a gun to a hammer fight" was the banger line the author intended it to be. Reviewer @catsbooks_uk called it a fanfiction - that hits the nail on the (Pin)head for me. That's exactly what the prose felt like sometimes, as well as certain plot choices. The daughter of the cold man?? That's a textbook creepypasta OC.
Let me also land back on the idea of certain parts of the book making me chuckle. Humor, when used correctly, makes good horror in my opinion; you need that levity for the scary parts to really feel scary. I'm not sure it hit for me here, though. Some of this was not intentional; when the Runner appeared, I'd had my text-to-speech app set to pause for one second between sentence-ending punctuation, so it read like, "FUCK. FUCK. FUCK," and it was giving me a fit. But also, is the Runner not inherently funny in the first place? I think the concept of a guy weaving through the trees cursing like a sailor could be terrifying if handled in a certain way. After all, there's a moment in the Search and Rescue Woods creepypasta where a buzzy voice can be heard deep in the woods saying "meow", and that makes me just about shit my pants thinking about it. I just think the way the Runner was handled overshot its mark into goofiness. It's also funny for Kirsty to just be like, "Yeah, the name Pinhead is stupid," but I can appreciate that morsel. I don't love the name being shoehorned into canon, so a jab at it is good fun for me.
Lastly, I want to talk about the cold man himself. I both enjoy and don't enjoy this new moniker for him. On the one hand, it rings a lot more ominously than "Pinhead", and I can accept it being an alternate name to "the Hell Priest". On the other hand, aren't the Cenobites supposed to be beyond concepts like "man" and "woman"? That and the idea that they can age is bizarre to me. I also don't buy that the Hell Priest in particular is after Kirsty without any of his order alongside him. It's just a strange portrayal that kind of takes away from the otherworldly mystique of his first depictions.
I did like some things about the book! When the prose worked, it worked, and there are some lines that were pretty sick. I can't help but couch that in complaints, though, since the lines that did not work felt like something you'd find on an atheist-themed Etsy page. Oh well, it was a short, bizarre read that didn't overstay its welcome and was kind of entertaining in its own way.
The writing also had its ups and downs. There were some passages that made it feel good to read, like when you're cutting with scissors and you finally hit that glide. Other parts, though, particularly some of the dialogue, made me chuckle in a way that did not feel intentional. I don't think "That's what you get for bringing a gun to a hammer fight" was the banger line the author intended it to be. Reviewer @catsbooks_uk called it a fanfiction - that hits the nail on the (Pin)head for me. That's exactly what the prose felt like sometimes, as well as certain plot choices. The daughter of the cold man?? That's a textbook creepypasta OC.
Let me also land back on the idea of certain parts of the book making me chuckle. Humor, when used correctly, makes good horror in my opinion; you need that levity for the scary parts to really feel scary. I'm not sure it hit for me here, though. Some of this was not intentional; when the Runner appeared, I'd had my text-to-speech app set to pause for one second between sentence-ending punctuation, so it read like, "FUCK. FUCK. FUCK," and it was giving me a fit. But also, is the Runner not inherently funny in the first place? I think the concept of a guy weaving through the trees cursing like a sailor could be terrifying if handled in a certain way. After all, there's a moment in the Search and Rescue Woods creepypasta where a buzzy voice can be heard deep in the woods saying "meow", and that makes me just about shit my pants thinking about it. I just think the way the Runner was handled overshot its mark into goofiness. It's also funny for Kirsty to just be like, "Yeah, the name Pinhead is stupid," but I can appreciate that morsel. I don't love the name being shoehorned into canon, so a jab at it is good fun for me.
Lastly, I want to talk about the cold man himself. I both enjoy and don't enjoy this new moniker for him. On the one hand, it rings a lot more ominously than "Pinhead", and I can accept it being an alternate name to "the Hell Priest". On the other hand, aren't the Cenobites supposed to be beyond concepts like "man" and "woman"? That and the idea that they can age is bizarre to me. I also don't buy that the Hell Priest in particular is after Kirsty without any of his order alongside him. It's just a strange portrayal that kind of takes away from the otherworldly mystique of his first depictions.
I did like some things about the book! When the prose worked, it worked, and there are some lines that were pretty sick. I can't help but couch that in complaints, though, since the lines that did not work felt like something you'd find on an atheist-themed Etsy page. Oh well, it was a short, bizarre read that didn't overstay its welcome and was kind of entertaining in its own way.
Boring but here you are some quotes:
God is a well with no water to which pilgrims who are already damned come to drink.
This is the place where I realized I am nothing, nor ever was, and as a result, I decided to finally expose the charade.
"Jesus wept" [...] "And I'd He weeps for your pain, why not heal it? If He wishes you were not so weak and easily tempted, why not give you strength? If He hears your cries, why is He silent?"
Time became a lie, and sound an elegy.
dark
slow-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes