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mrwilliams's review against another edition
5.0
Delightful, twisted, and occasionally hilarious. How did it take me this long to read any of Barker’s ‘Books of Blood’?
deadendprose's review against another edition
4.0
Sexy and sublime. This man knows how to work a body. The subtle manipulations Barker employs against his reader are undeniably sensual and, above all, starkly honest. He never lies to you, nor does he need to. As you peel back each page, lured in by the promise of newer, juicier details, layer upon layer of narrative is uncovered in a delightful strip tease of revelation.
Excited to see how the next volume keeps me on the edge.
Excited to see how the next volume keeps me on the edge.
oozeslimejelly's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
shauny_32's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed Clive Barker’s novella, The Hellbound Heart, which was adapted into the film, Hellraiser, so I thought I’d check out his highly regarded anthology series, Books of Blood
The Book of Blood:
A great introduction to the stories that follow. It’s essentially a haunted house tale. Effectively creepy.
4/5
The Midnight Meat Train:
New York subway passengers are terrorised by a serial killer, who leaves his victims butchered in the literal sense. Vivid descriptions and a memorably nightmarish world.
3.5/5
The Yattering and Jack
Very entertaining and original. Like the previous stories, it’s well written. It’s also surprisingly funny. Compelling, with a great concept, it’s my favourite in this collection.
4/5
Pig Blood Blues:
In a young offender’s institute, aka a borstal, a beast from within. Great characters with some shocking moments. Think Lord of the Flies meets Scum.
3.5/5
Sex, Death, and Starshine
Easily the weakest of the collection, this story did very little for me. An interesting experiment with some icky necrophilia but ultimately, it fails to deliver.
1.5/5
In The Hills, The Cities
The final story is his most serious. It features an interesting monster. Symbolically strong. Good, but I think I prefer Barker when he’s less serious.
3/5
Conclusion:
Overall, a fine collection with a lot of great ideas. Some work, some don’t. It’s not as good as I hoped, but it’s still worth a read, and I’m looking forward to reading The Forbidden (Candyman), and Dread.
3.5/5
The Book of Blood:
A great introduction to the stories that follow. It’s essentially a haunted house tale. Effectively creepy.
4/5
The Midnight Meat Train:
New York subway passengers are terrorised by a serial killer, who leaves his victims butchered in the literal sense. Vivid descriptions and a memorably nightmarish world.
3.5/5
The Yattering and Jack
Very entertaining and original. Like the previous stories, it’s well written. It’s also surprisingly funny. Compelling, with a great concept, it’s my favourite in this collection.
4/5
Pig Blood Blues:
In a young offender’s institute, aka a borstal, a beast from within. Great characters with some shocking moments. Think Lord of the Flies meets Scum.
3.5/5
Sex, Death, and Starshine
Easily the weakest of the collection, this story did very little for me. An interesting experiment with some icky necrophilia but ultimately, it fails to deliver.
1.5/5
In The Hills, The Cities
The final story is his most serious. It features an interesting monster. Symbolically strong. Good, but I think I prefer Barker when he’s less serious.
3/5
Conclusion:
Overall, a fine collection with a lot of great ideas. Some work, some don’t. It’s not as good as I hoped, but it’s still worth a read, and I’m looking forward to reading The Forbidden (Candyman), and Dread.
3.5/5
persypie's review against another edition
5.0
“Autumn is Hell’s season.”
A superb collection of horrifying tales from the Master of Darkness, Clive Barker. My favorite of the bunch was Pig Blood Blues. Every story was disturbing, original, and such a treat to read.
I can’t wait to dive into the other books of blood.
I wish I would have captured short reviews for each story read in this collection (as is now tradition) but alas, I did not. I’ll compile the ones I do have here.
+++++++++++++++++++
INDIVIDUAL REVIEWS
+++++++++++++++++++
The Yattering and Jack ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Let there be blood. Let there be agony. They’d all break.”
A delightful take on a poltergeist story with a bit of a surprise at the end. It gives new meaning to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
+++
Pig Blood Blues ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“This is the state of the beast—to eat and be eaten.”
Suspenseful, unsettling, and every bit the horror masterclass I’ve come to expect from Clive Barker. This story might be short but it certainly packs a punch.
A little reminiscent of Lord of the Flies?
+++
Midnight Meat Train ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Does the beef salute the butcher as it throbs to its knees?”
This is another twisted tale from master horror writer Clive Barker. It feels like it was inspired by aspects of the Cthulhu mythos—the Old Gods, the macabre, and the mouth of madness that swallows the human mind when faced with the unknown.
I’ll never look at New York City the same way again.
A superb collection of horrifying tales from the Master of Darkness, Clive Barker. My favorite of the bunch was Pig Blood Blues. Every story was disturbing, original, and such a treat to read.
I can’t wait to dive into the other books of blood.
I wish I would have captured short reviews for each story read in this collection (as is now tradition) but alas, I did not. I’ll compile the ones I do have here.
+++++++++++++++++++
INDIVIDUAL REVIEWS
+++++++++++++++++++
The Yattering and Jack ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Let there be blood. Let there be agony. They’d all break.”
A delightful take on a poltergeist story with a bit of a surprise at the end. It gives new meaning to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
+++
Pig Blood Blues ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“This is the state of the beast—to eat and be eaten.”
Suspenseful, unsettling, and every bit the horror masterclass I’ve come to expect from Clive Barker. This story might be short but it certainly packs a punch.
A little reminiscent of Lord of the Flies?
+++
Midnight Meat Train ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Does the beef salute the butcher as it throbs to its knees?”
This is another twisted tale from master horror writer Clive Barker. It feels like it was inspired by aspects of the Cthulhu mythos—the Old Gods, the macabre, and the mouth of madness that swallows the human mind when faced with the unknown.
I’ll never look at New York City the same way again.
obsidian_blue's review against another edition
4.0
So I have been meaning to read more of Clive Barker's stories this year, so I hope to get to the rest of the volumes before Halloween. Volume 1 showcases how the books of blood were created (a creepy origin story) and we have one of the characters who starts to read the stories that were left behind. I had some favorites, and some that I scratched my head at and moved on. I should maybe have given it 3 stars, but heck it's Clive Barker so I rounded it up to 4 stars.
"The Book of Blood" (5 stars)-Apparently faking psychic phenomena is not a smart thing to do cause sometimes the dead come knocking. The story itself reminded me a little bit of Hell House though what comes after is pure Barker. What was really cool about this story though is that it is the origin of all of the stories that come after. What happens to the fake psychic is that his own skin is literally used by the dead to tell their stories. And all of the stories afterwards are stories that are written on his skin.
"The Midnight Meat Train" (5 stars)-Can I say that I saw the movie a few years back and loved it? I was happy that the movie/book differed slightly, but I enjoyed both of them though. A regular office worker named Leo who comes to New York is slowly becoming dissatisfied by what he sees around him. While that is going on, there are reports of a butcher in New York killing people on the subway. The story then transitions to a man named Mahogany who is definitely not a nice guy at all. We get inside his head a bit and the racism that lives there was enough to make me go ick a few times. I did not feel bad at all with what happens in the end. Certain parts of the story are really gross though.
"The Yattering and Jack" (4 stars)-I was so confused by this story at first. It takes a while to get going. But you have a man named Jack that the residents of Hell are very interested in claiming.
"Pig Blood Blues" (2 stars)-I didn't like this one at all. I re-read it twice too, but I feel like I was missing some important context. I also am now kind of scared of pigs. So there's that.
"Sex, Death, and Starshine" (3 stars)-There needed to be more set-up for this one. I want to know how some of the characters even came to be, why the heck they were so focused on acting, and why in the world would the dead even be interested in a play. It was a strange story, just needed a bit more oomph to it.
"In the Hills, the Cities" (1 star)- I really could not get into this one at all. It was so strange and bizarre. I think it sort of reminded me a bit of Nightbreed, but that was about it. I I don't get why two cities would combine into two separate beings, and I don't get why one would then go mad. How did no one hear the thing moving or see it? It was a let down as the final story in this volume.
jackroche's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
3.5
Read out of order. Unfortunate, since I’d have loved to have closed with “In the Hills, the Cities”, which instead I started with because I (correctly) heard it was the strongest. I prefer that one’s uncanny, cosmic depiction of the dichotomy between the fragility of the flesh and the pliability of the mind, or “Pig Blood Blues” hard-boiled, grisly riff on Lord of the Flies, which I read second, to “Midnight Meat Train’s” clunky, smug NYC-slander or “The Yattering and Jack’s” winking subversion. The title story is lightweight as a framing device, but his writing is at its most elemental and therefore its best. Today I concluded with “Sex, Death and Starshine”, which I certainly enjoyed more than the other recent ones. It has a grim poetry about it, and the lamentations of the realities of the creating world feel earned coming from Barker.
I don’t think the stories form a particularly cohesive whole, but for that I still think I want to check out one of Barker’s longer works.
I don’t think the stories form a particularly cohesive whole, but for that I still think I want to check out one of Barker’s longer works.