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leighanneslit 's review for:
The Great and Secret Show
by Clive Barker
Let me start by saying that I have loved everything I have read by Barker, up until right now. I really struggled with this book, for a few different reasons and I almost DNF'd, but I pushed through.
To start, I loved the concept of this book. The idea of quiddity and the dream sea was fascinating to me and truly creative, but the execution really lacked in my opinion.
The writing was Barker and was not bad, but I had a hard time feeling anything at all for the characters and it took me quite some time to even wrap my head around the concept. It was fantastic and out there and very Barker. There were moments of horror and body horror, but there were also some things that just felt out of place. This book is not for the faint of heart. There were many gratuitous sex scenes which normally I wouldn't care about but there were some inserted for shock value and added nothing to this book which was already pushing 700 pages.
The concept alone is what kept me from truly hating this book. I have a mission to read all of Barker's work or I probably would get rid of the sequel which I own.
I do seem to be a minority with this book, most Barker fans loved it, it just wasn't for me.
To start, I loved the concept of this book. The idea of quiddity and the dream sea was fascinating to me and truly creative, but the execution really lacked in my opinion.
The writing was Barker and was not bad, but I had a hard time feeling anything at all for the characters and it took me quite some time to even wrap my head around the concept. It was fantastic and out there and very Barker. There were moments of horror and body horror, but there were also some things that just felt out of place. This book is not for the faint of heart. There were many gratuitous sex scenes which normally I wouldn't care about but there were some inserted for shock value and added nothing to this book which was already pushing 700 pages.
The concept alone is what kept me from truly hating this book. I have a mission to read all of Barker's work or I probably would get rid of the sequel which I own.
I do seem to be a minority with this book, most Barker fans loved it, it just wasn't for me.