A review by jesse421
Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three by Clive Barker

3.0

Fun enough stuff. You can see Barker's writing has influenced a lot of horror writers, and I would guess opened the door (or at least popularized) a lot of taboo topics in horror writing. And when I first read this, maybe 15 years ago, I remember feeling like the overall tone of - "dark horniness," I'll call it - feeling a bit scandalous. Not sure if it was my age, or the times (or both). But reading it now, it's easier to avoid any sort of "shock" value and focus on the stories themselves.  Like any collection of short stories there are highs and lows here but ultimately it's a pretty breezy, easy to read collection. There's a few psychological stories in here, but the majority of them revolve around a central monster or supernatural thing - which to me is more fun in a short story setting. Feels more straightforward, and almost quaint. Sometimes the real Monster isn't us, it's actually a Monster. That's not to say there isn't subtext to these stories, but sometimes it's nice to just read about a creature ripping people apart or whatever.