A review by tasharobinson
In the Flesh by Clive Barker

4.0

Not sure what possessed me to read all five of the other Books of Blood volumes back in 2013-2014 and leave this one for last, but maybe I was saving the first story in this collection, "The Forbidden" until I'd seen the film version, Candyman. Which I'm glad I did — Candyman seems like a more thorough exploration of the same ideas, and a more character-and-metaphor-rich version. But the original story is also strikingly well-described and well-paced, and the other three stories here all had their separate appeal. "The Madonna," about a strange thing living in an abandoned pool, veers back and forth between the mundane and the uncanny in an interesting way. "Babel's Children" barely reads like a Clive Barker story to me — no gore, no unspeakable Lovecraftian evils, just a wild and enjoyable fable about who watches over the world. That one went particularly quickly, since it's just a sort of antic adventure with a deep and justified cynicism about the world. "In The Flesh" is much more traditional Barker, set in a prison and suffused with dread and elaborate description of warping bodies and terrible fates, and it's written in a heavier and richer style than the others. Overall, a reminder of the wide variety in Barker's early fiction, and the pretty shocking creativity he brought to his work.