A review by queenrat
Imajica by Clive Barker

1.0

It seems to be fashionable for modern horror writers to assume that, in order for a book to be edgy/scary, every detail must be depressing, disgusting, or some combination thereof, even when such detail borders on crass and does nothing for the plot. There is no need, for example, to include a scene where the main character watches television naked and picks the crumbs of his late-night snack out of his nether regions. No need. But "Imajica" is one long extraneous detail, an 800+ page behemoth that could have easily been accomplished in 200 pages with the amount of actual material here. The motivations for the characters make no sense and are in fact often counter-intuitive. And thank God this version came with a glossary; otherwise, I'd have given up about a fourth of the way through.

It's not godawful-- Clive Barker's prose is well-constructed, and I did manage to get through it. During the parts where things actually happen, you might even have a hard time putting it down. But those parts, sadly, are few and far between.