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A review by neko_cam
Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three by Clive Barker
3.0
This edition includes volumes one through three of the 'Books of Blood', a collection of stories ranging from the overtly grotesque to the liminally disturbing but always maintaining Barker's distinctively pulpy, visceral style. For brevity, I will only highlight several of my favourites from the set.
'Yattering and Jack' concerns a demon tasked with driving to insanity a man seemingly too inane to affect. The characterisation of the demon inspires sympathy and the whole story is a delectably strange sort of comedy.
'In the Hills, The Cities' ... I can't even. Even amongst the rest of these stories of incredible oddity it stands out as memorable, with provincial townships whose occupants rituistically lash themselves together to form giants to do battle. Beyond that, it's the moments of insight into the cities as an organism that are truly striking.
'Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testement' is, in its own strange way, a story of female empowerment. Aside from the typically gorey and sexualised violence, it's the way that Jacqueline's power grows to affect her while she sleeps that was most unsettling.
'The Skins of the Fathers' concerns a small desert town and the demon creatures that harangue its citizens every dozen or so years. It's the stark contrast with which the human storie occur amongst this madness that make it memorable.
'Rawhead Rex' is FANTASTIC. More even than the destruction wrought by the titular titan, I loved the Lovecraftian way that its very form inspires awe and madness in almost equal parts among those who encounter it - and who survive long enough to react at all.
'The Body Politic' is brilliantly farsical. It depicts the most troublesome of rebellions; that of ones own body parts. The resolution of the main plot is a little bit disappointing, but the final scene of the story compensates nicely.
Quite unlike most others in the collection, 'The Last Illusion' is more adventure than horror. It concerns a mad dash to have the remains of a famous magician cremated before his body and soul can be claimed by the infernal beings with whom he made the deal to gain his powers.
If there was a 'Best of the Books of Blood', consisting of these and a few other particularly good stories, it would be easy to recommend. As it stands, the collection is closer to 1/3 great, 1/3 merely good, and 1/3 sadly average. As such, I would not recommend the collection in its entirity but to an established Barker fan.
'Yattering and Jack' concerns a demon tasked with driving to insanity a man seemingly too inane to affect. The characterisation of the demon inspires sympathy and the whole story is a delectably strange sort of comedy.
'In the Hills, The Cities' ... I can't even. Even amongst the rest of these stories of incredible oddity it stands out as memorable, with provincial townships whose occupants rituistically lash themselves together to form giants to do battle. Beyond that, it's the moments of insight into the cities as an organism that are truly striking.
'Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testement' is, in its own strange way, a story of female empowerment. Aside from the typically gorey and sexualised violence, it's the way that Jacqueline's power grows to affect her while she sleeps that was most unsettling.
'The Skins of the Fathers' concerns a small desert town and the demon creatures that harangue its citizens every dozen or so years. It's the stark contrast with which the human storie occur amongst this madness that make it memorable.
'Rawhead Rex' is FANTASTIC. More even than the destruction wrought by the titular titan, I loved the Lovecraftian way that its very form inspires awe and madness in almost equal parts among those who encounter it - and who survive long enough to react at all.
'The Body Politic' is brilliantly farsical. It depicts the most troublesome of rebellions; that of ones own body parts. The resolution of the main plot is a little bit disappointing, but the final scene of the story compensates nicely.
Quite unlike most others in the collection, 'The Last Illusion' is more adventure than horror. It concerns a mad dash to have the remains of a famous magician cremated before his body and soul can be claimed by the infernal beings with whom he made the deal to gain his powers.
If there was a 'Best of the Books of Blood', consisting of these and a few other particularly good stories, it would be easy to recommend. As it stands, the collection is closer to 1/3 great, 1/3 merely good, and 1/3 sadly average. As such, I would not recommend the collection in its entirity but to an established Barker fan.