A review by jackroche
Books of Blood: Volume One by Clive Barker

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Read out of order. Unfortunate, since I’d have loved to have closed with “In the Hills, the Cities”, which instead I started with because I (correctly) heard it was the strongest. I prefer that one’s uncanny, cosmic depiction of the dichotomy between the fragility of the flesh and the pliability of the mind, or “Pig Blood Blues” hard-boiled, grisly riff on Lord of the Flies, which I read second, to “Midnight Meat Train’s” clunky, smug NYC-slander or “The Yattering and Jack’s” winking subversion. The title story is lightweight as a framing device, but his writing is at its most elemental and therefore its best. Today I concluded with “Sex, Death and Starshine”, which I certainly enjoyed more than the other recent ones. It has a grim poetry about it, and the lamentations of the realities of the creating world feel earned coming from Barker.

I don’t think the stories form a particularly cohesive whole, but for that I still think I want to check out one of Barker’s longer works.