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mamimitanaka 's review for:
Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three
by Clive Barker
A bit of a premature review since I haven't finished the collection yet (I have three tales to go), but I think I've read enough to cast judgment. My main takeaway is that Barker has a deliriously immense imagination but his prose can be a little dry and static at its worst, but at its best it matches the tone of his imagery itself, zipping along with the frenetic and panicked pace of a feverish nightmare in stories like the opener and "Rawhead Rex". He also, like many of the male writers of his time, is *really fucking weird* about women - please for the love of god stop suspiciously bringing up rape every few pages - so that kind of hinders it a bit as well. Nonetheless, it's clear Barker is immensely skilled especially in the realms of horror fiction, and despite my earlier apprehensions I think at this point he's managed to sell me on his specific strand of macabre ethos.