A review by shecamefromouterspace
The Damnation Game by Clive Barker

3.75

     Like all Clive Barker stories, reading The Damnation Game was a unique experience. Barker has a wonderfully twisted imagination, and skillfully crafts worlds and plots that are bizarre and distinctly gruesome. Gorgeous and descriptive prose lends this novel an eerie, dreamlike (or nightmarish) mood that crescendos in intensity towards the last third or so of the story. While not perfectly executed, this was a solid first novel, and a testament to Barker’s talent as a storyteller.

     The story starts off at a slow pace. As Barker introduces the characters and establishes the setting, the extensively descriptive language makes the plot move at a snail’s pace, with brief moments of intense action thrown in here and there to keep the reader engaged. At first, this uneven pacing seemed sloppy to me, especially since the complexity of the plot left me with so many unanswered questions. 

     However, towards the end of the story, I was hooked. Everything comes together for an unexpected and immensely satisfying payoff. All questions are answered, and the intense brutality of the final showdown is worth the wait. 

     As for the characters, I found them to also be uneven in their quality. My favorite characters were the antagonists. Mamoulian - while representing the pinnacle of evil - is almost sympathetic in his weariness of life, his fear of dying alone. His henchman Breer is one of the most repulsively horrifying characters I have ever read. And Barker’s characterization of the two American evangelists was spot-on and darkly hilarious.

     Unfortunately, the protagonist (Marty) and love interest (Carys) are both pretty boring and flat. Their “romance” feels perfunctory; there is no buildup or chemistry, just sudden proclamations of love after literally having sex one time. It reminds me very much of the romances in Stephen King books; superfluous excuses for sex and nudity. 

     Which brings me to what I liked least about this book...all the weird sexual scenes. Most ‘80s horror stories love to throw in unnecessary scenes of nudity and sex to tantalize the male audience. The Damnation Game is no exception, with perverse scenes that I will concede are supposed to be disturbing. However, they are disturbing in a way that elicits disgust, not fear. This conflation of sex/violence is gross, and not to my taste at all.

     Overall, this book was worth the read. Barker definitely has better works to choose from, but this was a strong first effort. 
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