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Monday, October 09, 2006


Books of Blood Volume Three by Clive Barker

I enjoyed the final of Barker’s Books of Blood. But there’s no genius here. Just a solid ability to tell a sordid tale. Few of these stories really make it hard to stay awake night; these aren’t run of the mill boogeymen coming to a house like yours. They’re exotic, highly supernatural events which wholly transform (usually by ending) the lives of anyone who has the misfortune of getting too near them. This slight focus shift makes the Books of Blood original at the least, and downright interesting at its best, most depraved moments.

From the gay male prostitute Pygmalion story, to the tale of a Girl & friends washed up on a literal island of the seadead, there’s little here that’s mundane.

This is good stuff, and I’d enjoy trying my hand at writing this kind of thing sometime. I want to go pick up whatever Barker’s latest novel is now, to see if his mastery has increased along with his readership and fame.

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