The focus of this blog is Leonbergers but sometimes I post about books that are not about Leonbergers but that I want to promote. Since Halloween is coming up, I decided to post a review for one of the most disturbing horror books that I’ve ever read, Books of Blood. Books of Blood is an anthology divided into six volumes. This book is volume one to three. If “Clive Barker” does not ring a bell, his novel Hellbound Heart was the foundation for the Hellraiser series of eleven movies (with Pinhead). Books of Blood spawned seven movies. I read the paperback version.
I should mention that the stories in Books of Blood are very imaginative but disturbing and macabre and should not be read by children, and perhaps not even by young adults. There are bizarre depictions of violent deaths as well as some sexual themes. Other than demons, Clive Barker’s books do not include many standard horror characters such as vampires or zombies, and his stories also tend to be unique.
- Paperback – Published October 1, 1998, by Berkley, ISBN-10 : 0425165582, ISBN-13 : 978-0425165584, 507 pages, Item Weight : 1.1 pounds, Dimensions : 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches, it cost $13.13 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
- Hardcover – Published January 1, 1999, by Little, Brown, ISBN-10 : 0316853674, ISBN-13 : 978-0316853675, 512 pages, Item Weight : 1.26 pounds, it costs $32.10 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Amazon’s description of the book
Rediscover the true meaning of fear in this collection of horror stories from New York Times bestselling author Clive Barker.
“The most provocative tales of terror ever published.”—The Washington Post
Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we’re opened, we’re red…
With the publication of Books of Blood, Clive Barker became an overnight literary sensation. His tour de force collection of brilliantly disturbing tales demonstrated a genius for dark invention that rivaled Poe and Sade. He was hailed by Stephen King as “the future of horror,” and won both the British and World Fantasy Awards.
Now, with his numerous bestsellers, graphic novels, and hit movies like the Hellraiser films, Clive Barker has become an industry unto himself. It is his powerful writing style and arresting imagery that have made Books of Blood a classic—and Clive Barker a cult phenomenon.
Below is my review written for this blog post. I have not yet written a review for Amazon.
Simon McNeal is a quack pretending to be a medium. He is pretending to channel the spirits in a house that he claims is haunted. Unbeknownst to Simon, the house is haunted for real, and it is located on the highway of the dead and haunted by thousands of spirits. His fakery angers the spirits of the dead who have real stories to tell, horrific stories. They capture him and carve their stories into his skin using sharp little needles. These stories constitute the rest of the book. The concept of the Books of Blood brings to mind Ray Bradbury’s the Illustrated Man whose skin also told stories but in the form of pictures.
This book features 16 stories, and as I mentioned, are the foundation for several movies including Candyman, Lord of Illusions, Dread, Rawhead Rex, and Midnight Meat Train. The stories are disturbing and sometimes gross and they are gloomy and sad. In one story “Son of Celluloid”, a cancer tumor survives its host and gains sentience as well as psychic powers. It attacks people and implants bizarre hallucinations in people’s minds, leading to some very strange and gruesome deaths.
In another story “Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament”, a woman acquires extremely powerful telekinetic powers after a suicide attempt. After Jacqueline’s husband admits to an affair, which he blames on her gloomy personality in the same breath, she gets so upset that she screams at him to “shut up”, which causes him to bite his own tongue off. This gives her ideas, and she decides to take revenge on bad men. Working as a prostitute she lures men to their own death. Let’s just say there is not much left of them when she is done with them, thus no crime to investigate.
Clive Barker mixes the gory, the disgusting and the brutal with good story telling. His imagination is macabre but amazing. Clive Barker uses vivid depictions and our fear of pain and death, and the fear of abandonment, and the losing of our humanity, to create dread and fear as we read these short stories. Books of Blood is a collection of stories for real horror fans, and it may not be for those looking for more lighthearted horror. For that we have Stephen King. They are both great story tellers, but Clive Barker pushes the macabre further than Stephen King does, and his stories are darker and less hopeful. I highly recommend Books of Blood to real horror fans but maybe not to everyone.
Leonberger Life 
Ooohhh thank you for sharing this one Thomas!! A must read for sure! A spiritual charlatan who gets his bad energy thrown back at him in a horrific way?! Count me in! 😊
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Thank you Laura. If you are a real horror fan then it is for you. I haven’t seen Clive Barker in the news much lately but about 20-30 years ago he was almost as famous as Stephen King.
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This sounds like a terrific read, Thimas. Thank you for sharing.
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Yes if you are into dark horror. Thank you so much Jan.
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Excellent review, Thomas. I try to avoid horror in all its forms, as I’ve seen plenty in my life. But I appreciate great writers, no matter the genre. Thank you for sharing. 🌞
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You should probably avoid this one then. It is one of those macabre horror books ever written. Thank you so much Gwen.
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I’m glad you reviewed this so I didn’t unexpectedly stumble on Clive’s book. His name is familiar–I might have picked it up. Now, I won’t! Your review is excellent and welcomed, Thomas.
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Thank you so much Jacqui. It is certainly not for everyone. I can enjoy regular horror as well as this more macabre kind, but it can be too much for me too. It is pretty dark and bizarre reading. But for those who can stomach it, this is a masterpiece.
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Great review, Thomas. Sounds like a good Halloween read!
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Yes if you can stomach this kind dark and macabre horror, it is a great Halloween read.
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Funny, back when I was writing horror in the early 90s I got compared to Clive Barker a lot. I remember one rejection letter my agent received that said something like “well written and uncompromising horror, but not everyone wants to read The Books of Blood.” I was like, well, apparently somebody does! Sigh. (I did eventually find a publisher for that particular book [on my own, without any help from the agent], but they subsequently got acquired and then went out of business. Sigh again.)
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Wow being compared to Clive Barker is a pretty big compliment. Hundreds of thousands of reviews, 20+ movies, several million books sold, how can that be “but not everyone wants to read….”. You had some unluck with agents and publishers.
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Oh if you think that’s bad, someday you should read my four-part series “The Eclipse Saga” about the time I almost got a comic book series off the ground … 😁
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I’ve seen some of your books on Amazon. They look very interesting. I just haven’t gotten to them yet.
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And sorry about your rejections. I don’t think agents always make good decisions and I believe it is very difficult to find one that is good exactly for your genre/style etc. Self publishing is always another route.
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I love hearing about books & authors I haven’t heard of – great post!
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Thank you da-AL. He was very famous for a horror author for a while but you have to be able to stomach his macabre style.
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I like Clive Barker, for the most part. I read this book a long time ago and watched the movie. Very creepy.
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I agree his books are very creepy. He has a macabre style. I assume you are thinking about the book Hellbound Heart and the movie Hellraiser, his best known movie. However, his stories spawned dozen of movie.
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Hi Thomas, I do like good horror and this sounds very clever. I will add it to my long TBR and look forward to reading it.
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Sorry for this very late reply Robbie. It is a great book for Halloween if you are into horror, which I assume you are since you’ve written horror yourself. He tends to sometimes be a bit disgusting/graphic though.
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I gathered that from your review. Thanks Thomas
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Thank you Robbie
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It’s an old post. Late to chime in. My curiosity is how a man of technology is also a man of spirit.
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I certainly don’t mind you reading old posts. This was one of my Halloween posts, a very scary horror book.
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