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The Hellbound Heart

3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 · rating details · 12,454 ratings · 402 reviews

Clive Barker is widely acknowledged as the master of nerve-shattering horror. The Hellbound Heart is one of his best, one of the most dead-frightening stories you are likely to ever read, a story of the human heart and all the great terrors and ecstasies within. It was also the book behind the cult horror film, Hellraiser.In a quiet house on a quiet street Frank and Julia...more

ebook, 174 pages

Published November 24th 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published November 1st 1981)

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Feb 28, 2013 mark monday rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horrortime, rain-man-reviews

Please allow me to introduce myself.

Actually, let's save the introductions for when I meet up with you later this evening, in the wee hours of the night.

First things first, as an inhabitant of the Dimension of Everlasting Pain I am not exactly a disinterested party when it comes to reviewing this novella. But I do feel I am able to provide a relatively unbiased review of this famous work, despite my intimate knowledge of all of the delightful and inspiring torture tableaux on display.

The Hellbound Heart is well-written, yes. The Hellbound Heart is a seminal modern horror classic, yes. The Hellbound Heart is thoughtful and charming and full of the types of cozy & tender scenarios that can be regularly found in my home dimension... yes, yes, and yes.

But I find that I have fallen prey to an embarrassingly modern predicament: I actually preferred the movie! This is rather shameful to admit. There is so much more potential for ambiguity and cruelty between the pages. However, in this case, I found the movie to be distinctly more visceral, ambiguous, and endearingly disturbing. My Lord and Master Pinhead is also better portrayed in the movie version; on the page he comes across as a quaint deus ex machina. Believe me when i say that in reality he is surely the opposite of both "quaint" and "deus"!

THIS PARAGRAPH IS A SPOILER, FOOLISH MORTAL:
I did find the idea that Frank the Id is literally putting on the respectable, boring, bourgeois skin of his brother Rory to be lovely and amusing. But to be perfectly honest, this entrancing concept did not actually occur to me while reading The Hellbound Heart - but rather when I read about it here on Goodreads on a group thread. Perhaps I am not as subtle as I imagine myself to be.

Overall, despite there being nothing particularly wrong with this novella (and what does "right" and "wrong" mean anyway, in the grand scheme of things?)... I am rather sad to report that I found the writing in Barker's Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3 to be more absorbing, multi-leveled, and intriguing. Ah well, I suppose you can't win 'em all. Unless you are my Lord and Master Pinhead, of course. He always wins.

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Jan 15, 2013 BarkLessWagMore rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, horror

“No tears, please. It’s a waste of good suffering.”

My boyfriend made the mistake of allowing me to pick out the movie on one of our earliest dates way back in the late 80’s. I chose Hellraiser which was based upon this novella. I didn’t know he had never seen a horror movie and couldn’t figure out why he was so pale and quiet when we left the theater. The poor boy married me and his movie going experiences have never been the same and I’ll always have fond feelings for Hellraiser. Recently I re...more “No tears, please. It’s a waste of good suffering.”

My boyfriend made the mistake of allowing me to pick out the movie on one of our earliest dates way back in the late 80’s. I chose Hellraiser which was based upon this novella. I didn’t know he had never seen a horror movie and couldn’t figure out why he was so pale and quiet when we left the theater. The poor boy married me and his movie going experiences have never been the same and I’ll always have fond feelings for Hellraiser. Recently I realized I had never read the novella it was based upon and decided to check it out.

When Frank solves a puzzle box revealing a door to another world promising great pleasure he gets more than he bargained for. He thought he had prepared well, observing every ritual to welcome the Cenobites, experimenters in the higher reaches of pleasure. He was expecting oiled up women, eager for him to use as he wished to slake his lust but instead four scarred beings arrive and alter him in unimaginable ways.

Meanwhile Frank’s brother Rory and his wife Julia are moving into a decrepit old house. The house was willed to both Rory and Frank but since Frank is missing Rory assumes possession. Julia and Frank had something going on way back when, if you know what I mean, and Rory ignores her misgivings about the house and remains blissfully ignorant while reveling in Julia’s beauty. Kirsty, a friend of Rory’s who appears desperately in love with the man, drops by to help with the move and annoy Julia. I see a big, bloody love triangle in the making. I’ve also seen Hellraiser so I think know where some of this is going. Though I don’t remember Kirsty being a love interest, I thought she was the husband’s kid?

Julia starts to settle in but there’s one room with sealed blinds that unnerves but attracts her. She begins to spend time in the room alone. The room seems to demand it. One day Rory has an accident and bleeds on the rooms floorboards and soon after Julia is reunited with Frank and the blood bath begins.

This book is pretty cold and brutal, especially in its portrayal of super-bitch Julia, but there’s a very dark thread of humor running through it too. Imagine a slim beautiful woman chasing a flabby naked man around an empty room, sticking him with a knife as he flails away, refusing to keel over quickly. I don’t know about you but this image struck me as ridiculously humorous.

Kirsty, who is a home-wrecker sort in this book, stumbles upon Julia and Frank doing bad things (that’s what you get Miss Nosey-pants) and takes off running with The Box in her hands. Of course, she can’t leave well enough alone and has to fiddle with it. Now they’re all going to experience their fair share of suffering.

The cenobites are only in the story briefly early on and again at the end. Most of the grisly horror happens at the hands of Julia and Frank which makes all uglier. I vaguely remember the cenobites being a larger part of the movie but I prefer this version of the story better. (less)

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Jun 30, 2012 Luis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Clive Barker masterpiece, no tears, please.

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Jun 16, 2012 Kasia S. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I finally got to read the masterpiece that started it all and well… I was horrified all right to actually admit that I liked the Hellraiser movies better than this book. I have always loved the movies but I value books pillars above any celluloid so for me to enjoy the movie more is abnormal! The writing style is quite Gothic and lyrical, and I was glad to have seen the movies in order to make sure I wasn’t off the wall when it came to understanding the story which was dark, creepy and haunting...more I finally got to read the masterpiece that started it all and well… I was horrified all right to actually admit that I liked the Hellraiser movies better than this book. I have always loved the movies but I value books pillars above any celluloid so for me to enjoy the movie more is abnormal! The writing style is quite Gothic and lyrical, and I was glad to have seen the movies in order to make sure I wasn’t off the wall when it came to understanding the story which was dark, creepy and haunting but not as scary and sublime as I have imagined it to be. I was expecting hair rising gore form the Cenobites but come on, so few mentions of my favorite creepers … they were a mere shadow of their glorious sanguinary power, I did love the resounding bell sounds when they were around but the book skimmed though them and overall was tiny, something you can easily read on the couch during the afternoon in two hours. I definitely wanted more, I wanted meat and juice and to be freaked out.

The tale starts off with Frank Cotton ( nice pure name for a dirty bastard) and his bored pursuit of pleasure, we don’t find out much about what moves him and even when he finds the golden Lemarchand's box it all happens too fast to bring any suspense, he wants sick and twisted pleasure and he pays the ultimate price but I wanted to experience it with him and not just read about him being taken by the forces that made the puzzle and accept it, I wanted to be there front row. Luckily his brother’s wife Julia is a total psycho who has been entranced by Frank and who discovers that he still exists in a creepy old house except that he’s part of it in a way, so she finds him victims in her love sick way and bleeds them into the floors for him to absorb. The action in the story is mainly though her and the noisy next door neighbor who gets involved in business that has nothing do with her. I won’t say more for those who want surprises but I expected a bit more, yes I gave this book four stars because it’s Barker but he has much improved since this book, and the series is quite magnificent and he did come up with the whole theme which I will always be a huge fan of, I just wanted more out of the book, I felt like it whet my appetite but never fed me… oh well, I always have the movies I guess!

- Kasia S.

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Nov 03, 2010 Cara Murphy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-supernatural, bought-new, reviewed

The Hellbound Heart is a novella, and a short one at that, but it packs a lot into it's 128 pages. The synopsis on the back cover sets the scene for a dark exploration of the pursuit of pleasure... and how there is always a price to pay.

The principle players are Frank, his brother Rory, married to Julia, and Kirsty. Frank is a total hedonist, living his life in the pursuit of pleasure, excitement and adventure. On solving the puzzle of the Lemarchand box Frank finds much more than he could ever...more The Hellbound Heart is a novella, and a short one at that, but it packs a lot into it's 128 pages. The synopsis on the back cover sets the scene for a dark exploration of the pursuit of pleasure... and how there is always a price to pay.

The principle players are Frank, his brother Rory, married to Julia, and Kirsty. Frank is a total hedonist, living his life in the pursuit of pleasure, excitement and adventure. On solving the puzzle of the Lemarchand box Frank finds much more than he could ever have imagined, and it is here we are introduced to the Cenobites. For anyone who has seen any of the Hellraiser films, the grotesque imagery of the hierophants of the Order of the Gash will be familiar, although they are only briefly described here. However, Barker uses his skill with words to paint a frightening picture of the ultimate in depravity in a few short paragraphs.

I found both the female characters to be the most interesting. Julia is presented as a beautiful woman who I felt uses her beauty to hide the fact that she has little else to offer the world. She comes across as shallow and almost devoid of emotion, yet after one brief sexual encounter with Frank on the eve of her wedding to his brother she is willing to do anything to ‘rescue’ Frank from the Cenobites. This did not work for me as I found it difficult to accept that Julia would go against all social mores and act in the way she did for someone like Frank. But being bored with her life with Rory and having little else to do other than act the role of dutiful wife, she broke with every moral code to help Frank. It was gratifying to read what happens to her in the end though.

Kirsty, on the other hand, was an enigma. Her relationship to Rory (and thus to Frank) was never clearly defined… was she family, a neighbour or a close friend? The contrast between the two women is marked:
“They had little in common: Julia the sweet, the beautiful, the winner of glances and kisses, and Kirsty the girl with the pale handshake, whose eyes were only ever as bright as Julia’s before or after tears. She had long ago decided that life was unfair.”
I gained the impression that Kirsty had an unrequited love for Rory, which may go some way to explain her actions later in the book. Yet, in the early chapters, she is described as “a hindrance more than a help; her dreamy, perpetually defeated manner set Julia’s teeth on edge”. Indeed I found her passivity and social awkwardness irritating until she draws on some hitherto unforeseen inner strength in the final denouement, thus redeeming herself in my eyes.

Having seen the film Hellraiser before reading The Hellbound Heart I was surprised at some of the differences. In the screen version Rory becomes Larry and Kirsty is Larry’s daughter. While the movie follows the book fairly closely for the most part, I expected Pinhead to feature as prominently as he did on screen. Instead, he is reduced to one brief appearance:
“Its voice, unlike that of its companion, was light and breathy – the voice of an excited girl. Every inch of its head had been tattooed with an intricate grid, and at every intersection of horizontal and vertical axes a jewelled pin driven through to the bone. Its tongue was similarly decorated”. As a horror story, The Hellbound Heart could have benefitted from more involvement of the Cenobites, something Clive Barker must have agreed with when working on Hellraiser, given that the Cenobites are much more prominent in the movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed the pace of the book. The Hellbound Heart may be a short novella, but it grips from the outset and the fast action never loses momentum. Clive Barker’s writing is wonderful. He chooses his words skilfully, never losing the plot amidst a mire of overly descriptive prose. Much is left to the reader’s imagination and given the nature of the Cenobites and of Frank’s experience, this is a good thing as it enhances the horror of the story. Certainly I found the short descriptions of Frank’s changing appearance unnerving and Kirsty’s final interaction with The Engineer was very creepy indeed. My only regret was that I had seen the film before reading the book as this meant I already had images of the Cenobites in my head. Being a short but captivating book, The Hellbound Heart is a perfect introduction to Clive Barker and his dark and twisted imagination. Best read with all the lights on though!

http://speculativebookreview.blogspot...(less)

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Nov 13, 2012 Tressa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, horror

I had been meaning to read this book for years, and recently saw it used at a store and bought it. I read it through in one day since it's a novella and is a gripping story.

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May 17, 2013 Garymundy21hotmail.com rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having watched the Hellraiser film about 5 years ago, I remember being dissapointed with it. It wasn't what I had anticipated at all. I've always thought it's worth another go however, and I felt that the book would be the best place to respark my interest.

I finished the book in 2 sessions, and certainly feel I made the right decision. The novella focuses more on the human characters than the Cenobites and this is actually to it's benefit as it's not full of cheesy one liners.

Vague memories of t...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Randolph Carter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, horror, strange-stories

Many people don't realize that this book is actually a parody; a commentary on the ever increasing thrills we post-moderns crave from our lives and even horror fiction, films, etc. Look up Barker's own comments if you don't believe me. In fact, Barker has never written a story more gut wrenching and extreme than Heart; some equal it, but none actually exceed it. The fact that it spawned an entire industry of graphic novels and films all predicated on the the goal of being ever more extreme is an...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Shawn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yet another example of a novel with such potential that was all squandered on vapid and empty characters. I read this book hoping it would be a redeeming light from the film Hellraiser but upon finishing it was really no different. The sad thing being I started to think that the film may have somewhat been an improvement over the book.

The main letdown in the book would be the Cenobites, or lack there of. I read the book hoping it would go into further detail about the Order of the Gash. The Ceno...more

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Dec 15, 2012 David Stephens rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Opening with a man's transference from the real world into a realm of pain and pleasure beyond imagination, Clive Barker's compact novella wastes no time pulling readers into a dark world of morbid indulgences. The story concerns Frank, the aforementioned man, who as a hedonist has exhausted the earth's store of pleasures. Looking for an even more exhilarating experience, he acquires Lemarchand's box, which has the ability to unleash horrifically scarred creatures known as Cenobites—"theologians...more Opening with a man's transference from the real world into a realm of pain and pleasure beyond imagination, Clive Barker's compact novella wastes no time pulling readers into a dark world of morbid indulgences. The story concerns Frank, the aforementioned man, who as a hedonist has exhausted the earth's store of pleasures. Looking for an even more exhilarating experience, he acquires Lemarchand's box, which has the ability to unleash horrifically scarred creatures known as Cenobites—"theologians of the Order of the Gash." The Cenobites have the ability to excite human senses in profound and excruciating ways, far beyond what Frank thought was possible.

Readers are soon after introduced to Frank's brother, Rory, and his graceful but callous wife, Julia. After they move into Frank and Rory's old house, they inadvertently give Frank a chance of escaping from his metaphysical torments. In order for Frank to escape the Cenobites, he needs copious amounts of blood, which Julia is all too willing to help procure after previously having a brief but powerful dalliance with him. As Julia provides victims for Frank, he becomes more powerful, and it comes down to Rory's friend Kirsty to stop him from reentering the world.

Barker certainly deserves points for creativity, creating some memorable monsters and slimy scenes of repugnance. He has a knack for embedding the sexual within passages of nasty carnage. Also, Barker knows just how to hook readers. After having read this years ago and having seen the movie (which sticks closely to the book), I still found myself quickly immersed in the story.

However, there are some problems as well. The characters are mostly unlikeable. Frank and Julia are clearly despicable, but even Rory comes off as a boorish lout. Unfortunately, readers don't get to learn enough about Kirsty, who could be the one likeable character. This makes it difficult to root for or feel too bad when anything unpleasant happens to them. There are also some flimsy plot devices used. The tenacious Frank tends to become weak and ineffective only in pursuit of Kirsty. One would also think a puzzle box that unleashed otherworldly demons would take some time to solve. Not only does Frank unlock it in a matter of hours, Kirsty unlocks it almost instantly.

My biggest problem, though, is how the characters react to their grisly situations. There are brief moments of disbelief when they stumble onto other worlds or half-formed degenerates, but they seem to accept and understand their surroundings rather quickly. This may be mostly due to the compressed story. I feel Barker has crammed what could have been a much more detailed and thorough novel into a shorter format. This doesn't allow for characters to react properly or have time to digest what they've experienced. A little more time for this digestion would have gone a long way.(less)

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Oct 16, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, short-stories, british, english, setting-1980s, goth, gay, gay-author, substance-abuse, adultery, domestic-abuse

I just wanted to read something that was as far away from Anna Karenina as possible. And this is it. What a blessed relief. Short, sweet and to the point. A central theme, Spartan cast of character, brevity is its watchword, and there's not an extraneous scene, word or action. Blissful.

The Hellbound Heart centres on sensuality versus morality. The main character Frank is a hedonist whose pursuit for every possible experience lead him to open a portal to a hell-like dimension. He thinks he's goin...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Eric May rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Clive Barker comes off as witty and unique as always. I'd definitely consider him the English father of modern horror, (whereas Stephen King would be the American one)and in this short, but captivating novel, we are delivered so much more by means of text, than the classuic film of which this is based upon, could ever give.

There were parts of the novel which will certainly be spoiled if you've already watched the original 1980's classic, but most of us have; so just expect that the people who a...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Ginny rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, fiction, library-book

I, well, I kind of hated this.

Horror isn't normally my genre, but I can take a perverse delight in a scare every now and then. This, however, wasn't suspenseful at all. Instead, the horror mostly lies in the grotesque body maiming on display. Resounding meh. At one point, I realized I was reading the climatic scene and noticed that I wasn't feeling any tension at all.

Characterizations were flat, dull, unrealistic.

If there is anything interesting about the theme, it's the connection between liber...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Abraham rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart

Plot:

Frank Cotton's insatiable appetite for the dark pleasures of pain led him to the puzzle of Lemarchand's box, and from there, to a death only a sick-minded soul could invent. But his brother's love-crazed wife, Julia, has discovered a way to bring Frank back - though the price will be bloody and terrible...and there will certainly be hell to pay.

My Review and Thoughts:

This is one of my all time favorite written stories by a true master of horror that can tak...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Hamza Ansari rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stephen King once called Clive Barker as "the future of horror" and he's damn right about that. Reading a Clive Barker novel is akin to watching an exploitation movie. You're repulsed but at the same time entertained or, at least want to know more what happens at the end.

As a big fan of Clive Barker, I downloaded the PDF version of this novella as I couldn't find it anywhere. I kinda hated reading it through the computer, but I couldn't help it. Guess, E-Reading is not for me. Anyways, the chara...more

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Mar 27, 2012 P. Aaron Potter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, urban-paranormal

If you’re in a pessimistic frame of mind, try “The Hellbound Heart.” The story was released as a stand-alone work, but was later bound up with expanded editions of the Books of Blood, which is where it is easiest to find it today. It’s a straight-up Faust story of a jaded man, Frank, who bargains his immortal prospects away to some very unsavory inter-dimensional beings who promise him in return an eternity of sensual pleasures and pains. The human characters are classic Barker, inasmuch as the...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Donovan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, horror

This is another of the pinnacle reads of my life. I first saw Hellraiser at the movies and knew straight away I had to find the original work. Although I don't think this is his greatest work, it is definitely an influential read - especially for an extended short story.

Plot ***Spoilers***
Frank is a hedonist who has spent his life in a selfish, single-minded pursuit of the ultimate sensual experience. Having lived a life of world travel, engaging in countless crimes and every sexual experience k...more This is another of the pinnacle reads of my life. I first saw Hellraiser at the movies and knew straight away I had to find the original work. Although I don't think this is his greatest work, it is definitely an influential read - especially for an extended short story.

Plot ***Spoilers***
Frank is a hedonist who has spent his life in a selfish, single-minded pursuit of the ultimate sensual experience. Having lived a life of world travel, engaging in countless crimes and every sexual experience known to mankind, Frank is now a nihilist, his pursuits having left him feeling unfulfilled and still wanting more extreme experiences. Jaded to the point that conventional sexual activity now leaves him completely unstimulated, Frank hears rumors of Lament Configuration, an artifact he learned about on his travels, a puzzle box that is said to act as a portal to an extradimensional realm of unfathomable carnal pleasure. Locating the owner in Düsseldorf, Frank obtains the box by performing "small favors" and returns with it to his deceased grandmother's home in England. Frank prepares a shrine consisting of bonbons, flowers, severed doves heads, and a massive jug of his own urine, offerings for the box's inhabitants: The Cenobites, members of a religious order dedicated to extreme sensual experiences.

Opening the box, Frank is confused and horrified when the Cenobites, rather than beautiful women, turn out to be horribly scarified creatures whose bodies have been modified to the point that they are apparently sexless. Nonetheless, when they offer Frank experiences like he has never known before, Frank readily agrees, despite the Cenobites' repeated warnings that it may not be what he expects and that he cannot renege on an agreement to return to their realm with them. With Frank as their newest "experiment," the Cenobites subject Frank to a total sensory overload, at which point he realizes that the Cenobites are so extreme in their devotion to sadomasochism that they no longer differentiate between extreme pain and extreme pleasure. Frank is sucked into the Cenobite realm, where he realizes that he will be subjected to an eternity of torture.[4]

Sometime later, Frank's brother, Rory, and his wife, Julia, move into the home. Unknown to Rory, Julia had an affair with Frank a week before their wedding; she has spent the entirety of her marriage obsessing over and lusting after Frank, and has only stayed married to Rory for financial support.

While moving in, Rory accidentally cuts his hand and bleeds on the spot where Frank was taken by the Cenobites. This serves to open another dimensional schism, through which Frank is able to escape, his body now reduced to a dessicated corpse by the Cenobites' experiments. Julia finds him and promises to restore his body so that they can renew their affair.

While Rory is at work, Julia begins seducing men at bars and bringing them back to the attic, where she murders them and feeds their bodies to Frank, whose own body begins to slowly regenerate. Kirsty, a friend of Rory's who is secretly in love with him, suspects that Julia is having an affair and attempts to catch her in the act; instead she encounters Frank, who attempts to kill her; Kirsty steals the puzzle box and flees the house, collapsing from exhaustion on the street. She is taken to a hospital, where she solves the puzzle box and inadvertently summons the Cenobites. The Cenobites initially attempt to take Kirsty back with them, until she tells them about Frank; skeptical that one of their experiments could have escaped, the Cenobites agree to leave Kirsty alone in exchange for Frank's return.
Cover of Night Visions 3 (1986)

Kirsty leads the Cenobites to Frank, now wearing recently slain Rory's skin. Another altercation ensues, during which an unrepentant Frank inadvertently kills Julia. Assured of Frank's identity, the Cenobites appear and ensnare Frank with a multitude of hooks and return with him to their realm. Leaving the house, Kirsty encounters the heretofore unseen leader of the Cenobites, the Engineer, who entrusts her to watch over the box until another degenerate seeks it out. Looking at the lacquered surface, Kirsty imagines that she sees Julia and Frank's faces reflected in the lacquered surface, but not Rory's. She wonders if there are other puzzles, that might find a way to where Rory resides by unlocking the doors to paradise.(less)

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Jan 14, 2012 Anna Anthropy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

clive barker writes like he's trying to impress someone, choosing words for grandiosity over clarity. early in the book he describes a sound as being "no louder than the din of a cockroach running behind the skirting boards." that's some loud fucking cockroach! we figured this was just a case of barker having a run-in with a thesaurus that ended badly for the reader, but no! as we read on (i read the book aloud to my partner, because it's the sort of book that seems close to the author's vision...more clive barker writes like he's trying to impress someone, choosing words for grandiosity over clarity. early in the book he describes a sound as being "no louder than the din of a cockroach running behind the skirting boards." that's some loud fucking cockroach! we figured this was just a case of barker having a run-in with a thesaurus that ended badly for the reader, but no! as we read on (i read the book aloud to my partner, because it's the sort of book that seems close to the author's vision when read in as pompous a voice as you can manage), we kept finding the word "din," over and over, almost once per chapter. it became clear that clive barker just ranked the word "din" higher than the word "sound," and made the substitution every time the word came up.

grandiosity over clarity. there are passages where the actions of the characters are just incomprehensible. one gets the sense that maybe he was imagining the scene visually, as a film. "cut to a shot of birds flapping their wings on black. then, a shot of the room, with a yellow light strobing." it would certainly explain a few things: the book is about as incomprehensible as the movie. (that's "CLIVE BARKER'S HELLRAISER," more a special effects reel than a film.)

ultimately, the only way to read the book that made any sense was as a screed on how dumb heterosexual coupling is. the characters are all trapped in unreciprocated or abusive relationships: one character pines for another over a single encounter that "had in every regard but the matter of her acquiescence, all the agression and the joylessness of rape." SOUNDS LIKE A REAL CATCH. later, during an actual rape scene, a man's penis is described as "a boastful plum," like he's scared to say the actual words. why not just put the sex scenes behind asterisks like the victorians do?

to present any character enjoying mutual or joyful sex would, i suppose, undermine the "horror" of the book, which is that sex is scary. a cheap trick, but probably a lucrative one if you're writing to a straight middle-class audience trapped in loveless marriages. it must be, since barker's spun the book into an entire film career. clive barker has said, "i want to be remembered as an imaginer," which is fair. i'm certainly not going to remember him as a writer.(less)

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Jan 07, 2012 Ryland Dinneen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had already seen the movie and heard about the book many times. It was considered a horror masterpiece. So naturally, I was excited to read it, considering it would also be a quick read due to the short number of pages (being a novella).
It was definetly a creative little beast of a book.
The Description was very well done. One thing that annoys me is when an author is so descriptive in a book that the reader ends up bored to tears. Cliver Barker doesn't do this. However, it sometimes seems like...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Matt Kaiser rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In this novella -- the basis of the 1987 film sensation, Hellraiser -- Clive Barker explores the intersection of lust and pain. For a hedonist like Frank Cotton the orgiastic pleasures of narcotics and sex eventually fail to provide gratification. Thus is the inescapable byproduct of indulgence: consumption breeds tolerance which, in turn, translates to dulled sensation. Disillusioned with worldly pursuits of pleasure, in exchange for "small favors," Frank procures a puzzle box from an oriental...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While for a student of history or religion the term cenobite might have one meaning but, for those who have devoured a steady stream of horror films it has a whole different meaning. When I hear the term cenobite I do not immediately think of a member of a religious order but instead flashed to the mutilated forms foisted upon my psyche (likely at far too young an age) by the film Hellraiser. Those cenobites, members of the Order of Gash summoned by the Lament Configuration, that iconic puzzle b...more While for a student of history or religion the term cenobite might have one meaning but, for those who have devoured a steady stream of horror films it has a whole different meaning. When I hear the term cenobite I do not immediately think of a member of a religious order but instead flashed to the mutilated forms foisted upon my psyche (likely at far too young an age) by the film Hellraiser. Those cenobites, members of the Order of Gash summoned by the Lament Configuration, that iconic puzzle box designed Phillip Lemarchand (or rather Simon Sayce in the world outside the fiction), are truly horrific sights twisted by their exploration of the outer and distant extremes of pleasure and pain. It apparently escaped my notice that their original incarnation was in text rather than film. Their appearance, and that of the puzzle box, so linked to the medium of film that I never really thought to ferret out if there was some sort of source material.

So when I stumbled across a copy of the 2007 reprint of The Hellbound Heart not too long ago I was surprised and excited (which probably says something about myself I’d rather not linger on) to get home and get reading. Much to my surprise Clive Barker’s novella was rather faithfully adapted in the film Hellraiser, which makes sense given that it was both written and directed by its author. And I also found that the source material doesn’t work quite as well as the film. It is difficult to say how I would fell if I had read the novella before the seeing the film. What I read on the page is so directly linked to the images of cenobites seen over many films that separating those images from the text is near impossible.

For those that don’t know The Hellbound Heart opens with the twisted Frank having acquired the mysterious puzzle box which is rumored to be a gateway to realm on unimaginable pleasure. It isn’t long before Frank solves the box, unleashes the cenobites and is dragged into their dimension. When Frank’s brother Rory and his wife Julia move into the same house a chance drop of blood begins the process of freeing Frank from his imprisonment. Julia, who had an affair with Frank before marrying Rory, hears Frank and decides to continue the process. Things escalate from there and eventually Rory’s friend Kristy, thinking Julia is having an affair, gets involved. I’ll leave it at that but the important thing, or perhaps the interesting things, are the subtle changes that Barker made to the relationships of his characters for the film version. Particularly the change in Kristy from friend in the novella, to Rory’s (or Larry in the film) teenage daughter. The novella did not allow for too much exploration of Kristy’s character and thus her devotion to Rory is a bit inexplicable so the shift from friend to daughter makes for more compact storytelling.

As a fan of world-building I was pleased to see that there was some greater attention given to developing the story of Lemarchand’s Box. Again though, like the cenobites, Sayce’s design for the film is so deeply ingrained on my psyche that I have no idea what a fresh reader might see when they first read about the puzzle box. I’m always a sucker for the construction fake historical objects within fiction, objects like Lemarchand’s Box or the Necronomicon, and I would love to have seen the genesis of the puzzle box explored more. Regardless, the puzzle box isn’t so much the focus of the story its purpose as a literal gateway reflects its role in the narrative as a bridge between the horrors capable of the human heart and the unknowable terror that lays beyond the boundaries of the universe.

Anyone at all remotely interested in horror should definitely checkout The Hellbound Heart. While the Hellraiser franchise has spawned nine films The Hellbound Heart (and of course the first film) remain the only elements of this universe in which Barker had a hand. In truth I would have loved to have seen Barker himself tackle the world of the Cenobites and Lemarchand’s Box in greater detail. There is a lot potential material here that has been woefully overlooked. Regardless Barker’s contribution to the horror genre, and pop culture at large, are worthy of attention even now (perhaps more so since films like Saw and Hostel seem to cater to the proclivities espoused by the Cenobites) and interested and iron-stomached readers should definitely try The Hellbound Heart.(less)

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Mar 20, 2011 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, horror, 2011, multi-dimensional, reviewed, zombies, challenge-1010

3.5 stars.
I've seen 'Hellraiser' of course, and my brother even dressed up as an awesome Pinhead for Halloween 2 years in a row in the late 80s. Mom painstakingly applied about a hundred gray toothpicks all over his head. Some weren't even sharp enough to go in properly, so it took a while, and he just would NOT stop crying... Kidding, kidding! I do wish that we had pictures of that costume though, it was great. My mom is an artistic genius, and my dedicated brother even allowed his head to be...more

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Feb 11, 2011 Joseph Rodgers rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love this book, I am sure that many people are familiar with the fantastic film "Hellraiser" that was based off of this novella. For those who have not read the book, but have seen "Hellraiser" you will find that "the Hellbound Heart" performs the seemingly impossible task of being scarier than the movie. For those of you who are not familiar with the cenobites or Clive Barker at all, I would still highly recommend this book.

"The Hellbound Heart" does something that very few violent and sini

...more I love this book, I am sure that many people are familiar with the fantastic film "Hellraiser" that was based off of this novella. For those who have not read the book, but have seen "Hellraiser" you will find that "the Hellbound Heart" performs the seemingly impossible task of being scarier than the movie. For those of you who are not familiar with the cenobites or Clive Barker at all, I would still highly recommend this book.

"The Hellbound Heart" does something that very few violent and sinister stories accomplish, it manages to be both horrifying and dramatically complex. Clive Barker was an accomplished playwright before he branched into the worlds of Hollywood and popular fiction. While reading "the Hellbound Heart" the narrative arc suggests that Barker was familiar with Lajos Egri's "the Art of Dramatic Writing". A premise that can be described as "pleasure seeking leads to suffering" is backed by complex characters who conflict with each other in a way that provides near perfect dramatic unity.

The events that occur during "the Hellbound Heart" begin with pleasure seeker Frank committing the tragic deed of solving a puzzle box that is supposed to summon other-worldly beings who offer sensation like no other. The creatures, mutilated humanoid abominations called Cenobites whisk Frank away to a strange world where they perform tortures on him that have fetishistic overtones.

The story then moves on to Frank's brother Rory and his wife Julia moving into the family house. This is the same house in which Frank had solved the puzzle box in the attic.

Julia had an affair with Frank, and one day while she is the attic daydreaming of Frank, Rory has an accident in which he cuts his hand. Rory who is squeamish approaches Julia in the attic so that she will bandage his hand, while he is in the attic some of Rory's blood splashes onto the floor boards.

Frank's essence absorbs the blood from the floor and gives Frank enough energy to contact Julia in the attic later on. Julia seduces and kills a man in the attic so that the blood brings Frank back to our world, but as a skinless monstrosity.

Desperate to have her lover back Julia starts finding more victims so that she can further revive Frank. Meanwhile Rory's friend Kirsty begins to suspect that Julia is cheating on Rory, little does she know the true extent of what is going on in the house.

This books is really short, only slightly more than a hundred pages. I have read it four or five times over the years and it never ceases to be a source of entertainment and inspiration for me. "The Hellbound Heart" is one hell of a scary story, it is filled monsters, violence, and S&M, and Gothic undertones. Barker provides a lot of realistic grounding over a short number of pages, so the reader does not disbelief some of the morbid surrealistic images presented throughout.

All of the characters are well fleshed out, and have personality, yet at the same time Barker does not bombard us with senseless detail. We know everything that drives the characters, but we don't know whether they like grilled cheese or not. The horror starts off with a heavy theatrical hook in the beginning of the story, but then the normal world is instituted again. The normalcy has a crack in it though, and the terror leaks through this crack as the narrative continues building suspense up to incredible new heights.

As a writer "the Hellbound Heart" deserves critical observation. I have mentioned time and again the dramatic unity of the book so I will not mention it again. However Clive Barker's writing is outstanding, I believe that he is one of the modern greats.

His imagery is simple and not bogged down with adjectives and this makes it extremely effective. This use of imagery makes outlandish events such as the summoning of the cenobites believable. There are no whir-pools of shrieking black energy appearing from nowhere as doorways for the cenobites. No the approach of inter-dimensional beings... the sweet smell of vanilla... the sound of bells ringing with no apparent source.

Barker also is very economic with his words, and that makes "the Hellbound Heart". The cenobites themselves are also very inspirational, they reach right into the core of what revolts humanity and have become a horror icon by doing so.

In conclusion I would recommend "the Hellbound Heart" to anyone who enjoys sophisticated story and can stomach the profuse gore.

(less)

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Dec 04, 2010 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Morally bankrupt and nihilistic Frank Cotton has found this world and the pleasures it has to offer lacking, boring, and predictable. After hearing about Lemarchand’s Configuration, a puzzle box that if solved opened up a realm of unimaginable pleasure, he finds it and spends hours trying to solve. He succeeds, but instead of hoards of nude women, like he was expecting, the Cenobites emerge instead. They are horribly scarred and mutilated beings that perceive extreme pain as not different from e...more Morally bankrupt and nihilistic Frank Cotton has found this world and the pleasures it has to offer lacking, boring, and predictable. After hearing about Lemarchand’s Configuration, a puzzle box that if solved opened up a realm of unimaginable pleasure, he finds it and spends hours trying to solve. He succeeds, but instead of hoards of nude women, like he was expecting, the Cenobites emerge instead. They are horribly scarred and mutilated beings that perceive extreme pain as not different from extreme pleasure. They take him to their extradimensional plane to suffer for eternity. Meanwhile, Rory, Frank’s brother, and his wife Julia have moved into the house passed down from their grandparents. When Rory is injured during the moving in process, Frank uses his blood to communicate with our world. He demands more blood from Julia, who has been infatuated with him ever since their affair shortly before her marriage to Rory, to become whole again. She complies and feeds him several men. Kirsty, Rory’s friend, suspects Julia is having an affair and discovers Frank and Julia’s horrible plot. Will she be able to return Frank to the dimension he escaped from or would the Cenobites rather have her instead?

I recently saw the film Hellraiser, so I had to read the novella it was based on. There is very little difference in plot and characters between the two works. However, both have their own strengths and weaknesses. The strength of the film is the horrific visuals it provides. The Cenobites look so much more disfigured and fetishistic than I ever would have imagined. The audience is also shown some of the horrors in the other world and I was shocked by how twisted and horrifying the images were, considering it was made in the 80’s. I was riveted to the screen (with my mouth gaping open) and literally couldn’t look away. The book only describes the Cenobites, but not in a great amount of detail. The other world’s sights aren’t described at all, but the novel excels in ways the film did not.

The novel is incredibly well written. Even though the character development is a little lacking, I really didn’t notice too much because the writing is so fluid and rich with dark imagery. The relationship between Frank and Julia seemed to happen spontaneously, but their evil tendencies that were exhibited later made them a fitting couple. Their sick relationship is an interesting comparison to the false, empty one between Julia and Rory. However, Frank’s interest in her is only to be restored to human form and nothing more, showing Julia in the role of her husband: adoring and unaware of the others indifference. Both relationships are exposed to be hollow and devoid of anything remotely resembling love. Julia is portrayed as much more malicious than in the film. She has nothing but disdain for her husband and would like nothing more than to kill him. Frank and Julia represent the need for man to seek more and more empty, fruitless sensory experience and where this road will lead if gone to extremes. This view may be depressing, but makes for an entertaining and horrifying read.(less)

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Nov 19, 2010 Juushika rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: status-owned

Bored by the meager offerings of human life, Frank turns to a puzzle box which, when opened, promises to deliver him to a new world of extraordinary sensation. And so it doesbut rather than heaven, Frank discovers hell, and only the sacrifice of human blood can bring him back. This premise is an intriguing one, but the novella's actual plot is something of a bait and switch: rather than following Frank in his journey to the Cenobites's realm of extreme sadomasochistic sensation, the story stick...more

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Nov 13, 2010 christa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Where was my head. I spent the Halloween season searching for the ghostly and gruesome without ever once considering the work of Clive Barker. Then, one night, we landed on the Sy/Fy Channel in time to catch a deliciously gross movie based on one of his short stories. Eyeballs popped out of heads. A meat hook blow was delivered to a crotch. Bodies were hung and bled like sides of beef. I cackled and gagged. Sometimes simultaneously. And then cracked into Barker's "The Hellbound Heart," the novel...more Where was my head. I spent the Halloween season searching for the ghostly and gruesome without ever once considering the work of Clive Barker. Then, one night, we landed on the Sy/Fy Channel in time to catch a deliciously gross movie based on one of his short stories. Eyeballs popped out of heads. A meat hook blow was delivered to a crotch. Bodies were hung and bled like sides of beef. I cackled and gagged. Sometimes simultaneously. And then cracked into Barker's "The Hellbound Heart," the novella behind the Hellraiser series.

Good Golly.

The story starts with Frank, an adventure seeker and pleasure addict. He comes to own this puzzle box, and when he finally solves it and gets it open, he unleashes the Cenobites, these devilish sadomasochists who amp up his senses to the extreme. It's all briefly good, then torturous. He, to put it in Barker-ian terms, spills his seed on the floor of the bedroom in his grandparent's house where he has performed this ritual -- which includes a urine sample on an altar.

Frank's brother Rory and his wife Julie move into the old place. Julie has residual hot pants for Frank after a sexy encounter involving her wedding dress that happened just before her big day. When Rory gets a gusher in the room where Frank disappeared, blood spills in the spot where Frank's seed landed. Through some sort of lusty instincts, Julie figures out that a malformed Frank is hidden in some alternate realm, present in this room, and needs blood to regain his human form. So she helps a playa out with the use of liquor and seductive glances at lonely businessmen.

First of all: This book is so hokey and it is written in this kind of archaic way that is heavy and embarrassing. But damned if I didn't have a snicker about to burst for the duration of the story. This is also delicious horror-flavored candy. It's like ODing at the Junior Mints-Lick 'em Aid-Nerds buffet.

Exhibit A:

"The proximity of this harem aroused him, despite circumstances. He opened his trousers and caressed his cock, more eager to have the seed spilled and so be freed of these creatures than for the pleasure of it.
"He was dimly aware, as he worked his inches, that he must make a pitiful sight: A blind man in an empty room, arousef roa dream's sake. But the wracking, joyless orgasm failed to even slow the relentless display. His knees bucked and his body collapsed to the boards where his spunk had fallen."

Exhibit B:
"Not if it suits you," he said and clamped his mouth over hers, his tongue frisking her teeth for cavities.

This shortie falls in the maybe not necessarily good-good, but wholly entertaining. There is a cleverness to this style of story, where demons are built from scratch, and your next-door neighbors could be carving up pasty white dudes in the master bedroom. I like the ease with which the characters sign on to the idea that certainly the problem is one of a paranormal nature. I believe there will be more Clive Barker in my little life. (less)

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Aug 15, 2010 Cornerofmadness rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I haven’t read this since I was a freshman in college in the 80’s. Nowadays it’s hard to think of the book as a novel since it’s under 200 pages (and what novel has that nowadays?). This is the novel that Hellraiser was based off of and quite well, too.

Julia and Rory, unhappily married, at least from her point of view, have moved into the family home. Rory’s brother Frank had the home but he’s disappeared. The reader knows where he went as the story opens with Frank, bored with life and looking...more

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Sep 28, 2009 Philip rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an interesting novella -- I remember liking the (something of a cult-classic) film back in '88 or '89. Barker's prose is every so often razor-sharp (there are a handful of real flashes of brilliant writing, and he demonstrates what seems to me to be an extraordinarily well-developed vocabulary), but at times annoying, and uneven overall. Apart from quibbles about style, however, this novella is little more than a grisly little horror story. Not bad -- but there is very little in the way...more

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Apr 13, 2009 Dreadlocksmile rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

'The Hellbound Heart' was Clive Barker’s forth full length novel since the ‘Books Of Blood’ series. First published back in 1988, the novel formed a dark mix of horror and S&M, bringing a seductive trip into the erotic world of pleasure and pain. Barker rewrites the laws of humanity as we know it, with his ideas of there being no good or evil, only flesh. The novel draws you quickly into its bizarre and twisted storyline, taking you into a world of dark fantasy and horror. The characters are...more

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Jan 28, 2010 Guillermo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Several times I watched Hellraiser as a kid, never knowing it was based on a novella written by Clive Barker. And several times - despite its cheap effects - the sheer thought of something so metaphysically neutral scared me. (Of course, I had to ration my reasons later in life.) There wasn't anything good about Pinhead, nor was there anything pure evil about him and his gang of Cenobites. There was just something that seemed rather in the between - like the Grim Reaper, who is thought to be as...more

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About Clive Barker

Clive Barker was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Joan Rubie (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. Educated at Dovedale Primary School and Quarry Bank High School, he studied English and Philosophy at Liverpool University and his picture now hangs in the entrance hallway to the Philosophy Department. It...more Clive Barker was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Joan Rubie (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. Educated at Dovedale Primary School and Quarry Bank High School, he studied English and Philosophy at Liverpool University and his picture now hangs in the entrance hallway to the Philosophy Department. It was in Liverpool in 1975 that he met his first partner, John Gregson, with whom he lived until 1986. Barker's second long-term relationship with photographer David Armstrong, ended in 2009.

In 2003, Clive Barker received The Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards. This award is presented "to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individual who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for any of those communities". While Barker is critical of organized religion, he has stated that he is a believer in both God and the afterlife, and that the Bible influences his work.

Fans have noticed of late that Barker's voice has become gravelly and coarse. He says in a December 2008 online interview that this is due to polyps in his throat which were so severe that a doctor told him he was taking in ten percent of the air he was supposed to have been getting. He has had two surgeries to remove them and believes his resultant voice is an improvement over how it was prior to the surgeries. He said he did not have cancer and has given up cigars. On August 27, 2010, Barker underwent surgery yet again to remove new polyp growths from his throat. In early February 2012 Barker fell into a coma after a dentist visit led to blood poisoning. Barker remained in a coma for eleven days but eventually came out of it. Fans were notified on his Twitter page about some of the experience and that Barker was recovering after the ordeal, but left with many strange visions.

Barker is one of the leading authors of contemporary horror/fantasy, writing in the horror genre early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 – 6), and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning Imajica (1991) and Sacrament (1996), bringing in the deeper, richer concepts of reality, the nature of the mind and dreams, and the power of words and memories.

Barker has a keen interest in movie production, although his films have received mixed receptions. He wrote the screenplays for Underworld (aka Transmutations – 1985) and Rawhead Rex (1986), both directed by George Pavlou. Displeased by how his material was handled, he moved to directing with Hellraiser (1987), based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. His early movies, the shorts The Forbidden and Salome, are experimental art movies with surrealist elements, which have been re-released together to moderate critical acclaim. After his film Nightbreed (Cabal), which was widely considered to be a flop, Barker returned to write and direct Lord of Illusions. Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which received major critical acclaim.

Barker is a prolific visual artist working in a variety of media, often illustrating his own books. His paintings have been seen first on the covers of his official fan club magazine, Dread, published by Fantaco in the early Nineties, as well on the covers of the collections of his plays, Incarnations (1995) and Forms of Heaven (1996), as well as on the second printing of the original UK publications of his Books of Blood series.

A longtime comics fan, Barker achieved his dream of publishing his own superhero books when Marvel Comics launched the Razorline imprint in 1993. Based on detailed premises, titles and lead characters he created specifically for this, the four interrelated titles — set outside the Marvel universe — were Ectokid, (less)

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“No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering.” — 99 people liked it

“She had opened a door... and now she was walking with demons. And at the end of her travels, she would have her revenge... Pain had made a sadist of her.” — 29 people liked it

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