Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three

Books of Blood #1-3

by Clive Barker

"Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we're opened, we're red." For those who only know Clive Barker through his long multigenre novels, this one-volume edition of the Books of Blood is a welcome chance to acquire the 16 remarkable horror short stories with which he kicked off his career. For those who already know these tales, the poignant introduction is a window on the creator's mind. Reflecting back after 14 years, Barker writes:

I look at these pieces and I don't think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore.... We are all our own graveyards I believe; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were. If we're healthy, every day is a celebration, a Day of the Dead, in which we give thanks for the lives that we lived; and if we are neurotic we brood and mourn and wish that the past was still present.

Reading these stories over, I feel a little of both. Some of the simple energies that made these words flow through my pen--that made the phrases felicitous and the ideas sing--have gone. I lost their maker a long time ago.

These enthusiastic tales are not ashamed of visceral horror, of blood splashing freely across the page: "The Midnight Meat Train," a grisly subway tale that surprises you with one twist after another; "The Yattering and Jack," about a hilarious demon who possesses a Christmas turkey; "In the Hills, the Cities," an unusual example of an original horror premise; "Dread," a harrowing non-supernatural tale about being forced to realize your worst nightmare; "Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament," about a woman who kills men with her mind. Some of the tales are more successful than others, but all are distinguished by strikingly beautiful images of evil and destruction. No horror library is complete without them. --Fiona Webster

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Anthologies, Thriller, Collections

507 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

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,

Reviews

[Fabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking for good horror? Look no further...

My favorite horror novel, ever. Erm... short story collection. Technically.

Wow, wow & WOW! Barker is undeniably unique, a few steps above Stephen King (at this point) in the whimsical world of the macabre. All fifteen of these tales are incredible-- & incredibly wicked--anecdotes, all wonderful drafts for damn-good horror flicks (bettering "Hellraiser," surely) that could become classics as quintessential as Carrie, Pet Semetary or The Shining. Barker has indeed a romantic, and visceral, and uber-gross view of things, foremost a fantastic infatuation with the human body, and with the traffic of the spectral world with mortal sexuality... it's all very toxic, dabbling in the world of erotic masochism & clever even genius motifs of a collective dread.

Indeed, I love the collection. It rivals the very best of King (perhaps only one of his collections hits the visceral nerve a bit more masterfully, albeit less fantastically, than "The Books..."). My favorites are MUSTS (read, read, read!) for those who study the short story; what makes these little nuggets of gold so golden is a true mystery in itself: "Sex, Death and Starshine" cleverly paints a surrealistic picture, rivaling even Dali, of the intermingling of souls with the living (a masterpiece for sure); and "In the Hills, the Cities" has the most memorable "monster" to appear out of the dark subconscious in the longest time, I think, since Frankenstein's demon. This one, too, is a masterpiece, & the imagination for such a clever Voltairesque creation seems so alien and divine as to be madly envied. And in awe of. Lastly, I kinda really dug the monster-flick tale "Rawhide Rex" which should be turned into a script (just looked it up, it is), as the climax is better than mostly any I could think of for a monster story. This guy, it should be clearly understood, is THE Absolute Shit.

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

based upon the evidence of Books of Blood 1-3, Clive Barker sprung into the literary horror world fully-formed, a writer all grown up, already past the awkward growing pains of an adolescent period that other writers of his stature and widespread appeal suffered through before reaching their full powers. his ability to construct and sustain an intriguing narrative, his resonant themes, his stylistic flourishes, his use of irony and dread and gore and comedy, his strength at detailing truly real and deeply developed characters' lives, his expertise at creating an entire world within the space of a story... these are all the traits of an author writing at his peak, and so early in his career.

the stories within these collections are truly sensational: their power comes from his consistent strength at conveying sensual, physical sensation. this is not to mean that he writes sexy horror stories; rather, he is a writer who knows how to write "body-based horror". in many ways, these stories parallel the themes and goals of the films of David Cronenberg - the body as something alien, the body as a sacred space, the body as a target or vehicle or ideal, the body turning against itself.

Peter Straub - an intellectual writer - locates his horrors within the mind: a place of murky motivation and potential evil, a site of invasion and transformation; his horrors are often as ambiguous and as ambivalent as mindspace itself. Stephen King - an emotional writer - places his horrors in scenarios that are wellsprings of sentiment and feeling, often squarely within the family unit or painful adolescence or the various dreams and ambitions of the heart itself; his horrors are often explicitly tangible things that exist to tear apart humanity's most beloved institutions. unlike those two, Barker's horrors are centered in the body as a battleground, a place where the mind and the heart are often at war. his horrors blur the boundaries of right and wrong; the various transfigurations that occur throughout his stories are often so dreadful because they are both unnervingly ambiguous and disturbingly familiar, intimate on a physical level - and in the end, almost infinitely unknowable. his bodies are places of both terror and wonder.

Barker illustrates how the body can be a site of fearsome splendor and violence in the collection's first story: The Book of Blood, in which a fraud's appealing body exists first as a landscape encouraging erotic contemplation and then as a horrific diary of the dead. in the masterful Dread, a psychopathic guru lives to sadistically push his trainees past their base physical fears, and eventually meets his match in a student who has learned his lessons all too well. the horror of Jacqueline Ess comes from the terrifying protagonist's ability to wield utter control of the body itself. New Murders in the Rue Morgue revisits the classic story with a new (and rather sympathetic) focus on the idea of what truly, physically, makes a man? and in Confessions of a (Pornographer's) Shroud, the story serves as both an ironic commentary on pornography's rigorous mono-focus on body parts and as a clever rejoinder to the idea that a meat-based body is even necessary to create horror - let alone to enact bloody vengeance.

the author's themes remain intact and even more visceral in those stories that are straight-up, traditionally structured servings of familiar, monster-based horror. The Midnight Meat Train features ancient, physically mortified beings who must be paid their due in flesh and has a classic "ambiguous" protagonist who finds his goals in life may soon be adjusted in favor of a more transformative purpose. Pig Blood Blues is wonderfully bizarre (its malevolent foil... a demonic sow!) and explicitly depicts potential physical change and transformation as an undeniable terminus for its victims, villains, and hero alike. and the now-classic Rawhead Rex has a monster whose mind dreams of domination and whose physical body yearns for both freedom and the flesh of children; his achilles' heel, his personal horror... the fertile woman, the menstrual cycle.

Barker can also do comedy with an expert touch. The Yattering and the Jack is laugh-out-loud funny, a wry tale of a lower-level demon vs. The Most Boring Man in the World, a man who apparently has no terrors or temptations based in the flesh or other physical things. the quaintly nostalgic and drily amusing Sex, Death and Starshine sees the decay of the flesh and a rotting life existing beyond the grave as, well, not so bad, really.

there are a few stories that are less successful, although they are by no means abortions. Hell's Event - Deadliest Marathon Ever! the entire world is at stake! - centers its horror within a runner's body. Son of Celluloid finds a lonely cancerous growth making its own body and invading a fading movie palace. Scape-Goats' horrors rise from the undisposed corpses of the long-dead and their reaction to a quartet of obnoxious tourists who obliviously pay their bodies no respect.

there are three stories that are now amongst the finest modern horror stories that i've ever had the pleasure of reading.

The Skins of the Fathers is an often amusing send-up of gun-toting hick americana. more importantly, in its unsettling tale of the male gender's First Fathers and their practice of holy/unholy procreation, it decribes not-so-alien physiognomies in detail - but makes the key decision to replace disgust with awe, to replace the Terrible Other with Ancient Adam (and his many brothers).

Human Remains is a mordant and moody story of the escalating relationship between a street hustler/ wannabe gigolo and a being that seeks to not just mimic (and protect) that hustler's body, but also endeavors to recreate that poor fool's history into a life that contains emotional depth - rather than a life of empty ambition, callowness, and apathy.

my favorite story of all 3 books is In the Hills, the Cities. this is a truly awesome tale, in all sense of the word "awesome"... a mind-boggling, bizarre, many-leveled account of two very different travelers and lovers, of two very similar rural villages, of an archaic tradition that replaces a many-bodied battle with two very unique bodies, of bodies coming together to create something greater, something terrible - something that the two travelers choose to either turn away from in horror or to embrace as a new form of physical being. the story is amazing.

__________

musical accompaniment

Coil: Gold Is the Metal, Hellraiser Themes
DJ Spooky: Songs of a Dead Dreamer

[Trashique · Rating 5 out of 5]

“He almost smiled at the perfection of its horror. He felt an offer of insanity tickling the base of his skull, tempting him into oblivion, promising a blank indifference to the world.”

Provokingly brilliant. Poetically sinister. This was my very first Clive Barker experience and I gotta say, hell yes. Reading this book was like being on an incredible first date with a mysterious amazing person and not wanting the night to end. That instant connection, that unique someone who sees the fire within you and wants to play with it. Who leaves you breathless and wanting more. Yes Goodreads, if this book was a 6’2” man or a tattooed woman, I’d date them with the quickness. Barker you dark provocative mfer, your writing style is freakin’ sexy. Hell yes.

[inciminci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Debbie for this wonderful buddy read 🖤

The appeal of a Barkerian monster is something next to impossible to explain, but as real and palpable as can be. This is my prime takeaway having for the first time fully completed the first three volumes of his iconic Books of Blood. The wide range of monsters, and the various interactions and understandings among these supernatural monsters and humans lie in my opinion at the core of this short story collection, just as it does in Hellraiser, but in different ways.

In the first story of the collection, The Midnight Meat Train the crux of the story consists of an agreement between weird little shrunken people and the city of New York, of which a human representative, the Butcher, provides them regular food. The red thread then leads to the second story The Yattering and Jack, in which a pact is breached. A pact that had been made in the past between Jack's family and Beezlebub. The Yattering, a minor demon, is sent to haunt Jack in return, but all his efforts, including killing his cats and tormenting his daughters are in vain since Jack takes it all with good humor. The hilarious piece of writing does not end well for the Yattering, let me tell you that much.

Just as in the case of Jack's cats, the paranormal touch doesn't always have to affect humans, like in Pig Blood Blues in which a ghost possesses the body of a sow. It may also present itself to us in the most unexpected, the most peculiar forms and shapes and settings - Undead actors overtake a Shakespeare play. Satan regularly sends his envoys to compete in the London Marathon. A hoard of monsters parade through a town and claim their son who was born from sex between the boy's mother and the monsters. A cancerous tumor comes to life through the emotions generated by the movies shown in the cinema the owner of the tumor died in. Rave, revenge, animals switching places with humans, men switching places with their doppelgangers... There really is no limit to Barker's imagination, and in each story, as strange, scary, repulsing and gory they might be, you can always find a pinch of humor.

Ironically, my favorite story of this collection is not one of supernatural terror, it is one of human depravity; Dread. I can't emphasize enough how important limits are for horror and anything can be horror if stretched enough to cross certain borders. Dread is a story where a curious man experiments on people with fears, he exposes them excessively to what they fear most and sees where that leads. He tests their limits and what is beyond those limits. This is the kind of story that truly sends shivers down your spine, it is disgusting and my stomach churns thinking about it.

There is a reason the Books of Blood collection is the pièce de résistance of horror literature, a classic, a standart of dark fantasy. My verdict is that these stories are pure gold, and I can't wait to read and discuss the forthcoming volumes.

[Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best short story collections I've ever read.

Barker is an expert at capturing your mind and drawing you into the crazy worlds and concepts he creates.

It's superbly written, darkly imaginative and makes for highly addictive reading.

My favourites from these first three volumes are:

The Midnight Meat Train
Dread
Rawhead Rex
Son of Celluloid

Highly rated and highly recommend.

☆☆☆☆☆

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we're opened, we're red."

Comprised of insane and downright horrifying tales from Clive Barker, Books of Blood is a strong debut release which led to King referring to him as "the future of horror". This edition contains Volumes 1-3, a grand total of fifteen stories (sixteen if you include the intro) - a large number of which have been subsequently adapted into movies.

Having already been blown away by The Hellhound Heart, I was excited to get into more Clive Barker - and oh boy, this did not disappoint. The sheer range of stories within these first three volumes of Books of Blood is staggering. And the quality remains consistently high throughout. Barker's imagination is unparalleled - I mean, King has a pretty awesome imagination too, but his skills are slightly different to Barker's. One minute you're reading about a serial killer who quite literally skins his victims and hangs them up like pieces of meat on the subway, and the next you're reading a pretty hilarious story about a guy and the demon currently inhabiting his house trying to outdo each other.

There's dark humour in some of these stories, whereas some are just pee-your-pants scary and will no doubt lead to some pretty disturbing nightmares. There's something for every horror lover in here. However, I do feel like it's necessary to warn people that a high proportion of these stories have a lot of blood and gore in them - it is the Books of Blood after all - so if you're not a fan of this, maybe this collection isn't for you. I just don't want anyone to read these on my recommendation and think I'm some sicko (I kinda am, but that's a discussion for another day). BUT it's also important that I point out that the gore isn't gratuitous or included merely for the "shock value" - in my opinion, anyway.

I'm still finding it so strange to be reading sentences that are meant to be graphic and disturbing, yet they're still poignant and beautiful. Barker has a real talent for examining the beauty of horror. He seems to have a fascination with the human body and it's reflected in his writing. The book just drips with sex and violence, and I'm more than cool with that.

I generally loved the majority of these, so it's difficult to pick a favourite, but standouts for me were: The Midnight Meat Train, The Yattering and Jack, Scape-Goats, Rawhead Rex... yeah, I'm close to just naming them all. However, a special mention must go to In the Hills, The Cities. I've honestly never read a story like this - such a unique, fascinating idea. Imagery I'll never ever forget. Wow.

Initially I had intended to delve right into volumes 4-6 soon after finishing this... but I think I'm going to wait a while. Like a semi-reasonable junkie, I want to know that my next hit is still out there... just waiting for me to pick it up. This gets ALL THE STARS. 5 stars out of 5!

[Krell75 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Volume 1
- LIBRO DI SANGUE: ⭐⭐Un crocevia per i morti. Troppo breve e confuso.
- MACELLERIA MOBILE DI MEZZANOTTE: ⭐⭐⭐⭐Oscuro viaggio in metropolitana.
- YATTERING E JACK: ⭐⭐⭐Un povero diavolo in carriera. Poco terrore ma molto divertente.
- MAI DIRE MAIALE: ⭐⭐Un riformatorio particolare. Idea debole che ha suscitato risate probabilmente non richieste.
- SESSO, MORTE E SPLENDORE DI STELLE: ⭐⭐⭐⭐Ci sono vite vissute per amore, e vite vissute per l'arte. Recitiamo la vita.
- IN COLLINA, LE CITTÀ: ⭐⭐Una gara che ricorda Mazinga. Tendente al comico.

Volume 2
- TERRORE: ⭐⭐⭐ Un esperimento, un clown, un'ascia. Si dilunga e poi termina nell'ovvio.
- LA SFIDA DELL' INFERNO: ⭐⭐ Una corsa contro l'inferno. Io che cerco l'horror e non lo trovo.
- JACQUELINE ESS: LE SUE ULTIME VOLONTÀ: ⭐⭐ Donne fuori controllo e uomini zerbino. Noioso e prolisso.
- LA PELLE DEI PADRI: ⭐ dnf. Il protagonista è in grado di vedere le mani senza pollici di una creatura dalla distanza di un chilometro...per favore!
- NUOVI OMICIDI IN RUE MORGUE: ⭐⭐ Una scimmia e un rasoio. Rivoglio Poe.

Volume 3
- FIGLIO DELLA CELLULOIDE: ⭐⭐ Il cinema degli orrori. Tra John Wayne e tumori ambulanti che esplodono io continuo ad annoiarmi terribilmente.
- RAWHEAD REX: 😂😂 Mi fermo qui, grazie Clive.

A parte tre o quattro racconti la mia esperienza è risultata deludente. Colpa mia ma continuo a preferire le atmosfere di Poe, Lovecraft o le idee malate di Junji Ito.
Qui ho riso o mi sono annoiato troppo.
Barker sembra prendere le idee di un bambino per poi svilupparle con il suo occhio morboso. Non ho percepito atmosfera ne suspence, solo idee pacchiane e mostri assetati di sangue, banali, tutto con un retrogusto sessuale che permea ogni sua storia. Con la scrofa sexy, la scimmia assassina e il tumore ambulante ha superato ogni confine di ilarità e ha conquistato la mediocrità.

[Books with Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️
Only loved 2-3 stories. Enjoyed over half. Some were boring. Others I really didn’t care for.

[Alexis Hall]

Source of book: Bought by me
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.

Further disclaimer: Readers, please stop accusing me of trying to take down “my competition” because I wrote a review you didn’t like. This is complete nonsense. Firstly, writing isn’t a competitive sport. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. And finally: taking time out of my life to read an entire book, then write a detailed review about it that some people on GR will look at would be a profoundly inefficient and ineffective way to damage the careers of other authors. If you can’t credit me with simply being a person who loves books and likes talking about them, at least credit me with enough common sense to be a better villain.

*******************************************

I recently decided to re-visit the work of Clive Barker, just … y’know, for myself and because he was super important to me when I was growing up, I think because—knowing nothing about him at all—there was something in his work that spoke to me that I have retrospectively identified, somewhat bluntly, as queerness, when I had access to precious few reflections of it.

Anyway, this is the first three volumes of Barker’s earliest short stories, The Books of Blood, which are accounted some of the greatest horror writing of all time, making this probably a bit of a bad time to note that I personally prefer Barker as a fantasy writer. That’s not to say the things I admire about him aren’t present here—his queerness, his sensuality, his imagination, his entrancing prose—it’s just there’s also a lot of … um. Blood?



The thing is, though, and this is entirely on me for not taking more breaks when reading, I’m not sure these collections wholly suit being smooshed into one volume. Barker is renowned for the viscerality … visceralness … of his body horror, that careful balance of disgust, fascination, and violation, but by the time I wrapped up Human Remains (the final story in the third book), I was completely de-sensitised. Just sort of lounging there with my Kindle being like, “oh wow, he’s had his eye popped from its socket from the inside and it’s now dribbling down his cheek in a glistening abundance of twitching nerves and innards …coolbeans.”

In any case, my increasing failure to be horrified aside, these are still, I think, a remarkable work. Not all of them have aged super well (the gender politics at the heart of 'Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament', for example, are both unsubtle and tedious) and, obviously, these stories are horror so, like, all the trigger warnings for horrific things. Given they were written in the 80s, though, they’re pretty diverse. I mean, diverse in the horror sense, which means that it doesn’t matter what your race, sexuality or gender identity, you’ll still probably die horribly with your eyeballs exploding in the end. But, y’know, isn’t there something pleasantly normalising in that?

To be fair to Barker, while there is a fair degree of eyeball exploding (and my sense was, although maybe this was confirmation bias, there was slightly more reliance on gruesome demises in the third book versus the first), part of what makes this collection so compulsively readable is the range, both in terms of tone and subject matter. Some of them, like 'The Yattering and Jack' are downright whimsical in their darkness. Others, like 'In the Hills, The Cities', are just so extravagant in their vision that they almost transcend their own horror. And then on top of all that you’ve got these moments of unhinged loveliness like in 'The Skins of the Fathers':

A headless silver beauty whose six mother of pearl arms sprouted in a circle from around its purring, pulsating mouth. A creature like a ripple on a fast- running stream, constant but moving, giving out a sweet and even tone.

Like, yeah okay. I don’t know what either of those creatures *are* but I’m in?

Of course, as with any collection, not every story was a hit for me ('Hell’s Event# was a bit too one-note, the nastiness of 'Dread', while effective, felt slightly expected, 'Scape-Goats' didn’t make much of an impact on me personally) but I still usually found something to capture my attention in each story regardless, even if it was just an exploding eyeball, or piece of a characterisation or a turn of phrase:

He had seen [New York] wake in the morning like a slut, and pick murdered men from between her teeth, and suicides from the tangles of her hair.

or:

He’d taken refuge in pretended guilt, and locked himself away where memory, and revenge, and the truth, the wild, marauding truth, could never touch him again.

Even not being particularly drawn to horror, I was inescapably entranced by the sheer artfulness of these stories, whether that was about the voice, or the theme, the atmosphere, or the pure mechanics of how the story was unfolded for me. For example, in 'The Midnight Meat Train', which is about a serial killer operating out of New York who butchers people, in the most literal sense, on the subway, there’s this absurdly tense sequence where an accountant and the serial killer are playing a murderous game of hide and seek with each other in a train carriage full of dead people strung up like meat. Until this point, the narrative has alternated between the POV of the accountant and the POV of the serial killer, but once they’re in the train together the perspective starts shifting with a fluidity and a rapidity that should be jarring but is, instead, incredibly cinematic: you’re in the head of the murderer and the potential victim almost simultaneously so it’s like being able to see everything that’s happening all at once. It makes my heart race, just remembering, partly because it's a scary chase sequence, but mainly because it's such an impressively constructed piece of writing.

In any case, the Books of Blood (Volumes 1-3): a little bit of their time, but also a little bit timeless. Undeniably brilliant, whatever you think about horror. Also this particular edition came with a foreword from Barker himself in 1998—at which point writing The Books of Blood already felt remote to him. Wanky contrarian that I am, this (and this isn’t shade on the actual stories) may well have been my favourite part of the book. Barker is such a fascinating and articulate man, I could honestly listen/read to him all day and all night. Except, y’know, not in a creepy way.

It’s kind of weird living now in These Internet Times TM which means I can just go, look him up on YouTube, listen to the interviews he did as a very young man, and those in later life, I can dig up obscure pieces of things he wrote about his work, or take deep dives into other people’s thoughts. When I was a teenager I had only the text in front of me. My fingertips still remember the texture of the embossing on the library’s hardback copy of Imajica. Actually, I have no idea where I’m going with any of this. Just that I’m having some feeling and I’m glad Clive Barker exists. And while I don’t *need* his thoughts about his works, it’s nice to have them, especially being some Mayfly excuse for a writer myself these days, who has absolutely no idea how to think anything that I’ve done or if it was even worth doing in the first place.

I don’t have any notion whether these stories will survive the passing of time; I doubt any author can know that with any certainty. But they’re written, set in stone, for better or worse, and though I might wish I’d polished this sentence better, or excised that, they still please me. That’s the most you can hope, I think: that the work you do pleases, both in the doing and the revisiting.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of the first half of Clive Barker's Books of Blood short story collections is jaw-dropping in the amount of high quality content, very graphically violent and not for the squeamish, but extremely well written and interesting, a must-read for any fan of the genre or of dark fiction in general. Below you will find a list of the stories including in this collection, along with a rating for each story and song lyrics which you may find entertaining or diverting, or not:

VOLUME ONE

The Book of Blood - 5/5 - no new tale to tell twenty-six years on my way to hell
The Midnight Meat Train - 5/5 - mental wounds not healing, life's a bitter shame
The Yattering and Jack - 4/5 - I'm not crazy, you're the one that's crazy
Pig Blood Blues - 5/5 - pigs in zen
Sex, Death and Starshine - 3/5 - in touch with some reality beyond the gilded cage
In the Hills, the Cities -3/5 - we built this city

VOLUME TWO

Dread - 4/5 - dealing out the agony within
Hell's Event - 3/5 - runnin' with the devil
Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament - 4/5 - you're never good enough in the eyes of a woman with a mean streak
The Skins of the Fathers - 4/5 - when you coming home dad? I don't know when, but we'll get together then
New Murders in the Rue Morgue - 4/5 - we're just tryin' to be friendly, come and watch us sing and play

VOLUME THREE

Son of Celluloid - 4/5 - let's go to the movies
Rawhead Rex - 5/5 - it was a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater
Confessions of a Pornographer's Shroud - 3/5 - I see your face every time I dream
Scape-Goats - 3/5 - rock rock 'til you drop
Human Remains -3/5 - you're lookin' good, just like a snake in the grass

[Richard Alex Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the complete collection of 15 stories, 16 if you include the introduction to volume 1, spaced into three bite-size chunks of volumes 1, 2 and 3.

All three volumes are consistent, which is surprising, with only a few duffers here and there in each volume.

So, I have to choose a favourite story from each volume and explain why?

Vol. 1: - 'Pig Blood Blues' because of how sinister it is and the references to Animal Farm by George Orwell, although wildly different in every other way. This is a really dark and sordid tale that scared and disgusted me, which is why I read this type of material.

Vol. 2: - 'Jacqueline Ess' because of my personal connection with her mental health issues and how she is endlessly pursued, controlled and gets her own back in one way or another. It feels hopeless, and it totally is.

Vol. 3: - 'Human-Remains' because of the plot twist at the end and how it captivates and saddens you at the plight of a sex worker who ultimately has no control, but thinks he does because of his incredible looks.

All of Clive Barker's stories are sordid, but more in line with cosmic horror than sheer gore and splatterpunk, and even though published in 1983, still feel relevant and fresh, while also serving as horror classics borrowing many influences from the past while emphasising where many current authors get their influences from.

My criticisms are that some of the stories don't feel fleshed out enough, which is inevitable with this much material, plus they start to repeat in ideas and concepts a bit, with volumes 2 & 3 containing six stories with highly charged sexual elements.

But overall, quite phenomenal and 4 dirty black stars from me.

[Maria Lago · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pues al final, debería de haberle dado las 4 estrellas... ¡Si es que soy muy tacaña! Creo que le di las 3 por las historias que no me gustaron, que se me hicieron muy largas y bastante tontorronas... pero acabo de hacer un recuento de todas las que se incluyen en estos tres primeros volúmenes y, vaya, salen ganando las que sí.
Me gustó mucho la de Rawhead Rex, ay madre, qué cochinada. También la del chico chapero (chapista en la traducción, ayyyyy que me meoooo) y la del sudario, la introducción (asombrosa) y la del asesino del metro. La del chico que experimenta con el terror tampoco estuvo mal.
Pero sobre todo dos. Pig's Blood Blues, una historia de canibalismo en un reformatorio, con adoración porcina incluida y la increíble In the Hills, the Cities, una de las pocas historias que, en mi vida, ha logrado darme miedo y asco y me ha provocado pesadillas. Me parece un relato buenísimo, sobrecogedor. Mierda, hoy en día ya es posible llevar algo así al cine, ¿no? ¿Quién se lo imagina? Buff... yo casi prefiero no verlo.
Pues mentiría si dijese que no me he quedado con ganas de echarle un vistazo a los siguientes volúmenes, sobre todo por leer The Forbidden. Esta vez procuraré leer los originales, por cierto, porque... Ya sé que soy muy pesadina con lo de las traducciones, joooo ¿a que no adivináis qué carrera hice? :D

[Paul Bryant · Rating 1 out of 5]

One hit wonders – I usually think of such oddities as Nena (99 Red Balloons, UK No 1, 1984) or Aneka (Japanese Boy, UK No 1, 1981), or even Sir Mix-a-Lot (Baby Got Back, US No 1, 1992) – a No 1 hit and then nothing, nothing, nothing. But of course you do get one hit wonder authors – the toppermost one in that list will be Harper Lee. OMG can you imagine the advance she would have got for her second novel? And it could happen, she’s still here, 87 years old. We remember it took Henry Roth 60 years to follow up Call it Sleep. Also, Ralph Ellison never published a second novel. (He wrote one but his house burned down - damn!) And we’re still waiting for a second novel from Arthur (Geisha) Golden (16 years). But actually, a one hit wonder isn’t someone who never did anything else but who only ever had one hit – so Margaret Mitchell, Bram Stoker, Herman Melville, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, etc etc.

Anyhow, I read this story, it was In the Hills, the Cities by Clive Barker and it was one of the all time greatest stories I ever read, hair-raisingly original, perfectly expressed, awesome. Everyone should read this story. I therefore eventually got Books of Blood, thinking that there would be more where that came from. But there wasn’t. The other stuff was just like Aneka’s follow-up to Japanese Boy if she was singing about creatures from hell biting some random guy’s nether parts off.

In the Hills, the Cities : 5 stars

all the other stuff : one star.

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woooo!

That was unexpectedly great. And gory. And transgressive as hell. Reading this book made it clear to me why Clive Barker (who I hadn't read before) is considered an iconic writer. The man is not only a master stylist, but he has this narrative obsession with tearing reality apart. Sometimes a form of religion or systematic afterlife is involved like in The Midnight Meat Train or Hell's Event. Other time, it's just off the wall wild and imaginative like In the Hills, the Cities. My favorite stories from the collection were Pig Blood Blues, Dread and the weirdo-Lynchian Son of Celluloid. Luxuriant, consistant, transgressive...my first experience with Clive Barker is a rather transforming one.

Get on that, people and lose your mind. I didn't have so much fun with a book in quite some time.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m fully expecting to receive boos and hisses for not liking these short stories but I’m prepared for it. I just could NOT get into any of them. I dreaded having to pick up the book and read and every time I did I had this pit of dread in my stomach, and not a good pit of dread. I thought I might actually DIE of boredom while I was reading these stories. This isn’t my first read by Barker, I’ve ADORED everything else I’ve read by him, but Volumes 1-3 of Books of Blood was just NOT for me. I found the stories lacking Barker’s usual beautiful and lyrical writing style and so damn set and uninteresting and plain old boring. Maybe it’s just because his writing style is so expansive that it’s not suited to short stories? I don’t know, I just know I did not enjoy this collection and will definitely not be reading Volumes 4-6!

[Jason Parent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome... simply awesome. I am sad it took me thirty years to read this. Dread, The yattering and Jack, Rawhead Rex, and Human Remains were all beyond 5 stars, most of the rest were 4 or 5 stars, and Pig Blood Blues and In the Hills, the Cities being the only not totally awesome tales for me.

Great read. Highest recommendation. Not just tearing and carving skin like I was used to from Barker, but there's plenty of that, too.

[J.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly inventive and innovative, and chock-full of delightfully concise, clever turns of phrase. I came across this when I was about twenty, which is probably a good age to so do.

[Vicente Ribes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una verdadera obra maestra del terror. Clive Barker es sin duda uno de los últimos herederos de los grandes maestros del terror y merece un lugar al lado de clásicos como Poe, Lovecraft o Stephen King.
Durante los 80 y 90 Barker reanimo un género que iba un poco a la deriva y lo hizo con su gran caudal de ideas originales, terroríficas y fantásticas. Creó mitos escalofriantes como Hellraiser o Candyman , escribió bellas novelas de fantasía como Imajica o Sortilegio y acabo experimentando con la novela juvenil.
Pero su primer trabajo y el que le granjeó una merecida fama fueron los cinco tomos de cuentos de terror titulados Los libros de sangre.
Valdemar en esta fabulosa edición incluye los tres primeros tomos. Las historias aqui contenidas son de lo mejor del género y cuesta elegir sólo algunas porque la calidad es muy alta.
Destacaría las siguientes:

El Libro de Sangre: Una historia que sirve de introducción y nexo a todo lo que vendrá despues. Una historia que une la carretera de los vivos con la de los muertos.

El charlatan y Jack: Divertida historia donde un pequeño demonio hace de las suyas.

En las colinas , las ciudades: El mejor relato del libro, cinco estrellas para una alucinate pesadilla de proporciones gigantescas. No cuento nada por no estropear la delicia de imaginar lo que se narra en este cuento.

Terror: Horror psicológico del bueno. Perturbadora historia de torturas.

Acontecimiento infernal: Que pasariá si el demonio retará a la humanidad a una carrera que se celebrará anualmente? Esta historia responde a la pregunta. Tensión mantenida durante toda la narración, me recordo bastante a "La larga marcha" de Stephen King.

Jacqueline Ess: sus últimas voluntades y testamento. Horripilante historia donde una mujer adquiere la habilidad de moldear los cuerpos de los demás solo con su mente. Las transformaciones que aparecen en el relato sólo podrían salir de la mente de Barker. Genial.

Los nuevos crímenes de la Calle Morgue. Igual de bueno que el original de Poe y eso es difícil de decir. Me encantó este homenaje.

Chivos expiatorios. Historia de náufragos que me recordó gratamente a Hope Hodgson y sus terrores submarinos.

[Plagued by Visions · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only reread a few selections, but I can confirm this is still great stuff. 🌝

[Mizuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is an introduction of Clive Barker's movie brilliances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL-cB...

[A Bookish Boi I Fear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually short story collections are mixed bags. Not the Books of Blood. In these volumes (which are, incredibly, the first stuff the author published), Clive Barker hits you with banger after banger after banger.

The stories here are more than good. They are ambitious, inspired as hell, and full of imagery that gets seared into your mind. More often than not, they're also wildly original. There's nothing quite like reading "In the Hills, the Cities" for the first time, for example. Elsewhere, Barker riffs on established tropes or even specific classics ("New Murders in the Rue Morgue"), but he always creates a new, uniquely lurid experience for the reader.

Notoriously, body horror is a big thing in the Books of Blood (Barker's early work in general is considered fundamental in the splatterpunk genre). But Clive Barker's particular take on body horror (and all kinds of dark shit, really) is: Aren't these gross, abject horrors also… kind of sexy?

Yeah, sexuality is also a cornerstone of the Books of Blood. And I don't just mean that these stories are horny (some definitely are; see "Sex, Death and Starshine"). More importantly, they are very committed to queering shit up all the time, making you question the power sexuality has over our lives in Proper Society.

Finally, humor is yet another key element of these volumes. Some stories are written as straight up horror comedies – "Confessions of a (Pornographer's) Shroud" is my favorite of those – but generally even the most disturbing stuff is delivered in a detached style that suggests we're having fun here. In fact, a big part of what makes the Books of Blood so great to me is that they're genuinely brilliant but don't take themselves too seriously. You could argue that there's an almost satirical tone in the entire collection, especially given how amenable these stories are to allegorical readings.

It's very difficult to pick favorites in a collection this good. I will say that I thought Vol. 1 has the biggest instant classic vibes, featuring some pretty perfect horror stories like "The Midnight Meat Train" and "Pig Blood Blues" (not to mention "In the Hills…"). Vol. 2 was my least favorite but it's still unforgettable, with highlights like "Jaqueline Ess…" and "The Skins of the Fathers". And I found Vol. 3 to be the wildest of this first batch (there's 6 volumes in total). I cannot even begin to unpack the opener "Son of Celluloid", and Barker is firing all cylinders from there until the closer "Human Remains", one of the most profound horror stories I've ever read.

TL;DR: Clive Barker's Books of Blood are one-of-a-kind, rich weird texts. True horror classics you can read and reread. Try one volume, try multiple at a time, it doesn't matter, just try them. They will do things to your brain

[RoseDevoursBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this in high-school and remember loving it. And now after revisiting it, I have found a much deeper appreciation for Barker’s imaginative and addicting storytelling. I can’t even explain how beautiful his writing is, it feels like being put under a spell. The way he finds beauty in the dark and grotesque is elegant, alluring and at times sexy (monster erotica, anyone?). He likes to starts off slow with a mystery before it gets into the violence and gore, but he writes it in a way that layers the details piece by piece to build up the oncoming horror in an enchanting and sensuous way.

This collection opens with the first title “The Book of Blood” in which the souls of the dead who either killed or died violently, choose a person to carve their stories directly into their flesh and they get deciphered and told in the tales that follow. I was hooked just off this first short story, it was the perfect opener!

While some stories were either silly or had too much going on, the majority of them stood out and will haunt my memory for years to come. This book is worth the read even for just a few stories alone or even to read before comparing to the adaptations (there’s quite a few tales adapted to film). There’s demons, monsters, intense body-horror, dark-humor and so much more! there’s enough variety of horror to appeal to any fan of the macabre.

My favorites are:
- ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴏꜰ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ
- ᴛʜᴇ ᴍɪᴅɴɪɢʜᴛ ᴍᴇᴀᴛ ᴛʀᴀɪɴ
- ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪʟʟꜱ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴄɪᴛɪᴇꜱ
- ᴅʀᴇᴀᴅ
- ᴄᴏɴꜰᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴀ (ᴘᴏʀɴᴏɢʀᴀᴘʜᴇʀ’ꜱ) ꜱʜʀᴏᴜᴅ

Volume 1:
1) The Book of Blood: 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2) The Midnight Meat Train: 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3) The Yattering and Jack: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4) Pig Blood Blues: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5) Sex, Death and Starshine: 3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
6) In The Hills, the Cities: 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Volume 2:
1) Dread: 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2) Hell’s Event: 2.5/5 ⭐️⭐️💫
3) Jacqueline Ess: Her will and testament: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4) The Skins of the Fathers: 2.5/5 ⭐️⭐️💫
5) New Murders in the Rue Morgue: 2/5 ⭐️⭐️

Volume 3:
1) Son of Celluloid: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2) Rawhead Rex: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3) Confessions of a (pornographer’s) shroud: 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4) Scape Goats: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5) Human Remains: 4.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are a fabulous collection of short horror stories, and they can and do bite indeed!

Suffice it to say that I'm a sucker for short stories, and I did grow up having as my literary mentors' people like Mr. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Dan Simmons and on top of it the obligatory classics by Edgar Allan Poe...

Now you understand that I had to read Clive Barker, and gosh, am I happy that I did!
All the ingredients that makes a good short story collection are here available...

I won't go into the stories itself, because I want you to dig your literary teeth in them...
Do I recommend them?
Of course, I do...

If you like me are a reader which does appreciate and love good written short stories, and also have a weakness for the horror genre too, then GO FOR IT!!!!

Dean;)

[Mindi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to follow...

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clive Barker's Books of Blood is a collection of short stories. This edition collected the three Books of Blood into one edition. Clive Barker, though not as well known as Stephen King, is well known for his Hellraiser stories. As with any anthology the end result is determined by the stories therein. The Books of Blood does not fail, for the most part, to deliver some truly gory (Barker seems to relish in the more blood and guts aspect of horror) and downright bizarre horror stories.

The volume starts with a rather eerie quote from Mr. Barker himself:

"Everybody is a book of blood; Wherever we're opened, we're red." Then we are off to the races-

Vol 1-
this starts the anthology with the Book of Blood story that sets into motion the book. While it wasn't bad, it had more of a "set-up" feel to be the story that acts as a prologue. But volume one does have some true gems- "The Midnight Meat Train" is a great story about serial killers, a strange train and the horrific City Father; "The Yattering and Jack" was a fascinating, darkly funny story about a minor demon haunting a phlegmatic individual in an attempt to drive him insane. I truly enjoyed this story, not only the plot but the ending is excellent. "Pig Blood Blues" about a strange reformatory for young boys and the new teacher who starts work there is also well done. These three stories are 5/5 material. The last two stories: "Sex, Death and Starshine" and "In the Hills, the Cities"- had some original parts, but overall I didn't care much for the stories (both rate a 3/5) though they aren't bad. The former having to do with a run down theater and some spirits who just love to perform, the latter story is just bizarre (though original, I will admit) about two battling cities in Yugoslavia (it was written in 1984).

Book Two follows the superb Book One with some gems of its own: "Dread"- the story of a dark-hearted Psychology grad student who wants to find out what really causes dread and encounters some unintended consequences. It was a grim tale, but I enjoyed the psychological undercurrent in the tale. "Hell's Event" was also an original look at the concept of running for your life. Again, an interesting and original take on a rather common story. "The Skins of the Fathers", is a story that takes place in a small town out in the US West. It is a story about a boy who might not be a human and the quest of his "fathers" to find him. Finally "New Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a nice spin on the original Poe tale. These four tales from Book Two were all very good. The last story in volume two is also it's weakest. "Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament" was a story that I did not care for. It just never clicked with me and I could have cared less. While every other story in Book Two is in the 4-5/5 range, the Jacqueline Ess story is, maybe, a two.

Book Three finishes off the anthology with-
"Son of Celluloid"- which was not bad, a 3/5. It is an odd mix of cancer and the movies. Book Three has one of my favorite Barker creations, other than Pin-Head the Cenobite, and he is the title and primary character- "Rawhead Rex". A great horror tale of an ancient being who has been released from his tomb and the bloody rampage he goes on. This is a great short story. The "Confessions of a (Pornographer's) Shroud" is also a strong showing (4/5) about a wrongly murdered and framed man whose ghost haunts a shroud and seeks revenge. Both "Scape Goats" and "Human Remains" are not bad, but nothing great (3/5). The former has to do with a mysterious island and the odd sight of three goats just hanging out; the latter story has to do with an ancient statue that has decided life as a person it's next stage of development.

All these three books were put into the Books of Blood anthology. For the most part-all of the stories are good. Some of them are excellent and only one is poor. That is quite a good showing for any anthology. If you are a fan of horror or S. King then do give Mr. barker a try. He doesn't disappoint.

[Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Scream Press edition was the first compilation of Clive Barker's Books of Blood tales under one binding (the first and original three volumes). This was the way Barker meant them to be presented and for good reason. These 16 horror tales were revolutionary in their lack of sentimentality and their gruesome realism making way for the next generation of horrors writers including the splatterpunks and the bizarro writers. Every story is a classic but special mention goes to "The Midnight Meat Train", "Rawhead Rex, and "Son of Celluloid". Mandatory reading for the diehard horror fan. This one volume edition is hard to find but the two volume and three volume sets are still out there in the bookstores. If you have this particular edition count yourself fortunate especially for the wonderful illustrations by JK Potter.

[Heather (glitterandlashes) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to be by a friend and at the time I just kind of passed it off but I kept coming across the name Clive Barker not realizing that he is such a huge horror Icon.
I had a bit of a hard time tracking it down but when I finally found it and started it, it grossed me out right from the first page.
That's a huge plus for me as I find a lot of horror novels very blah and I will catch myself skimming some paragraphs.
I couldn't get enough of these stories.
Barker took these words and combined them in such a way that made me constantly cringe and on several occasions gag :D
The descriptions were perfect, perfectly real.

[Abbie | ab_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars - A couple of things about a couple of stories in volume 3 stopped this being a perfect collection, but it’s damn close!!!

[Will Errickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still the all-time heavyweight champ of Eighties short horror fiction. Buying the original Berkley paperbacks in early 1987 was one of the smartest things I ever did.

If you haven't read BOOKS OF BLOOD... you haven't read horror.

[José Nebreda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recuerdos de mi lejana adolescencia. Algunos cuentos son la leche.