Rating: 
Summary: Very...dark.
Review: The stories in this book are some of the most bizare and unflinching stories i've ever read that don't ever tone it down. It has a very dark feel to it the whole way through. One thing i really liked about the book was that a lot of these stories are like nightmares. I mean, some of the stories don't even make that much sense, they just get dark and disturbingly nightmarish. The reason i gave it four stars is because there is a reoccuring ending that becomes frequent with more than one of the stories to the point where some of them were becoming predictable. But you can't do a review of a short-story book without a discription of each:The Book of Blood: Just a little intro to the rest of the book. A detective in a haunted house gets all of the stories of the book carved into his flesh by spirits in a haunted house. The Midnight Meat Train: A guy runs into a sereal killer on a subway station in London, and is led into a subteranean world where he discovers grusome secrets. This story has a reoccuring ending. The Yattering and Jack: Didn't like this one. It's about a little Goblin bugging a family on Christmas. It's supposed to be funny. Pig Blood Blues: THis is the first one i actually read. I liked this one a lot, because it reminded me of a nightmare I myself have had before, and i'm sure it's inspired by a nightmare of Barkers. It's about a kid who is admitted into a Juvenile dention facility, and hears rumors about a kid who committed suicide. Turns out, the kid is possessing a big sow outside. Very creepy. Sex, Death, and Starshine: Didn't like this one. It's about a soap opera cast and their run in with the supernatural. The ending is just like Midnight Meat Train. In the HIlls, The CIties: A gay couple travels through the hills of Europe to discover grusomely nightmarish giants. Very dreamlike. Dread: This is a very Poesque story by Barker. It's about a group of guys that experiment with the human psyche and fear by locking people in dark rooms for days with nothing but a rotting plate of meat to eat. VERY grusome and gory ending. Hells Event: Didn't really like this. Seemed like more of a witty satire than a nightmarish or entertaining story. It's about people running a race that determines the fate of their soul. Jacqueline Ess-Her Will and Testament: Perhaps one of my favorite stories. THis is a Barker classic. IT's not meant to be scary, but it's more of a supernatural love story. The ending is CLASSIC-why didn't shakespear or somebody think of it before?--A man looking into a key hole to see his lover on a bed, whom he's been looking for for years; he can't break the door pounding in desperation, and her pimp won't give him the key. The Skings of the Fathers: It's about giant prehistoric demons that terrorize a small town. Very disturbing ending that is beyond description and nightmare like. New Muderers in the Rue Morgue: THis is a sequel to the classic Edger Allen Poe "Murders in the Rue Morgue" that was labeled as the very first detective story. Son of Celluloid: Hated this one. I don't want to ruin the ending, as stupid as it is, but SOMETHING is haunting an old movie theater. Rawhead Rex: Very grose monster story about a giant big-foot like creature that terrorizes a small town in England. Confession's of a (pornographers) shroud: THis one was entertaining, but not the best. It's about a pornogropher who runs into some bad people and ends up getting killed. He comes back as a ghost veiled in cloth to get revenge on everyone. Scape Goats: Barker tells a first person story from the viewpoint of a woman. I've read it twice now and don't understand the ending! I don't think it was meant to make a lot of sense though, just mean to disturb you with nightmarish imegary like Skins of the Fathers. It's about people on a boat who discover an island with a paranoid feeling of impending doom. All in all, I'd say there's a few stories from each volume I really like, and other than that, it was just entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: The most honest work of Barker's career in horror.
Review: These stories are on a par with simillar efforts from King. DEFINATELY THE MOST FULL-ON HORROR BARKER HAS EVER WRITTEN.
Rating:
Summary: Horror and Clive Barker's Books of Blood
Review: These stories serve as an introduction to Clive Barker. These were his first published works. Prior to this, he was writing stage plays. As a first effort of a writer, they are great. They evoke images, such as "In the Hills, the Cities", that stay with you for days. In the 80's, when these books were written, they were breaking new ground. Mr. Barker is able to conjure up horrific images without covering you in blood, for the most part. I think that these stories will whet your appetite for the more mature works of Mr. Barker, such as The Great and Secret Show, and Everville. As with many writers, some of the movie adaptations of these stories leave much to be desired. The best actually had Clive Barker involved, such as the original Hellraiser (the Hellbound Heart), Nightbreed (based on Cabal). New readers, that have become jaded on the raw, in your face horror of the current writers, may miss out on some of the more subtle nuances in this freshman outing by Mr. Barker. He attempts, and mostly succeeds, in taking an everyday situation with ordinary people and sending out into the world of the horrific. Horror does not equal blood an gore but that feeling of dreading to turn the page to find out what happens next. Barker succeeds in this with these short stories.
Rating:
Summary: Horror and Clive Barker's Books of Blood
Review: These stories serve as an introduction to Clive Barker. These were his first published works. Prior to this, he was writing stage plays. As a first effort of a writer, they are great. They evoke images, such as "In the Hills, the Cities", that stay with you for days. In the 80's, when these books were written, they were breaking new ground. Mr. Barker is able to conjure up horrific images without covering you in blood, for the most part. I think that these stories will whet your appetite for the more mature works of Mr. Barker, such as The Great and Secret Show, and Everville. As with many writers, some of the movie adaptations of these stories leave much to be desired. The best actually had Clive Barker involved, such as the original Hellraiser (the Hellbound Heart), Nightbreed (based on Cabal). New readers, that have become jaded on the raw, in your face horror of the current writers, may miss out on some of the more subtle nuances in this freshman outing by Mr. Barker. He attempts, and mostly succeeds, in taking an everyday situation with ordinary people and sending out into the world of the horrific. Horror does not equal blood an gore but that feeling of dreading to turn the page to find out what happens next. Barker succeeds in this with these short stories.
Rating:
Summary: Very...dark.
Review: This book was not great or even that good. There is nothing significant that will stand out other than the story about the giant made of human bodies. Another turn off in the book is the persuance of homosexuality. It also seems to me that Barker tries to write like a new-age Poe, which isn't bad if you can blend modern English and Old English without pouring out too much of either. There is one more point that seems disturbing and that is Mr. Barker's use of vocabulary, which is ostentatious.
Rating: 
Summary: Check it out at the library
Review: This book was not great or even that good. There is nothing significant that will stand out other than the story about the giant made of human bodies. Another turn off in the book is the persuance of homosexuality. It also seems to me that Barker tries to write like a new-age Poe, which isn't bad if you can blend modern English and Old English without pouring out too much of either. There is one more point that seems disturbing and that is Mr. Barker's use of vocabulary, which is ostentatious.
Rating:
Summary: Very Over rated
Review: This is a pretty good book. But none of the stories are all that great. Clive Barker is also not a very scarry writer. None of the stories really scared me.There are some good stories in this book, and a few of them are Really Good. But IMO most of them are mediocre. This book is very over rated.
Rating:
Summary: Exellent reading, erotic and chilling.
Review: This is an exellent example of Barkers writing sytle. It has romantic encouters, wild stories with grusome detail, and even some (sort of) happy endings. If you haven't read it pick it up immeditaly, if you have on to the next books. Sweet nightmares. :)
Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Review
Review: When I first read Stephen King's glowing review on Clive Barker, I thought "Hmm. This might be interesting." When I realized that he was the mind behind The Hellraiser Series, I couldn't pick up a copy of "The Hellbound Heart" fast enough. Having just finished "Books of Blood", I can only say that I'm a little disappointed. Barker writes well--very well. However, the stories in this collection seemed more inclined to titilate and disturb than to actually terrify; most of the stories (with the exception of The Yattering and Jack, which was knee-slapping hillarious) seemed more concerned with wanton and simply unnecessary violence and sex than true horror. Give me a copy of Stephen King's "Graveyard Shift" anyday.
Rating:
Summary: Solid body of work and a stellar showcase of Barker's craft!
Review: When originally released as three seperate works during the 1980's, these short stories were widely considered to be the beginning of something revolutionary in horror fiction. Barker was a fresh and promising look at what the genre could become when placed in the hands of thoughtful, intelligent, and (above all) imaginative writers. Stephen King would even make a very vocal statement supporting Barker, calling him the "future of horror." Clive Barker's Books of Blood trilogy were spellbinding, inspiring, and terrifying entries into the stale and used up world of occult horror. He was a breath of much needed fresh air.
Now looking back on these works about twenty years later, and surveying the massive and impressive body of work that Clive has sustained for himself, it's a very different "future" than the one Stephen King had imagined. Clive Barker has written some of the best and most daring fantasy works of the twentieth century; grand in scope, epic in length, philosophical in depth, and hopeful at heart. Weaveworld, the Great and Secret Show, Sacrament, Galilee... all of these books are great tales written by a master craftsman, and none of them carry the baggage of having to fit into the horror genre. In fact, besides perhaps the Damnation Game, I'd say that the Books of Blood (volumes 1-6) are the only works that Barker actually made that fall into the horror category. All works that follow are in a league all their own entirely.
Barker's work never made the splash in horror fiction that Stephen King was predicting. Sure, Barker has been a massively successful author, and has been able to create a wonderful tapestry of fiction by adhering to his own set of rules ( a very admirable quality in an author), but to claim that he writes horror fiction is to inaccurately label his beautiful style and prose. It seems now the name Barker has all but faded from the minds of casual horror readers. It's far more likely that you will find a room full of people who've read a Stephen King novel, than you will find a room full of people who've even heard of Clive Barker.
But for the devoted ones who have latched onto Barker's books, this is all very trivial and unimportant. The talent of an author is not meausred by the ammount of books sold (and he has sold millions), nor is it gauged by the familiarity of his name. For the fans, like myself, Barker's work is liberating. Reading his books set the imagination free and give you the uninhibited feeling of life. The feeling that all things are possible, if not probable. It's almost spiritual. No author has given me as much as Clive barker has. His ability to tap into the things that disturb yet fascinate us as well as the things that drive us and confound us in uncanny.
Clive Barker has said that the Clive Barker that wrote these Books of Blood is not the Clive Barker writing today. He is no longer as interested in shocking or disturbing his readers as he once was. He's matured as an author, and life has taken him in a different direction. So, reading these short stories of terror now, it's interesting to see the Barker of twenty years ago creating a world of repulsion and beauty, digging under your skin and finding the things that shake you to your core. "The Midnight Meat Train", is an exercise in graphic violence and lurking evil, "Dread" is the human mind breaking in two as it is forced to confront that which terrifies it beyond repair, "Skins of the Fathers" is an interesting precursor to the ideas explored in Cabal. The young Barker strikes some very vital chords here, and he made a brief, but very potent impact on horror fiction.
If you've never read Barker before, and you enjoy this sort of genre, this is a fabulous place to begin. If you enjoy these stories, pick up another Barker book, approach it with an open mind, and he'll take you places you never thought you would go.
| 
