Clive Barker is one of my favourite authors, his particular brand of ‘horror’ is like nothing else I have ever read and I cannot imagine him ever being surpassed in the field of outright weirdness.
Born on October 5th 1952 Clive is an English author film director, and visual artist who is probably best known for his work in both fantasy and horror fiction. He is probably best known for the film adaptation of his book The Hellbound Heart which became Hellraiser and of course Candyman but his initial successes came in the form of a series of short story collections called The Books of Blood published in 1984.
His writing style is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended; his characters are supremely flawed, often exquisitely perverted and always someone you would not want to introduce to your mum. Sex and sexuality is a common theme and is very often of a homoerotic nature; his books are filled with pen and ink sketched by the author and whenever you close that final page you are left exhausted, you don’t read Barker, you live and breathe him. I have read everything by this author and am a huge fan, if you’ve not tried any of his books and fancy having a go then these are the five Clive Barker Books I think you should read.
Cabal
My copy of Cabal is falling apart, I have read it so many times that the words are burned upon my memory and it is in my top ten books of all time. The protagonist Boone suffers from an unspecified mental illness and has been seeing a psychiatrist by the name of Decker in the hope that he can discover what he has been doing during his fugues. During one of their sessions Decker reveals that Boone is guilty of a series of horrific murders which he has blocked from his memory. Driven to suicide Boone fails to kill himself and comes to believe that perhaps he can find sanctuary within the walls of a mythical city known as Midian. The plot is brilliant, the twist genius and the characters appallingly divine; read it you won’t regret it.
Mister B. Gone
A book that begs you to burn it? That’s what this book does; it begins with a plea for immolation and continues to beg you to end its existence by setting fire to it. Jakabok Botch is the Mr B from this novel, a lesser known demon Mr B who has become trapped within the pages of the book and can only be freed if the reader takes pity upon him and burns his prison. Brilliantly written I read this fairly slim volume in a single sitting and have re read several times since.
Coldheart Canyon
A two part story Coldheart Canyon begins in Romania in the 1920s where actress Katya Lupi and her American agent Willem Zeffer have travelled back to her homeland so she can visit relatives, while there he visits an old castle that has been turned into a monastery where he buys a piece of art, obscene and grotesque it tells the legend of a Count who was cursed to haunt the nearby wilderness for all eternity. Jump forward to 2000 and failing filmstar Todd Pickett decides to undergo plastic surgery to make himself look younger and boost his popularity. The surgery goes dreadfully awry and the now disfigured Todd is sent to Katya’s former home in Coldheart Canyon to recuperate, unfortunately the house’s former occupants haven’t left. Hauntingly scary this one is a lights on read.
Imajica
This is Barker’s own favourite and a well deserved one at that. More of a fantasy than a horror Imajica portrays the Earth as one of five dominions or parallel worlds and follows its reconciliation into the fold. This has to be one of the most intricately written fantasy books I have ever read, the imagery and the detail is beyond compare and the subject matter is both contentious and thought provoking with God, sex, love, gender and death being dominant themes throughout the book. A chunky tome this is a daunting book to start but well worth the effort involved.
The Hellbound Heart
Barker at his horrifying best; here he introduces us to the Cenobites, members of a religious order dedicated to extreme sensual experiences and of course the origin of that most famous of monsters, Pinhead. Frank Cotton is a hedonist who has dedicated his entire life to the selfish pleasures of what he believes is the ultimate sensual experience. When he hears of a puzzle box that is rumoured to be a portal to another dimension that is dedicated to carnal pleasures he determines to obtain it at any cost. Once it is in his grasp and he solves the puzzle Frank is horrified to be greeted by the scarred and sexless Cenobites rather than the beautiful women he had expected but undeterred he takes them up on their offer of experiences beyond anything he has ever known. Sadomasochistic, obscenely horrific and utterly enthralling the film was a pale imitation of this brilliant book.
So there you go if you’re brave enough go out and buy them; if you’re not sure then maybe read them from behind a cushion but read them, you won’t regret it.
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Weaveworld is my favourite Clive book 🙂