Books of Blood, Vols. 1-6 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.

I: THE BOOK OF BLOOD
II: THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN
III: THE YATTERING AND JACK
IV: PIG BLOOD BLUES
V: SEX, DEATH AND STARSHINE
VI: IN THE HILLS, THE CITIES
VII: DREAD
VIII: HELL'S EVENT
IX: JACQUELINE ESS: HER WILL AND TESTEMENT
X: THE SKINS OF THE FATHERS
XI: NEW MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
XII: SON OF CELLULOID
XIII: RAWHEAD REX
XIV: CONFESSION OF A (PORNOGRAPHER'S) SHROUD
XV: SCAPE-GOATS
XVI: HUMAN REMAINS
XVII: THE INHUMAN CONDITION
XVIII: THE BODY POLITIC
IXX: REVELATIONS
XX: DOWN, SATAN!
XXI: THE AGE OF DESIRE
XXII: THE FORBIDDEN
XXIII: THE MADONNA
XXIV: BABEL'S CHILDREN
XXV: IN THE FLESH
XXVI: THE LAST ILLUSION
XXVII: THE LIFE OF DEATH
XXVIII: HOW SPOILERS BLEED
XXIX: TWILIGHT AT THE TOWERS
XXX: THE BOOK OF BLOOD (A POSTSCRIPT)

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