It also quite ambitiously attempted to mythologize the very concept of cities, which I thought was bold as fuck. It was another clever and spectacularly gory one that explored the soulless, carnivorous nature of our environment. Another story that does that quite efficiently is Dread, where the antagonist is straight out trying to deprive his victims of their illusions of safety, which has fascinating conclusions.Īnother very famous story in this collection is The Midnight Meat Train, which was made into a movie starring Bradley Cooper and the immortal Vinnie Jones. His imaginary is always transgressive, but Pig Blood Blues is one of the stories where he confronts you to your illusions of structures and boundaries the most. Clive Barker crosses many boundaries between man and animal, human consciousness and carnivorous nature and authority and chaos in there. My favorite story in the collection was probably Pig Blood Blues, set in a Victorian-like youth detention center where a young man named Hennessey has mysteriously disappeared.

Say what you want about a giant made out of LIVING BODIES, but it will make you think differently, because you never even thought of that before. This tale of feuding cities who's citizens form giant creatures with their bodies will have you reevaluate things you once thought were simple, like the ties that bind you to a place and your very sense of purpose. I went like: holy shit, you can do THAT in a story? In the Hills, the Cities , most often quoted as one of the standouts in the collection, will challenge your very sense of reality. Reading the Books of Blood is like hanging out with your breakneck cousin when you're twelve, you know? It opens you to a world of possibilities you haven't considered before. Let me tell you, these short stories have been somewhat of a revelation. This year, we chose to review the works of British horror writer Clive Barker and our first stop is the Books of Blood, volume 1 to 3. Because we need things to debate over and bond over.

How will they know that I know anything about horror otherwise, you know? This is one of the reasons why I accepted This is Horror's Bob Pastorella challenge to run a Peter Straub retrospective, last year. let's say Hellraiser didn't enhance their enjoyment of the movie. Who the hell is going to trust me when I tell them to read Laird Barron if my perspective on. One point about criticism I'm constantly trying to make is: you need to have opinions on things people have already seen or read.

Books of blood volume iii clive barker