Reviews

Books of Blood: Volume Three by Clive Barker

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shane's review against another edition

3.0

Of the three I've read so far, this has been the most grim. I'm not a great fan of too much gritty material in my horror. That depressing feel that emanates from some stories just reminds me too much of the real world, and if I wanted to immerse myself all the more in that kind of world I'd simply put away my novels and dive right back into real life.

Of the five stories in this volume, the only one I can say I really, really enjoyed was Son of Celluloid which was helped by being less grim and gritty than the rest, and being set in a movie theater just helped push it to the top of the pile for me. Rawhead Rex was the real surprise for me in that I've seen it mentioned a few times around the net as being the stand-out story of the bunch, which simply wasn't the case for me.

Not as enjoyable as the first two then, but my dislike for the grim realism seen in a few of these stories may have turned me against it more than it would someone else.

I think this one's no more than a 3 star collection.

rancidslopshop's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

karynb's review against another edition

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4.0

Rawhead Rex and Human Remains were fantastic while the other three were just good. Human Remains is my favourite of this volume.

radiohex's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

tombomp's review against another edition

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dark

3.5

Again 3.5 ish - Hidden Remains has brilliance, Rawhead Rex is a great monster story (I'm not a huge fan of that genre but I recognise quality) with a couple of wonderful moments

Spoiler

Declan being baptised in piss and then getting killed at the end accidentally by being an annoying snitch

, the others are fine but never really come together. Shroud is a pretty mundane revenge murder story, Celluloid has a kind of interesting concept it doesn't do much with, Scapegoats has a GREAT concept that it barely touches on until the very end.