By: Clive Barker Publisher: HarperCollins Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: HarperCollins Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 256 Publication Date: October 30, 2007 Release Date: October 30, 2007
Mister B. Gone marks the long-awaited return of Clive Barker, the great master of the macabre, to the classic horror story. This bone-chilling novel, in which a medieval devil speaks directly to his reader—his tone murderous one moment, seductive the next—is a never-before-published memoir allegedly penned in the year 1438. The demon has embedded himself in the very words of this tale of terror, turning the book itself into a dangerous object, laced with menace only too ready to break free and exert its power.
A brilliant and truly unsettling tour de force of the supernatural, Mister B. Gone escorts the reader on an intimate and revelatory journey to uncover the shocking truth of the battle between Good and Evil.
When you read this review can you hear my voice in your head? How does it sound like? Is it someone you know? Well that is what I thought. You know you shouldn't read this review, but there you go doing it anyway, don't tell me I didn't warn you.
This unique book is both a story about a demon and a conversation with that demon all at once. My first paragraph is my feeble attempt at imitating what goes on in the book. In the book there are several requests to stop reading the book and burn it instead, and some of these requests are threats of torture and threats of eternal damnation if you don't burn the book. This gets a little tired after a while, but I found the concept of a demon both telling his gruesome life story and talking to you and threatening you all at the same time quite innovative and creepy.
The name of the demon is Jakabok Botch. He escaped the ninth circle of Hell in the 14th century. He has been with us ever since and if you buy this book he will be living with you too. He is ugly, severely burned, has two tails, he is hateful, and he likes to take warm baths in the fresh blood of infants.
I admit I did not think the book was very scary, but for me it was still a page turner. I found the book to be interesting and creative. I found the comparisons between the heartless barbarism of people in less enlightened times (as well as today) and that of demons in Hell enlightening. Earth looks a lot like just another circle of Hell in which we are our own demons. However, in this circle of Hell, there is a choice, a choice that the eternally damned demons do not have. Demons and Humans are so similar and yet so different.
An episode in the book that I found to be quite intriguing was the war and then the negotiation between the angels of heaven and the demons of hell over the written word at the time and place of Gutenberg's invention. This event determined our future and this book had a very peculiar place in this history.
With regards to Clive Barker I am a first time reader and contrary to what Publishers Weekly told me I still liked it. I should say that I have seen the Hellraiser movies and I've bought a pinhead mask for Halloween so I am not totally unfamiliar with Clive Barker, but I have never read a book of his before. If this book was among Clive Barker's worst then I cannot wait to check out the other books (I'll go for Hellbound Heart next). I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something different and odd, but not as a good horror book.
Read it! Or burn it....? For me, this book is a sort of stand-alone Books-of-Blood type 'o novel from Clive. It's short, it's amusing, it's sometimes desgusting and I really liked it... First off, I must say I was rather sceptical about the book (mostly due to poor reviews from fellow Amazoner's), and reading about how the book was flawed in story, composition and general gramatics made me wonder how good it really was.
After completing I must say I am very fond of this book. Ok, it is not a Gallilee, but for me it's a great, fresh horror story from Clive.
Recommened to fans.
Burn this book! The book pleads with you, threatens you, and tempts you to burn it.
A demon is forced to exist as a book, and this isn't so much a book as a tacit conversation between you and that demon. His life's story, from growing up in an abusive family (big surprise there) in the Ninth Ring of Hell, to his wanderings on Earth with another demon for a companion, to his role in the (arguably) most important technological innovation of the second millenium, common era.
A remarkable innovation in format from one of the best horror writers of the past century. It's fast moving, and I enjoyed it. The demon's appeals, threats, and tirades could have been toned down a little bit while preserving the flavor and enhancing the impact, but overall, it worked.
E.M. Van Court
clive barker and demonology Clive Barker makes a less than triumphant return to the morbid horror story that gained him so much praise in the early days of his career. the novel itself could have stood up against any of the short stories that appeared in his legendary Books of Blood anthology, but its sense of humor leaves much to be desired. the pun is something of a statement to Barker's age, perhaps purposely senile and very cynical. clive barker always shows an understanding of demonmology and Mister B. Gone has a certain Lovecraftian brilliance. You would be wise to purchase the hardcover edition if not just for the sake of being in on the jokes. the book is very premeditated and not to be seen as a 100% return to the brutality of his earlier fiction, but it does deserve to be valued by Clive Barker fans.
Book B Gone Have loved Clive since the first book I read (and have read everything) but sadly must say this is his worst novel, judging him against his own high standards. It is average. And I'm getting rather tired of the publishing date for Abarat 3 being constantly pushed back.
PS. C.S Lewis's: 'The Screwtape Letters' is in a similar vein and vastly predates this book.
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