Complete Books of Blood by Clive Barker: “It’s the ultimate feeling of having done something that works.”
A writer in a variety of categories, Clive Barker’s horror short story collections began to attract an audience for his fiction.
“Horror stories tend to work very well in the short form because they’re a slap across the face.”
British author, playwright, and filmmaker Clive Barker wrote the Books of Blood series—featuring six horror fiction collections. The tagline for the series: “Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we’re opened, we’re red.”
The Books of Blood stories hit various genres—from traditional horror to comical to dark fantasy. Barker lists among his literary influences Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, William S. Burroughs, William Blake, and Jean Cocteau, among others.
In one story, Barker introduces his occult detective character Harry D’Amour, who later appears in more of Barker’s writings. The success of these fiction collections opened the door to him becoming a successful novelist.
“It’s the ultimate feeling of having done something that works,” Barker told Morbidly Beautiful. “Increasingly, we live in a culture where things are disposable. Fiction is disposable. Stories come and go so fast. It seems to me as though we should be able to find stories that mean something to us, and hold on to them. And it’s a pity that our culture has become so short. Short tempered, and short natured. The attention span of people seems to be getting smaller and smaller.”
Barker elaborates that he writes big books—and he writes short stories. “I think the horror stories tend to work very well in the short form because they’re a slap across the face, frankly. The whole idea in a sense, is to shock people, and at the same time, and Brannon does this beautifully, seduce people. Part of it’s seduction, and part of it’s a slap, and that’s a good combination. He achieves that beautifully.”
About the Books of Blood series
EVERYBODY IS A BOOK OF BLOOD; WHEREVER WE’RE OPENED, WE’RE RED. — Clive Barker
Few authors can claim to have marked a genre so thoroughly and personally that their words have leaked into every aspect of modern pop culture. Clive Barker is such an author, and the Books of Blood marked his debut—his coming out to the world—in brilliant, unforgettable fashion.
The Books of Blood combine the ordinary with the extraordinary while radiating the eroticism that has become Barker’s signature. Weaving tales of the everyday world transformed into an unrecognizable place, where reason no longer exists and logic ceases to explain the workings of the universe, Clive Barker provides the stuff of nightmares in packages too tantalizing to resist.
Never one to shy away from the unimaginable or the unspeakable, Clive Barker breathes life into our deepest, darkest nightmares, creating visions that are at once terrifying, tender, and witty.
Find the Books of Blood series on Amazon.
Find more info about the books below…
About the author
A novelist, director, screenwriter and dramatist, Clive Barker began writing horror early in his career with short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1–6) and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). His fiction also includes The Hellbound Heart (1986), the classic tale of supernatural obsession that inspired the cult classic film Hellraiser, as well as the modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), and the world-spanning Imajica (1991).
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Complete Books of Blood series
The Books of Blood - Volume 1
This first volume contains the short stories
“The Book of Blood”
“The Midnight Meat Train”
“The Yattering and Jack”
“Sex, Death, and Starshine”
“In the Hills, the Cities”
Plus the original introduction to volumes one, two, and three by Ramsey Campbell, and a new introduction by author David Niall Wilson.
The Books of Blood - Volume 2
This second volume contains the short stories
“Dread”
“Hell's Event”
“Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament”
“The Skins of the Fathers”
“New Murders in the Rue Morgue”
Plus a new introduction by author Steven Savile.
The Books of Blood - Volume 3
This third volume contains the short stories
“Son of Celluloid”
“Rawhead Rex”
“Confessions of a (Pornographer’s) Shroud”
“Scape-Goats”
“Human Remains”
Plus a new introduction by author Chet Williamson.
The Books of Blood - Volume 4
This fourth volume contains the short stories
“The Inhuman Condition”
“The Body Politic”
“Revelations”
“Down, Satan”
“The Age of Desire”
Plus a new introduction by author Al Sarrantonio.
The Books of Blood - Volume 5
This fifth volume contains the short stories
“In the Flesh”
“The Forbidden”
“The Madonna”
“Babel’s Children”
Plus a new introduction by author Joe R. Lansdale.
The Books of Blood - Volume 6
In this, the sixth and final volume of Clive Barker's Books of Blood, with a new introduction by Mark Miller, five new stories of darkness unleashed:
THE LIFE OF DEATH - Hidden in the crypt of a derelict church she found Decay and Corruption in hits terrible glory. But such glamour can prove infectious....
HOW SPOILERS BLEED - They commited a crime no jury could convict them for. But there were other judges...other punishments...
TWILIGHT AT THE TOWERS - Ballard was the perfect spy. A man with all the cunning of an animal. Or was it vice-versa?
THE LAST ILLUSION - (A Harry D’Amour novella) - New York had shown Harry horrors enough for a dozen lifetimes. He thought he'd seen the worst that flesh could suffer. Then the beautiful widow walked into his life, with a husband who wouldn't lie down dead, and all Hell on her hells. And suddenly Harry was face to face with forces that could teach Manhattan a lesson in depravity.
ON JERUSALEM STREET (a Postscript) After the end, a new beginning: walking the highway of the dead...
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More related links
'Nightbreed' May Not Be Clive Barker's Best Movie, but It Is His Most Personal (Collider)
Clive Barker’s 10 favorite films (Far Out Magazine)
Clive Barker Movie Adaptations, Ranked (MovieWeb)
Hellraiser: 7 Best Horror Movies Based On Clive Barker's Stories (Game Rant)
Clive Barker's Dark Worlds Authors On Why The Horror Legend Has So Many Longtime Collaborators (Looper)
How Clive Barker started the Hellraiser movies with his novella The Hellbound Heart (CBR)
'Hellraiser' - Clive Barker & David Bruckner on the Franchise's Legacy & Future (Bloody Disgusting)
Clive Barker Had One Overarching Piece Of Advice About David Bruckner's Hellraiser Approach (Slash Film)
The Untold Truth Of Hellraiser (Looper)
Clive Barker interview: 'I woke up from a coma, and everything I owned was gone' (The Telegraph)
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Features Clive Barker's Art (Gizmodo)
Clive Barker Still Wants To Make His Transgender Take On The Mummy (We Got This Covered)
Make Godzilla Scary Again—And Hire Clive Barker For The Job (Looper)
