Books of Blood, Vol. 1 (1984)

This book is so much more than just an anthology of short stories. There is actually a very unique concept in how all these stories tie into each other.

When first opening this book, the page after the Acknowledgments reads a simple but eerie quote:

"Everybody is a book of blood; Whenever we're opened, we're red."

The opening story is called The Book of Blood. It's basically about this guy who pisses off the spirit world and they decide they are going to teach him a serious lesson. They basically carve their stories into his skin. These carvings are the following stories in the book.

-The Midnight Meat Train : This was a pretty good story, a bit gory, but good all the same. After reading this, I don't think I'll be taking the subway anywhere.

-The Yattering and Jack: This was one of my favorites contained in this anthology. The Yattering is a little demon who likes to cause chaos. This story was actually funny.

-Pig Blood Blues: This was my other favorite. My kids are wonderful and don't ever get into trouble, but if they are ever tempted to do anything bad I will certainly let them read this story and swear it's the truth behind juvenile detention centers.

-Sex, Death and Starshine: This one was pretty good. Very dramatic, but it's about a theater and actors so it fits the bill.

-In the Hills, The Cities: This is probably the only story I really didn't care for. I suppose it's because I didn't like the two main characters. They seemed contrived and the story seemed forced. There was no connection with the characters and I really didn't care what happened to them.

I would definitely call this book a success and liked it a lot despite not liking the last story in the anthology. I don't know of anyone who likes every story contained in an anthology. It's most certainly worth the read. I hope to get volume 2 & 3 soon.

*Book Hollow* ( )

Weel, Clive Barkes is a sick man. He has to be. But his sick and undoubtedly original fantasy takes him to hat he is, one of the greatest horror writer alive. In the first volume of the Books of Blood there's everything what makes a good Barker book. Every short story's a masterpiece but if I have to choose, my favourite would be The Yattering and Jack because of its hilarious humour.... ( )

Horror stories carved in the flesh of a young man by an army of angry ghosts. Some of the tales are truly inspired. The Yattering and Jack is the hilarious story of a demon haunting an excessively mild-mannered man who doesn't seem to take the slightest notice of the supernatural disturbances in his house. Pig Blood Blues tells the creepy story of an institute for adolescent offenders where a pig has become possessed with the homicidal and cannibalistic spirit of one of the dead boys. In the Hills, the Cities is one of my favourite short stories, the wonderfully weird tale of a gay couple touring the countryside of Yugoslavia when they discover the twin cities of Popolac and Podujevo - cities that fight every ten years as giants made out of all of their citizens lashed together. ( )

This volume, the first of Barker's celebrated BOOKS OF BLOOD series, contains his very best short story, "In the Hills, the Cities". Ranks up there with anything by J.G. Ballard or James Morrow. Barker helped horror escape its doldrums back in the 1980's--we need a similar figure to come forward and redeem the genre today. Horror these days is in terrible, terrible shape... ( )

Good anthology. The Yattering and Jack is my favorite in Volume One. ( )