Clive Barker's Books of Blood 2

The second in this series at 3.40 isn't as strong as the first, and the initial tale is the best. Books of Blood 2 : Dread - Clive Barker Books of Blood 2 : Hell's Event - Clive Barker Books of Blood 2 : Jacqueline Ess Her Will and Testament - Clive Barker Books of Blood 2 : The Skins of the Fathers - Clive Barker Books of Blood 2 : New Murders in the Rue Morgue - Clive Barker Fear experiment just axeing for some clowning around. 4 out of 5 Devil race rivalry. 3.5 out of 5 Remaking man. 3 out of 5 Inhuman confrontation. 3 out of 5 Where is that ape, anyway. 3.5 out of 5 3.5 out of 5

I could give this book five stars,but I guess that would be pushing it a bit too much.After all this book deserves three stars!I am only giving four because of two reasons 1)I am a Clive Barker fan 2)These books of blood are his debut books.And I wouldn't expect more from debut books. But overall this book was simple to read.It was highly violent.And at times,dirty. I am going to give you my opinion of each of the stories and a brief "sneak peek". 1)Dread............................................(not too bad) 2)Hell's event.....................................(good) 3)Jacqueline Ess:her will and testimony............(good) 4)The skins of the fathers.........................(okay) 5)New murders in the rue morgue....................(stupid,dumb) 1)In "Dread",a college student becomes horrified by his own fears.And sets out to experiment on other people's fears.Trying to make them trip.He basically used other people's fears to torcher them hoping that his own fears would leave him alone. But in the end,his own fears kill him.(his fear was that one day a guy would hack him to death).And one of his "experiments",a college studient,driven mad,kills him! A very cool story,just good enough to start the book with. 2)In hell's event,things get a little better that the previous story. Once every century a race takes place.Humankind against Hell!If humankind wins the race,life goes on.But if hell wins the race,then the world would end! This race I am talking about is sort of like a marathon. And in the race described in the book,hell decides to play the game a bit unfair,and things start to turn messy! 3)Jaqueline Ess,not too bad but from here the book starts too lose its touch.This story is simply about a woman who has the power to destroy someone with her mind!There is a great detailed description of how she uses her mind to turn her husband to dead meat.She can also will someone to do whatever she wants them to do.(believe me,this woman is no woman you would like to mess with). 4)This skins of the fathers.(again the book is on its way to getting stupid). In this story,there is some strange race of monsters.They,and women(human women)have existed long before human men!Human men came as a result of the monsters reproducing with human women!(I know this sounds dumb,but the story fails too impress me). Now,after one of the monsters in the present time mates with a woman,she has a son. Now,all these monsters want is their son back from the humans.(yes,there son,the boy has more that one fathers!monster fathers)...The humans start to fight back,thereby killing the son just as he was beginning to transform into a monster and things get a little mess.(not a very facinating read,but short a fast paced though) 5)Now,this story "new murders in the rue morgue" is dumb,it spoils the end of the book.Losing my trust in the books of blood. It is simply with a man who has trained a gorilla to act like a human.And this gorilla turns into a pervert after the man g

Clive Barker's 'Books of Blood' contain some of the best horror-short-stories ever written. Barker's talent to scare and impress you both with his literary genius is at his best here.This second book is not as good as the rest, but especially the first one is really good. Still very good horror.

Having read the first Volume of 'Books of blood' I was eager to find stories as good as 'The Yattering and Jack'. This book provides such stories. Apart from 'Dread' these are all first class. Dread is good, but the subject matter is a bit sadistic for my liking and the plot lacks Barker's usual imagination. I think that this book is more consistent than the first volume of 'Books of Blood' and fully deserves five stars. This is possibly the best collection of horror stories I have read.

It just goes to show you that everyone's tastes are different! I had to type a review because I thought that "Dread" was the best, albeit short, horror story that I have ever read. I read the book when it originally came out... it says 1987, I thought it was a year or two earlier than that. The Books of Blood were my introduction to Clive Barker. I have read other works by him, but I feel that the blood books were his best.