Mister B. Gone

Just jacket has been sliced across the front and I to the book itself. Bummer but I can still read it.

As Barker books go this one is a comedy. But a dark one. Burn it. But if youre a Barker fan read it first!

I read all of Mister B. Gone the first day I picked it up, something about the book kept me going. Though it isn't the best book he has ever written I still enjoyed it nonetheless. I think some people disliked this book because they picked it up and expected it to be like his past writings, and were shocked when it wasn't. It is a good read, and can be knocked out in a day or two depending on your time.

If all you are looking for is a hack and slash idiot fest... full of senseless killing and gore... Well... Theres plenty of such things in this book. But it would STILL bore you. This is a fascinatingly entrancing book, quite a gimmick... but what is a novel without originality? Mr. B. Gone shows it very well. I have heard a lot of complaining about "typographical errors" and what i say to you is... If you were a demon... who had, in his hundreds of years on this planet, never written a novel, or a book of any sort, and you were one day trapped inside a book, with letters you can rearrange and create... and you had to write a story, your life story, quickly right in front of ones eyes, You wouldn't make an error or two? What im trying to say is, the, rare and almost invisible, errors in the typing add to the flavor of this book. The main idea. Now the book itself. As a novel, Fantastic! His descriptive power is gorgeous! Showing the power of words! The whole book shows the power held within words. "In the beginning, there was the word. And the word was God" In the end... there was Mister B. And the word was Mister B. and Mister B. was the word. Yet... the word is not powerful enough to earn just one tiny flame... Genius. A work of modern literature, creating a very dark and logical (yet quite probable) view of the politics of heaven and hell. Worthy of instant "Classic" status.

It seems that there are a lot of mixed reviews of this book, and I imagine what a lot of people are missing is that this isn't a horror or suspense book - it's a black comedy. The narrator is completely unreliable, and at turns lovable and pathetic. He tries so hard to be bad, but we have to come to the conclusion that he's nothing but sad and lonely. The depictions of horrors and tortures are intentionally graphic, but in the silly way that a child might imagine an overly deadly scene in order to attempt to shock an adult. If one reads the book as a serious tale of an arch demon, it would be disappointing, but read as a character study of a deeply flawed narrator who so badly wants to be evil but simply cannot manage to overcome his desire for love and belonging, it's both sad and amusing. Barker tantalizes you with details and emotions, he doesn't bash you over the head with them. Read with an eye for the humorous and absurd, this is a fantastic black comedy with both soul and laughter amid the refuse and pain.

Other reviewers have already given an excellent synopsis of Mr Barker's novella, so I won't add to the repetition. Yes, there were some proof-reading issues but sadly, this seems to be a regular occurrence in modern publishing. I decided to ignore Jakabok Botch's plea to burn "Mister B. Gone", and began reading the same night I was fortunate enough to attend an event where Clive Barker spoke about this book, and other topics (as a side note, I would never have guessed the 'master of the macabre' would be such a genuinely lovely bloke). Feeling tired, I only read a dozen or so pages before hitting the sack. I repeated the same process the next night. While Jakabok's story piqued my interest, I was sidetracked by a few seemingly glaring grammatical errors, which ended up distracting from the story itself. So, I put the book away until yesterday, when I had the chance to devote a few hours in the afternoon to starting over, and immersing myself in the tale. It made all the difference. The proof-reading issues were easily overlooked. Curled up on the couch on a typically dismal Seattle afternoon, I had a very satisfying sensory experience with this tale -- from the wonderfully crafted character of Jakabok Botch (a gorgeous mouthful of a name) himself, the intimate conversational tone Jakabok employs with the reader; the beautiful, achingly brutal, and sometimes terrifying imagery Barker is so gifted at conjuring; and the lovely presentation of the book itself, which looks like it has been lurking on a neglected shelf for centuries. Make sure you have a few hours to yourself, free from distraction, to enjoy this creation from a true master of the dark fantastic.