by Clive Barker

isbn: 0061002828
subject: Fiction and Literature
finished: 8/24/1998

Although I don't read many horror stories, I often enjoy Clive Barker's short fiction (and occasionally, his novels). He has a low hit-rate, but when he's good, he's very good. The Hellbound Heart is about a jaded man who solves a puzzle-box and summons the Cenobites during his search for pleasures that Earth can't give him. He gets something other than what he expected, and is later gruesomely brought back to life by his brother and sister-in-law. I don't think there's a moral, a theme, or a message here, but this is a short and fun book -- it's well written and avoids most of the sillier conventions of horror fiction.