Clive Barker can still paint a picture with words. His descriptions of hell would put many a paintings to shame.
In a sense the journey reminded me of The 9th Fortress, but in a good way.
Harry and his motley crew go on quite a crazy journey to hell to try and save one of their own. Will they make it out alive or perish in their mission? ( )

I saw another reviewer say something to the effect of, if they had not read other Clive Barker stories and were not already a fan of his work, they might actually have enjoyed this, and I think that's a pretty accurate statement. I went into this with some pretty significant expectations, more concerning D'Amour and world building than concerning Pinhead if I am honest, and this was a big let down. It feels more like a generic pulp horror/urban fantasy than anything from the author of the Books of Blood or Imajica. I feel like there's some reaching for grand scope and depth, but if falls flat coming across as trite. The characterization is weak, most of the characters feeling shallow and disposable (even the ones we already know from previous works). There is little of either a sense of horror or wonder to this, feeling more like an adventure novel than anything. I almost put it down and didn't finish it, more than once. ( )

Gross and disturbing, full of 'oh shit' moments, and that's what I love about Clive Barker. ( )

This book is, in a word, ridiculous.

I was a fan of Barker back in the day. In the early nineties, I couldn't get enough of the new, darker wave of horror, and Barker was the poster boy for this particular brand. I still remember the terrible covers of the Books of Blood, gummy worms on plastic masks... but the stories haunted. In the Hills, the Cities remains in my subconscious.

So I was quite pleased to hear that he was returning to the horror world with this long -awaited book. So imagine my disappointment when I found the amateurish, pointless writing within.

There are a lot of things I could look at: the needless characters, the bizarre metaphysics, the pathetic attempts at humor... but let's talk about the wordcraft.

Clive Barker has been a professional writer for decades. He's got experience, and some talent. So why the hell is he writing sentences like :

As the water poured over him, Harry imagined that it cleaned him not only of his body’s naturally collected oils but also of the events of the past few days.

"Naturally collected oils. " such elegant writing!

or:

"Do not bother to run, Harry D’Amour,” said the Cenobite, releasing Harry from the chain’s grip. “For there is nowhere to go."

or

" Your modesty nauseates me. Be boastful while you have the breath for it. You are Harry D’Amour: private investigator, scourge of Hell."

or my favorite:

"The stomach of one had been hooked and hauled up through his throat; the face of another was emerging from his butt hole like a prodigious bowel movement."

Such cliche!

It's ugly. It's riddled with stupid adverbs ("the door was severely locked"?!) and there is a character whose sole means of communication seems to be dick jokes.

On the whole, it reads like Clive Barker fanfiction. Harry D'Amour meets Pinhead! (But don't use that name! it's stupid and insulting but everyone uses it so oh well...) There is no real plot, just a string of events that have no reason to happen and a word insistence on specific details (it took Harry less than ten seconds to pick a lock, it was four steps from the door to another room, pinhead cut the legs off seven demons at once, etc.).

It's not unreadable, hence the 2nd star, but it's not good. It's barely mediocre. And coming from the one time dark prince of horror, that's pretty bad. ( )

If you are a fan of Clive Barker, this will be a fun read. If not, then it will just be really gross and nasty and you should read something else. ( )