Rue Morgue Magazine January selection.

Rue Morgue Book of the Month Club January Selection
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

When people ask me who my favorite author is I immediately say Clive Barker. His prose is something that I personally aspire to. His imagery is always stupendous at showing you things that could never exist in this waking life. His themes always intrigue and challenge me. This book is the first that I ever read by him and was the catalyst for me reading and collecting his books.
First off a short synopsis. If you have seen the Hellraiser film then you have a grasp of the book in general. There are some things that are slightly different and the book lets your imagination go wild with the cenobites. The premise of the book is that Frank is searching for an experience that is above and beyond what he can find in this world. Find it he does when he solved the puzzle box and unleashes the acolytes of the Gash or the Cenobites. The Cenobites imprison Frank in the walls of the house that he is staying in. There he suffers in his solitude.
Fastforward. Julia and her husband Rory, who is Frank’s brother, move into the same house that they have inherited recently. When an accident occurs Rory’s blood spills on the ground of the room Frank is trapped in setting into motion his release. From that point on the story evolves into something much darker, that honestly you should read the book to find out about.
There are some flaws with the book, most obviously character development. This is a very short novella and there isn’t much more flesh to this story than a short story. It did stand out though when Barker had much less work out in the public eye. So as an early work this is a high water mark for certain.
I feel that it really intimately deals with the juxtaposition of beauty and grotesque in a way that may be the author exploring that concepts of not only being comfortable but embracing that which “normal” people find obscene. In the case of the author that would be homosexuality, something that Barker is very open about. Other themes that the novella explores are those of isolation and longing.
The power of the human mind to do the truly insane in the face of desire becomes evident in Julia’s character as she brings men to her home to kill them and give their blood to the quickly reforming Frank. Isolation is the main fear that both characters have. Frank wants to escape his and Julia desires something to break her from the monotony of everyday life, her form of isolation.
Over all this is a fantastic book and comes highly recommended.