Mister B. Gone
by Clive Barker
Synopsis: Jakabok Botch, the child of two demons who has inherited his father's two tails, is rendered even more grotesque after he tumbles into a fire and most of his face is badly burned. A violent dispute with his abusive father leads him to our world. Jakabok eventually finds his way to the home of Johannes Gutenberg, where something big is going down.
A really offbeat novel, as it's written in the form of the demon's diary as a first-person narrative and at times where he actually tries to speak to the reader and tries to convince you to burn the book. He also threatens to kill you a couple of times. This was sort of interesting at first, but after several times it just got sort of old and annoying.
The story itself is pretty thin. I had some anticipation building for what big secret he was to find when he arrived at the home of the final showdown, but was letdown as to what it really was. But I did enjoy and was intrigued by the war and then the negotiation between the angels of heaven and the demons of hell over the written word.
It's a short read that's at times pretty disgusting, but never scary. I like the premise and it has it's moments, but overall the book is really sort of boring and disappointing as a fan of Clive Barker's. Perhaps I expected more just because it was his work.
5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment