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Mister B. Gone

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Author: Clive Barker
Publisher: HarperCollins
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$24.95~~
Buy Used: $3.74
You Save: $21.21 (85%)

New (48) Used (28) from $3.74

Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1

ISBN: 0060182989
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780060182984
ASIN: 0060182989

Publication Date: October 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Recycled Library Edition

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
p Mister B. Gone marks the long-awaited return of Clive Barker, the great master of the macabre, to the classic horror story. This bone-chilling novel, in which a medieval devil speaks directly to his reader#8212;his tone murderous one moment, seductive the next#8212;is a never-before-published memoir allegedly penned in the year 1438. The demon has embedded himself in the very words of this tale of terror, turning the book itself into a dangerous object, laced with menace only too ready to break free and exert its power. /p p A brilliant and truly unsettling tour de force of the supernatural, iMister B. Gone/i escorts the reader on an intimate and revelatory journey to uncover the shocking truth of the battle between Good and Evil. /p

Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...

2 out of 5 stars

Oh dear. November 19, 2008
Arghhhhhh. I am the victim of those sly tricksters called the marketing department who ply their evil trade on unsuspecting bibliophiles such as myself. Why, oh why, do I not better guard against this?br /br /The Short Synopsisbr /A nasty little demon by the name of Jakabok Botch is fished out of the ninth circle of hell and brought up to our world by those who would sell him for profit. He promptly escapes and spends the next few hundred years wreaking havoc on humankind in all sorts of grotesque ways. On the way, he makes friends with another hideous demon called Quitoon and together they seek out important human inventions throughout the Middle Ages. Eventually ending up at the home of Johannes Gutenberg (yes, of printing press fame), Jakabok is witness to the negotiations between Heaven and Hell's representatives as they hammer out an agreement as to who will profit most from Gutenberg's historical invention. Ultimately, he ends up within the pages of this novel, telling you his own story.br /br /The Literary Criticismbr /This had the makings of a terrific tale. A demon caught in the pages of a book and revealing the secrets of Heaven and Hell? By any estimation, this is an inventive premise.br /br /But somewhere between the premise and the telling of the story, opportunity was lost. Instead of following the trail of mankind's role in good and evil, Barker reverts to graphic descriptions of torture machines and the myriad of ways there are to disembowel a person. In some cases, less is more.br /br /Every so often, I detected the rumblings of what could have been a much better novel. A phrase here, a philosophical underlining there, but nothing ever came of it. Instead, the author would revert back to pages upon pages (upon pages) of entreaties to burn the book and the terrible things that would happen to me if I did not heed the warnings. Perhaps I ought to have listened?br /br /As to Jakabok himself, I never quite felt his anger or his pain (though perhaps this is a good thing). Barker tells us that Jakabok developed quite a close friendship with Quitoon, but the relationship was never fully convincing nor explored. Instead of examining the human-like qualities of the two demons, Barker chose to focus on describing what I am assuming were meant to be unspeakable horrors. Sadly, in this day and age of desensitization, the graphic descriptions only caused me to involuntarily roll my eyes.br /br /There were quite a few grammatical errors, such as switching tenses in mid-sentence, but I can't blame the author for that business. Rather, that would be the purveyance of the editor, who dropped the ball here.br /br /Are there any good points? Well the marketing team clearly did their job well. The clippings, the aging of the pages to resemble an old manuscript ... all exceptional work. If I wrote a book, I would want this team working for me. After all, they managed to trick a skeptical reader like myself here.br /br /The Recommendationbr /I cannot, in good conscious, encourage you to spend your hard-earned money on this novel. Don't take my word for it: ask Brian Baker who aptly titled his review Mister B. Gone, and he took my money with him. Mr. Barker has written many fine novels in the past and if you're interested in his work, you'd do better to try The Hellhound Heart: A Novel or even Abarat. Creepy stuff right there. Perhaps this book is best reserved for die-hard Barker fans if for no other reason than to complete a collection. (I feel your OCD...really, I do.)

2 out of 5 stars

Unsuccessful experiment October 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

A demon who has been imprisoned within the pages of a book (this book) tells the story of his adventures in 14th century Europe in the hopes of persuading the reader (you) to end his misery by burning it.br /br /There are some interesting ideas here, such as the conceit that great developments in human culture (in this case, Gutenberg's invention of the printing press) become the catalyst for frenzied warfare and consultation between Heaven and Hell. However, for the most part, the novel didn't work for me. Clive Barker's conception of demon psychology and society was largely incoherent and inconsistent. Our "hero" enjoys bathing in the blood of infants and killing untold multitudes at some points of the story, yet at other times defends individual humans at the risk of his own life and speaks disapprovingly of spousal abuse. Like so many other reviewers, I also became bored with the frequent and lengthy injunctions to burn the book. Barker is a talented writer, but he falters here.br /

4 out of 5 stars

Out of Hell and into Amazon October 3, 2008
16 out of 19 found this review helpful

(Hardcover version)br /br /When you read this review can you hear my voice in your head? How does it sound like? Is it someone you know? Well that is what I thought. You know you shouldn't read this review, but there you go doing it anyway, don't tell me I didn't warn you.br /br /This unique book is both a story about a demon and a conversation with that demon all at once. My first paragraph is my feeble attempt at imitating what goes on in the book. In the book there are several requests to stop reading the book and burn it instead, and some of these requests are threats of torture and threats of eternal damnation if you don't burn the book. This gets a little tired after a while, but I found the concept of a demon both telling his gruesome life story and talking to you and threatening you all at the same time quite innovative and creepy.br /br /The name of the demon is Jakabok Botch. He escaped the ninth circle of Hell in the 14th century. He has been with us ever since and if you buy this book he will be living with you too. He is ugly, severely burned, has two tails, he is hateful, and he likes to take warm baths in the fresh blood of infants. br /br /I admit I did not think the book was very scary, but for me it was still a page turner. I found the book to be interesting and creative. I found the comparisons between the heartless barbarism of people in less enlightened times (as well as today) and that of demons in Hell enlightening. Earth looks a lot like just another circle of Hell in which we are our own demons. However, in this circle of Hell, there is a choice, a choice that the eternally damned demons do not have. Demons and Humans are so similar and yet so different.br /br /An episode in the book that I found to be quite intriguing was the war and then the negotiation between the angels of heaven and the demons of hell over the written word at the time and place of Gutenberg's invention. This event determined our future and this book had a very peculiar place in this history.br /br /With regards to Clive Barker I am a first time reader and contrary to what Publishers Weekly told me I still liked it. I should say that I have seen the Hellraiser movies and I've bought a pinhead mask for Halloween so I am not totally unfamiliar with Clive Barker, but I have never read a book of his before. If this book was among Clive Barker's worst then I cannot wait to check out the other books (I'll go for Hellbound Heart next). I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something different and odd, but not as a good horror book.br /

4 out of 5 stars

Read it! Or burn it....? September 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

For me, this book is a sort of stand-alone Books-of-Blood type 'o novel from Clive. It's short, it's amusing, it's sometimes desgusting and I really liked it...br /First off, I must say I was rather sceptical about the book (mostly due to poor reviews from fellow Amazoner's), and reading about how the book was flawed in story, composition and general gramatics made me wonder how good it really was. br /br /After completing I must say I am very fond of this book. br /Ok, it is not a Gallilee, but for me it's a great, fresh horror story from Clive. br /br /Recommened to fans.

4 out of 5 stars

Burn this book! September 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

The book pleads with you, threatens you, and tempts you to burn it.br /br /A demon is forced to exist as a book, and this isn't so much a book as a tacit conversation between you and that demon. His life's story, from growing up in an abusive family (big surprise there) in the Ninth Ring of Hell, to his wanderings on Earth with another demon for a companion, to his role in the (arguably) most important technological innovation of the second millenium, common era.br /br /A remarkable innovation in format from one of the best horror writers of the past century. It's fast moving, and I enjoyed it. The demon's appeals, threats, and tirades could have been toned down a little bit while preserving the flavor and enhancing the impact, but overall, it worked.br /br /E.M. Van Court

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