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Clive Barker

MISTER B. GONE

ABARAT

COLDHEART CANYON

MISTER B. GONE
Clive Barker
HarperCollins
Horror
ISBN:9780060182984

It has been more than five years since the prolific horror writer Clive Barker has published an adult novel. And it has been almost 20 years since the film Hellraiser made him an icon. This fall he is back with another scary tale, MISTER B. GONE.

The titular Mister B. is Jakabok Botch, a demon born and raised in the ninth circle of hell, where his abusive father tends the trash heaps of Demonation. The sensitive young Botch takes to writing down his dreams of torture machines and revenge on his father and neighborhood bullies. However, all that stops when his mother discovers his journals. She demands he burn them, but before they are completely destroyed, his father, Pappy Gatmuss, reads a few choice passages. Pappy turns on his son in anger, and Botch falls into the raging fire. Later, the hideous narrator is fished out of hell, along with his father, by a corrupt priest. He seizes the opportunity to kill his father, letting him fall back through all the circles of Demonation to his death.

Now, Botch is on earth's surface and fleeing those who would do the not-very-supernaturally-talented demon harm. He finds himself in medieval Europe, a place where demons and angels are as real as any human, and eventually joins forces with another demon, the powerful and charming Quintoon Patheea. For a couple hundred years the two travel Europe, slaying priests and bathing in the blood of babies.

But they also are always on the lookout for the next great invention. Quintoon believes that a man in Mainz is about to change civilization with his invention, and the two head in that direction. They part bitterly on the road but meet again in the home of Johannes Gutenberg, where they witness a violent battle between good and evil and a secret big enough to seduce Botch's readers. Why does Botch need to seduce the reader? Because he wants, desperately wants, the book burned. See, the book itself has been the prison of Botch since that day in Mainz, and he wants to be released into death; the only person capable of delivering him is the person reading the book.

Barker's gimmick, that Botch is trapped in the book and is trying to convince the reader to burn it, is interesting, but it is a gimmick nonetheless. MISTER B. GONE is flat where it could've been exciting and cliché where it could've been innovative. It lacks the intensity, spirit and horror of his better works. Botch pleads and cajoles endlessly for the reader to just stop reading and burn the book, but never really digs deep into his own potentially intriguing tale.

MISTER B. GONE is not without some charm: Barker's humanization of demons is engaging. His relationship with his soulmate Quintoon and the idea of the power of words as one that heaven and hell are willing to fight over are promising, but the author never really delivers. Despite these criticisms, however, hardcore fans of Clive Barker will be happy to have their hands on this quirky book (with wonderfully yellowed pages).

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

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