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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780743417327
ISBN number: 0743417321
Label: Pocket
Manufacturer: Pocket
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: January 02, 2001
Publishing house: Pocket
Sale Popularity Level: 223501
Studio: Pocket
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
For more than two decades, Clive Barker has twisted the worlds of horrific and surrealistic fiction into a terrifying, transcendent genre all his own. With skillful prose, he enthralls even as he horrifies; with uncanny insight, he disturbs as profoundly as he reveals. Evoking revulsion and admiration, anticipation and dread, Barker's works explore the darkest contradictions of the human condition: our fear of life and our dreams of death.
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Rated by buyers 
-
The short stories at the end aren't bad; the novella itself had less to recommend it.
Rated by buyers -
It seems that many of the reviews praising this book are written by die-hard Clive Barker fans urging everyone "if you like Barker, read this book". Well, this is my very first novel by Barker, and I have mixed feelings about the book. First of all, I bought this book off the shelf and paid retail for it, and only because it passed the first-page test. I think it is the height of arrogance for publishers to market novels based solely on editorial reviews with NO description of the plot on the back cover (as if readers should trust in the author's name that the story will be good). Any well-read person knows that even great authors sometimes write duds. I'm not saying Cabal is a dud, but it is deceiving given that only the very first 195 pages of a 358-page book are devoted to the actual story. The latter half of the book is a series of short stories that have no connection to or similarity with the novel itself (other than the horror element).
The writing (to begin with) was fast-paced and vivid, but the pacing felt rushed (understandably so after I discovered how short the novel was). While the characters are vivid they are not well-developed. For example: we never learn what it is about Boone that inspires such devotion in Lori. We learn almost nothing of Boone other than that he is suffering from an unnamed mental psychosis. Decker is the Jeckyll & Hyde bad guy trying to convince Boone that he is guilty of murdering 11 people. We get the story from each of their perspectives: very first Boone, then Lori, then Decker and minor characters near the end (a stereotypical southern sheriff: "For Eigerman bright ideas and excretion were inextricably linked").
My biggest two problems with the book (and why I took off 2 stars) are: (1) I don't think Barker pens believable female characters, and (2) the crude writing style when it comes to sexual content(which is a noticable departure from the almost lyrical writing style of the rest of the book). If Barker had been crude throughout, I wouldn't have been bothered so much by the unjustified use of crudity. The pointless scene in the motel room with Lori masturbating is gratuitous and serves absolutely no purpose to the story other than a Hustler-style confessional. Considering how short the story is, I would think the pages devoted to this voyeurism would be better served furthering the plot. Women don't use the c-word when describing themselves naked. That is a man's idea of how women think. I notice no men in the story masturbating or staring at themselves naked in the mirror.
The scene with Lori and traveling companion Sheryl arriving to a burned-out warehouse in a bad neighborhood at night reads like a like a bad B-movie where the girl in lingerie walks out to see if there's anyone hiding in the dark. The women arrive to the address given them by Sheryl's new boyfriend where they are supposed to meet for dinner. Lori (understanably) thinks to herself what kind of sicko would play such a practical joke as Shyrl enters the fire-trap. She hears Sheryl laugh from inside and, what does she do, goes ahead and FOLLOWS SHERYL INTO THE BUILDING! No woman would ever do this, and especially not for such a dumb reason "suspecting now [Sheryl's] compliance in this fiasco, Lori stepped through the door in search of the tricksters." This would have been more believable if Lori had entered the building because she was afraid to linger by herself on the street.
The plot was engaging up to the point of the Nightbreed, and then there were too many cuts to different characters' points of view. We got more than enough of maniac Decker's cartoonish evil thoughts as the Mask. I skimmed the latter half of the story around the time of the sheriff's introduction. At that point, I didn't have the patience to read through yet another cliched character's thoughts merely to find out whether Boone triumphs from the dead and Decker gets his in the end.
Bottom line: if you have to read it, borrow it or get it from the library. Don't pay full price -- or even amazon price. $10 is too much for this short novel.
Rated by buyers -
Man is monster, fitting in at home perhaps fatal.
A young bloke has the odd weird dream and experience, and decides to go on a trip. He discovers that all is not what it seems, especially him. It seems he is one of the prettier variety of an underground group of non-humans monsters, oddities and supernatural types called the Nightbreed, and acceptance is not automatic. Horror novel, so got to be some mayhem here and there.
Rated by buyers 
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Early Barker, stunning, beautiful, horrifying, terrifying, heartbreaking. All the things we love Clive for. If you haven't already read this book, why the heck not? If you have, read it again. And again.
Rated by buyers -
Horror had run its course in the 90s when Silence of the Lawbs won an Oscar. Or did it? Clive Barker became the future of horror, these cheap paperback novels where you could see the pulp it was printed on. This contains the basis for the film Nightbreed; it was an international flop! Still had enough of a following to be known amongst movie and dark culture afficienados. However, while he may have been the latest in a long line of kings of horror in his late 1980s through the late 90s in his prime, with Clive Barker still around it seems society hasn't changed and some of us such as myself are even going backwards possibly, stuck in the late 80s- early 90s with our comic book menace, Vampirethe Masquerade role playing game, GURPS, LARP, etc. But it is still good to see someone so innovative for his time as to think of entirely original ideas like the Hellraiser franchise. Clive Barker has some originality- most cheerleaders need to get some fresh concepts, still stuck in the boring high school society that we got into this dark fantasy culture in the very first place- out of rebellion.
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