Mister B. Gone
Clive Barker

Mister B. Gone marks the long awaited return of Clive Barker, the great master of the macabre, to the classic horror story. The bone chilling novel, in which a medieval devil speaks directly to his reader - his tone murderous one moment, seductive the next - 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.
A brilliant and truly unsettling tour de force of the supernatural, Mister B. Gone escorts the reader on an intimate and revelatory journey to uncover the shocking truth of the battle between Good and Evil.

I'm just going to come right out and say it - Clive Barker is the best author of our time. Not only can he do absolutely chilling and macabre horror like The Hellbound Heart, but he can also do young adult novels like Abarat. And this, this is something that has never been done before. A demon, trapped inside this book, pleads with the reader to burn the book and tells the story of his history.

Starting in the Ninth Circle of Hell and then trapped and forcibly brought up to our world, Mister B. travels the world both learning more about it and tormenting humans whenever he can.

I have never read a novel like this before, where the narrator is, quite literally, trapped inside the pages of the book. It almost seemed as if the story was writing itself while I was reading it. A feat that is quite impressive.

While this would fall under the label of horror due to the demonic nature of the narrator and the things he has both been through and done, it is also much more than a horror novel. It's an insight into the very nature of both Good and Evil and it is written in the most creative of ways.

Much like Barker's other works, this one does not fail to impress and I highly recommend it.

My rating: Five out of five snails.