Mister B. Gone - Clive Barker - 5*

Mister B. Gone

Clive Barker

*****

No Spoilers

Mister B. Gone comes from the twisted and delightfully imaginative mind of Clive Barker. I hate to say this, I have only read one book from him, but loved most of his Horror movies and his other works. I have heard about Mister B. Gone and was intrigued, when I unwrapped it on Christmas day I devoured it, I stayed up until late and was very reluctant to stop, but had to. So I continued today, where I finished it, and was unhappy that there wasn't more of Jakabok.

The book starts in a very unique way -- Barker has completely destroyed that fourth wall, and I loved it. The opening sentences basically are telling you to 'Burn this book', lest the dark secrets of destruction, hate and diabolical things consume you and make the main character come out of the book and slit your throat. It is a very macabre and dark book, not for the faint of heart. The main character, Jakabok Botch is a demon, one who lived in the Ninth Circle of Hell, with his dastardly father and mother, along with his sister. The book is Jakabok telling you, no, imploring you to destroy it, burn the pages, destroy everything, kill him, as he lives in the white pages, dances in between the words as you read them. Mister B. Gone, is one of the best books I have read this year, and I really, really felt for Jakabok. To the point, when he was imploring me to end his life by burning the tome, I was torn between hugging the work of fiction close to me and never parting with it, to letting him free from his bookish prison and setting the pages aflame. (Which I would never, ever do to a book!)

If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. It was dark, it was gruesome and it was full of Gothic delights. With at times quite an amusing narrator. Jakabok takes you through his life from his infernal living quarters to the upper side of Hell, Earth, it is a ride that you are with him all the way with, and you almost start to bond with him, if he wasn't insulting you every other page. I loved this book and think that anyone else with a love for darker, Gothic and quite gruesome works, will appreciate Clive Barker's mind, along with Mister B. Gone.