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Title: Cabal
Score:
Author: Clive Barker
Rating: Not available
Hits: 115

Review of Cabal

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Comments for Cabal

• Posted on 2009-09-04
  Saying this book sucks maybe a bad pun but its the truth
  
  First off I'm going to say I read this book during the days when i decided to give Clive Barker the chance he deserved, having been told by some of the weirdest people I know-with dramatic effect- "Clive Barker?! He's out there!" Needless to say I was pretty young when all this happened. In short, Cabal, as a stand alone book, sucks like a starved leech on the back side of an elephant sized tourist. It starts out decent- poor tortured mental patient who fears he's a monster inside( not as pathetic as it sounds)- it even shows some promise when he meets monsters who intern tell him he is not a monster and there for food. But when this book really crashes through the basement into pulp garbage hell, is when we are treated to 10 pages of the desperate girlfriend masturbating. At this point there's very little hope for the novel because from there Barker explains that the monsters are nothing but glorified vampires. What's worse... THEY'RE NOT EVEN VERY INTERESTING VAMPIRES! From this moment on Barker makes a mess of the entire thing. Plot lines are created that go no where, metaphors become ridiculous( the sun is now a stripper... really?) and every single chance for this book to be good is blown out of the water by Barker's clown sized feet.
  By the time I was done with Cabal I felt too disgusted to continue with the fantastic short stories that followed, due to the bad taste in my mouth, and had to wait till the books of blood were released in one decent omnibus edition. Now, like I said before, I read this book when I was pretty young, so, six years later and deciding maybe I hadn't given the book the chance it might have deserved, dug out my copy of Cabal, read it, and threw it away.
  Don't buy this boos; it isn't worth the paper its printed on. I wouldn't even wipe myself with this thing if it was the only source of toilet paper.
  If you want good Barker, read the Abarat books, the Thief of Always, Weavworld, or-if you like it dark and dirty- The Damnation Game, Everville, or the Great and Secret Show, because this book sucks and isn't worth the effort.
  
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• Posted on 2008-12-25
  good stuff
  
  this book contains the stories that were adapted into the films NIGHTBREED and LORD OF ILLUSIONS, as well as a few other really good stories. worth the reading.
  
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• Posted on 2008-03-20
  For Fans Only
  
  The short stories at the end aren't bad; the novella itself had less to recommend it.
  
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• Posted on 2007-11-27
  Not worth the $15 retail
  
  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 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 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: 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.
  
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• Posted on 2007-09-03
  Not Free SF Reader
  
  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.
  
  
  
  
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