An excellent novella for the cold and darker months of winter. The story behind the popular movie ‘’Hellraiser’’, is short and suspenseful throughout the whole read. Just as the short stories from ‘’The Books of Blood’’ by the same author, this story contains multiple accounts of bodily horror and sadomasochistic details, so take this into consideration before reading it.
It is difficult to choose who the main character is. All four characters play an almost equally important role in the development of the story. As a reader, we know all their thoughts and read through their perspectives on the situation. We start out with Frank and his ultimate goal to open Lemarchand’s box to find otherworldly pleasure provided by these so-called Cenobites. He has tried everything, but life bores him just as much as death does. He cannot find the will to live, but he also thinks death to be unworthy of thought as well. The Lemarchand’s box gives him a glimpse of the prospect to find something interesting and worthy enough of his time.
His brother Rory, on the other hand, differs immensely from him in lifestyle and philosophy. They used to be best friends as children but grew apart with time. Frank is an adventurous and dangerous type. His activities also involve a lot of trouble, crime, and of course addiction. He is eventually addicted to adrenaline. While Rory is a nerdy and homely type. He is madly in love with his wife Julia but is also continuously jealous and afraid to lose her. Deep down, he knows that there is something wrong with their relationship, but he ignores this. He is ready to forgive her every misstep, even before she would admit something, as long as she would become honest with him. Unfortunately for him, honesty from Julia is far to be sought, she feels like she is married to the wrong brother. And then, there is Kristie, the awkward best friend of Rory trapped in a friendzone position, who would sacrifice her own sanity just to spend some time with him. She hates her own awkwardness and lack of assertiveness, leading to more envy and jealousy toward Julia.
Frank is only looking out for himself and uses everyone to his own means. Things do not turn out as intended for him and he is at a loss and in great need of help. Conveniently, Julia is there to fix his problems at all costs. Together they destroy all boundaries until there is no way back.
Although throughout the book, the reader is promised a shockingly scary experience, in the end, this is not delivered. I like Barker’s writing style, but the story felt short for me in its substance. It is an interesting short story, but it could have been better as a longer novel with more details to it. The origin of Lemarchand’s box is not explained well. This box feels like an important concept in the book, but it is only mentioned a couple of times without a real origin story. The destiny of Frank is left to our imagination, just as the Cenobites. We are left with questions like ‘’ why do the Cenobites exist?’’, ‘’what is the function of the engineer?’’ and ‘’what is the ultimate goal of such a device?’’. Maybe these questions become more clear in the movies, but the book kept me guessing.
Even though, I had hoped for more character development and complexity in the story I still did enjoy my time with this book. Clive Barker is a master at keeping the suspense throughout the whole reading experience by adapting a mysterious writing style that keeps the reader guessing about the ending.
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