Overall I find this hits Clive Barker’s great strengths, Elegant Prose and Imaginative (often transgressive) ideas, but none of them really knock it out of the park in either horror or surrealness. If you are fans of him for those two things then this collection is for you. The two best stories are only 4-stars, the worst story is a 2).
“Dread” – I think this is the best story in the book. It certainly shows its age as there are technological references that seem super-dated to any modern reader, so if you are the type that prefers a more timeless feel to your fiction that might take you out of it. I found the idea of an up his ass philosopher trying to discover true Dread/Fear/Despair to be great, sort of a dime store Batman villain.
“Hell’s Event” – While I think Dread is the best, I think this is my favorite because of the imaginative demons and the specific premise, a foot race to save the world from demons, to be rather tight and enjoyable.
“Jacqueline Ess: Her Will And Testament” – This reads like a 300 page Stephen King book that has been cut to the bone. I think that this should have been a novel and as is does not work as well as it could have had the story been given the full room to breath.
“The Skins of the Fathers” – I would argue this is the worst story in this collection, but I think it could have worked if the premise had gone in some different directions. A town under siege from a parade of 20-ft tall monsters from the desert is cool, a father who finds out he is not the father and instead his son is some kind of halfbreed monster is cool… But they did not come together for me.
“New Murders in the Rue Morgue” – This one is missing something I cannot put my finger on. The story’s ultimate revelation (No spoilers) really reads like a premise from a century ago, I think there needed to be another level to the story. This is another one that feels like it should have been a short novel rather than a short story. It is perhaps bad criticism to say, “I can’t put my finger on it” but I really can’t figure out why this doesn’t work for me.