Mister B. Gone

After an extended period of displacing Stephen King as the go-to source for horror fiction, hard earned due to his no-holds-barred approach that incorporated taboo aspects in both ferocity and sexuality, Clive Barker seemingly disappeared overnight. Primarily it could be tied into his coming out of the closet and then switching genre gears to incongruously focus his attention on writing children’s books. It could also just be that his voice was played out after the continued hype. Irregardless, it’s comforting to find him back in old form with Mister B. Gone. The recollections of a minor demon trapped in the very book carrying the tale (while demanding that the reader burn the book), Barker’s story is a welcome return to form that falls between his adult fiction and that geared toward his younger readers. Indulging in the meta, with the book bound as if it had been published in the Victorian era, it’s also a pleasure to hold while reading. Of course, that wouldn’t exactly play on the Kindle.