Cabal

I wanted to read this book because I recently watched the Director's Cut of Nightbreed.It was great! Classic Barker at his finest! A bit mythical, a bit purple-prosey, and very taboo, it serves as an introduction to the night tribes. They are beasts, figurative and literal, who inhabit the shadows and watch us from the darkness.The thing is, even as we are introduced to their deviance, we are met by ours. The hypocrisy of civilized humanity, we who hide our secret vices behind masks, will turn out to be deadly even to the dead.Recommended!

First of I love Nightbreed. It's an epic movie. Usually you hear movies don't do the book justice so I was excited to read Cabal, also hoping to see where it went after the movie ends. The thing is there is very very little difference between the movie and the book. Pretty much just that one scene where Laurie's friend bites it. I did not realize the book was in fact Cabal plus several other stories. The story cabal ends pretty much exactly where the movie did (slight difference) and halfway through this novel. So I was thinking wow I wonder how much more the movie missed. That is when I discovered the second half is a collection of shorter stories.They are good, don't get me wrong, Clive Barker is a master of horror, but his books unlike say, king's, are shorter and translate pretty fully to screen so movie/book not much difference.

Enjoyable gruesome horror at its best. This smallish book (a novella) was big on monsters, blood, death and things that crawled or made your skin crawl. Perhaps, Barker could had fleshed out (no punt intended ~ given the story more detail) to more parts of the story. Yet, even though some of the scenes in the book were truly repugnant, Barker still managed to entice the reader forward and forward we went. We found the Night breed, the Necropolis, a place called Shere Neck somewhere near Calgary, Canada; Then, there was the Midian and what lived beneath it and yet further we went until there is no turning back. Welcome to the world of Clive Barker and the horror stories he told.This person was particularly moved by how Barker showed that even though the Night breed were bad, ugly, brutal monsters, ultimately they just wanted to be alone and left to their own devices. They didn't seem to harm humans if the humans just left them alone. Barker portrayed empathy for these poor abandoned creatures because he, himself, thinks that being a gay man in this heterosexual world isn't much better for him. 'Cabal' was a good read, a really good read, but Clive Barker is such a talent that it still wasn't as good as 'Weave World', 'The Greatest and Secret Show', 'Imajica' or the stories of 'Abarat' (all three of them). Those stories got five stars from me, but 'Cabal' got four blood stain stars for this enjoyable gruesome effort.

I bought this book because of Nightbreed the film. Good movie, not great, but good. I liked the premise, but thought it could've been better; wished they took some time to flush out some of the breed. So I decided to go to the source of film, the novel. I enjoyed the book and it was entertaining. It held my attention from start to finish which is no easy feat. I'm not a natural reader. Often times, I find it hard to keep focused when reading books, but I had not issues here. Kudos Mr Barker! Do I have any criticisms? A bit strange in places, but I knew this going in. This is Clive Barker! I read The Hellbound Heart because I was a fan of Hellraiser and some of the Books of Blood so I knew what to expect. Overall, it was a solid read, enjoyable and I'm glad I bought it. Having watched the movie I was hoping for more than I got with the nightbreed themselves so that's why I gave it 4 stars. If you're a fan of Barker or of the film you can't go wrong with this book.

I have always had a fondness for this short novel. This is my third time reading it, and it seems as timely now as it did when I originally read it, perhaps even more so today with our current political climate. I have always enjoyed slimmer books more than long reads, and Cabal gets right to the point, with nary an extraneous paragraph, unlike some of Barker's weightier monstrosities, like Weaveworld and the massive Imajica. It's a tale of monsters and the good Christian folk who decide to destroy them, not because they've hurt anyone but because they are different. I only wish Mr. Barker had followed it with a few more literary installments, as the end of Cabal begs for a sequel or three. There has been a cult classic movie called Nightbreed and a comic books series, but the author has never added to the story directly, as far as I know, which is something of a disappointment. Perhaps it is better to leave it as it is, and let the imaginations of the readers finish the story themselves. If you are a fan of imaginative horror and dark fantasy, you need to grab this book. It is a fast and entertaining book that is not bogged down by the bloat so common in modern literature. It really is a minor classic, I think. This book was originally released with some short stories at the end, but I kind of prefer this as a stand alone novel. It was so much better than the slightly boring stories that were tacked onto the end of it when it first came out. Not for the kiddies.

I loved this book as soon as I started reading.I'm a fan of Stephen King so flipping between King and Barker books is easy to do with the two both complementing each others styles.The story of a hidden people's in a grave yard found by a man who is desperately seeking acceptance and a place to belong for who he believes he has become whilst unbeknown to him he is chased by a killer who has left his victims at his door is addictive.The story even has time for a love interest too.Great read.

Do yourself a favour and give this book a pass. There is no story, just lots of irrational actions from a bunch of one-dimensional and cliched characters. It feels like something written by a teenager for all the gratuitous sex and gore thrown in to try and titillate and/or shock. The most interesting parts - the town of Midian and its inhabitants, including their "god" - get very little in the way of introduction and exposition. Just a few lines of dialogue with no explanation for their rules and laws.It's very much the type of book that, upon finishing it, makes you think, "Alright, so where's the other half that's interesting and makes sense."

I'm a huge Clive Barker fan, so much so that he's one of my favourite contemporary horror authors. That's down to two factors: imagination and writing style. In all of his books there is a flash of imagination, of bringing a new angle to an established genre. His style of writing is fantastic, and does often make me despair that I'll never be able to match his talent for prose.Cabal is almost a more traditional horror story compared to his other novels, it lacks the grand scale of Weaveworld for example. Naturally there are some new angles to it, but they're not as impactful as some of his other creations. The concept of 'monster' is the heart of the book, whether that be human, or otherwise. And that tone is carried well, you see brutality in many different guises here. This works mainly through the existence of strong and well written characters.My main complaint is that while the characters are well realised, and the setting appropriate, it only touches on the surface of this strange world. I would have loved to learn more about the nightbreed, and to be honest that of the mask as well. There were histories there that needed to be realised to bring it into the light.As always though, no matter if the story has its flaws, his writing carries it superbly. It's not often I read a book just for the joy of the words, and while this isn't the strongest of his form (I'd probably pick the Hellbound Heart for that), it is evident as you read it. There's a real eloquence to be admired here. A decent horror read, but not his best.

A short novel singing a hymn to perversity. Cabal takes a close look a monsters, and discovers that there is a lot more to them than appearances lead you to believe. At the same time, there's no escaping the fact that they remain... well, monsters. It's a beautifully written story, but one that is too often accorded partialities that I'm not sure are inherent in the text. Minority groups are often quick to relate the metaphor of Midian to themselves, but that can only be done on the most selective reading. While on the one hand yes, the monsters are subject to clear persecution, on the other they commit unspeakable acts that have only got away with for so long because they've been sneaky. For these same reasons, I'm inclined to read the monsters of Midian as an exaggerated representation of humanity at large rather than any portion of it. Petty, divided, frightened, terrifying... all these things and more.Of course, the fact that this discussion can be had at all suggests that this a great book. It is. Beautiful, hypnotic, suggestive, and graceful in all its horrors - this is among Barker's very best.

This reasonably satisfying read tells the story of Boone, a man who is framed by his sadistic psychiatrist for a whole host of grisly murders her didn't commit.The gore is plentiful in places, which will please many a fan of horror novels. Despite this, the book lacks the same utterly sadistic, grim, nihilistic edge of 'Hellraiser', the film which was directed by Clive Barker. The story of the Nightbreed, who occupy a world built underneath a graveyard, is more in the realms of horror fantasy, though well-written just the same.Overall, however, this lacks the same kind of 'edge-of-the-seat' visceral terror of other Clive Barker works, despite it's well-crafted style.