Hailed as the hot “new” horror writer, Clive Barker has been going at it in England, where horror books are sometimes called “nasties.” A series of six books with Barker's long short stories are now being issued in quick order in the U.S. An innovative writer in the genre, Barker's tales are for readers with strong stomachs who delight with ghoulish relish over different twists in the horror short story genre.

The first story in this collection of five tales [Books of Blood, Vol. III,], should serve to illustrate Barker's original thinking and writing. “Son of Celluloid” deals with the horror of cancer, but in this case, the cancer has become a horror entity in itself, moving from body to body, spreading its terror as it goes. It is forced to lie dormant for a while in a hidden corner of an old movie theater, but it gets its chance to escape and continue to survive and grow. The unlikely heroine of the piece, Birdy, is the only one who knows about the cancer and knows the necessity of destroying it. Her final victory is almost unexpected, which is the mark of good horror writing.

The books in the series are nicely designed, each with a different grotesque mask on the cover. The brave librarian might wish to use some of the stories for booktalks, but probably only for hardened lovers of the horror genre.