Do not Buy This Book!

     What a book I just read. The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker was definitely a novel by Clive Barker. It’s a sequel to The Hellbound Heart and being written by him it was pretty messy, and there was a lot of shock factor. Unlike The Hellbound Heart, this book was not an easy read, I have quite a few problems with it. I only managed to get through about two-thirds of the book. I will not write a summary because I think it would be just as hard to understand as the book was.

 One problem I had with this book was the shock factor in it. I found that it wasn't necessary to move the plot forward. We know that Pinhead is evil and a demon, so why are there so many scenes where it shows in detail what he can do? We do not need to have these scenes, I feel like they are only there to get a reaction from the reader. 

Another problem I had was with Pinhead, he has a Superman complex. He is far too powerful compared to everyone else in the story so he always comes out on top, and no one dares to rebel against him. Also, there is a part in the story where Pinhead says that he no longer needs people to open the box for him to show up. This part did not make me happy. The whole purpose of the box is for people to summon him, the Hellbound Heart made that very clear. So, thanks Clive Barker for throwing that out of the window.

There is also the fact that the whole book is all about Pinhead and how “cool” he is. It follows him not liking being called pinhead and that he is super duper strong. This just makes the book soooo boring. 

My final dislike for the book comes from the terrible stereotypes. One of the characters in the book is a carbon copy of the “Magical n***o” stereotype. Then there is also a terrible depiction of a trans woman whose entire purpose is to annoy and tick off the main protagonist, just for her to be killed off later.

Overall I would not recommend this book to the most devoted Clive Barker fans. I think that it was a waste of my money.


                                                                                                Johnathon Spencer

Comments

  1. Fermin 0,.,0March 7, 2025 at 9:09 AM

    Thanks Johnathon, now I know I shouldn't spend my money in this type of books and use that money to buy me the battle pass in brawl stars.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Olive Jan Mathewson-SmithMarch 10, 2025 at 11:43 AM

    I've never heard of that stereotype, so thank you for bringing awareness to this!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. oona March 10, 2025 at 1:21 PM

    This is actually insane what the hell 😭 is there even a plot or is it just problematic

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gavin McGillMarch 24, 2025 at 11:53 AM

    This book sounds like one of those books that people would try to ban, but you can just not read it. The stereotypes and "plot" sounds very strange, and I definitely would not buy this book.

    ReplyDelete

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