Mister B. Gone - by Clive Barker (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"Think of a darker, more aggressive version of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. . . . Filled with wicked mischief and dark dares." -- Kansas City Star

From Clive Barker, the great master of horror and the macabre, comes a brilliant and truly unsettling supernatural thriller--a terrifying work that escorts the reader on an intimate and revelatory journey to uncover the shocking truth of the battle between Good and Evil.

"Burn this book!"

So warns Jakerbok, the spellbinding demon narrator of this fabulously original "memoir," a tale of good and evil deliberately "lost" for nearly six hundred years. Jakerbok is no ordinary soul; he is a minion of hell with a terrifying plan to cast the world into darkness and despair--a plan thwarted by a young apprentice of Johannes Gutenberg who buried the one and only copy of this damnable manuscript that his master printed in 1438.

Compelling and direct, Jakerbok shares the secrets of his life, going back centuries to recall the events that shaped his childhood, including the traumas he suffered at the hands of his parents, super demons themselves. He explains how he rose from "minor" to "major" demon status, and gleefully reveals his nefarious plot--a cornerstone of this unique historical fantasy--to "invade" the minds and hearts of unwitting humans everywhere thanks to the ingenious Gutenberg and his invention. "Burn this book!" he advises throughout--a taunt, a warning, and a command that will actually unleash the evil with which he has hidden in every word and every page, infusing the very ink and paper upon which they are printed.

Inventive and irresistible, Mister B. Good reaffirms Clive Barker is one of our most brilliant and original voices, an artist with a keen insight into mysteries deep within the human heart.

From the Back Cover

You hold in your hands not a book at all, but a terrifying embodiment of purest evil. Can you feel the electric tingle in your fingers as you are absorbed by the demon Jakabok's tale of his unintentional ascent from the depths of the Inferno? Do you sense the cold dread worming its way into your bloodstream, your sinews, the marrow of your bones as you read more deeply into his earthly education and unspeakable acts? The filth you now grasp has been waiting patiently for you for nearly six hundred years. And now, before you are completely in its thrall, you would do well to follow the foul creature's admonition and destroy this abomination of ink and paper before you turn a single leaf and are lost forever.

You have been warned.

Review Quotes

"Mr. Barker is much more than a genre writer, and his extravagantly unconventional inventions are ingenious refractions of our common quest to experience and understand the mysterious world around us and the mysteries within ourselves." - New York Times Book Review

"Think of a darker, more aggressive version of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. . . . Filled with wicked mischief and dark dares." - Kansas City Star

"A swift, spare novel that reminds us, once again, of the discipline and focus Barker can bring to shorter forms. . . . A subtle, surprising book. . . . Barker, who rarely does anything predictable, confounds expectations once again, giving us one of the most resonant, provocative novels of his career." - Washington Post

"It's about time for something nastier from the man Stephen King once called 'the future of horror literature.' . . . Filled with tongue-in-cheek depravity. . . . If you know what you're getting into, Mister B. Gone is great fun." - Rocky Mountain News

"A clever book. . . . Succeeds admirably. Because Barker remembers that everyone loves a measure of fright in their stories." - Globe and Mail (Toronto)