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Mister B. Gone | 
| Author: Clive Barker
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $3.10
You Save: $10.85 (78%)
Rating:  83 reviews
Sales Rank: 147908
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0061562491
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780061562495
ASIN: 0061562491
Publication Date: November 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: nice reading copy - ex library
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 78 more reviews...
 Too Short a Wonderful Read January 8, 2009
Matt Keto (Costa Mesa, CA USA)
Barker's latest is by far his best since SACRAMENT and is, honestly, too short by at least a hundred pages (hence, one star short of excellent).
This minor demon's memoir builds to an utterly original and clever climax that makes you look heavenward, or maybe cast a glance down at the other place, and say "I always suspected it goes down that way."
Jakabok and Quitoon's relationship echoes Dante and Virgil at times and I certainly would have enjoyed spending more time with them on their journey toward a wild and ultimate Truth.
Cheers.
 Leave your expectations at the door December 31, 2008
Jeffrey Petersen (Berkeley, CA USA)
It seems that there are a lot of mixed reviews of this book, and I imagine what a lot of people are missing is that this isn't a horror or suspense book - it's a black comedy.
The narrator is completely unreliable, and at turns lovable and pathetic. He tries so hard to be bad, but we have to come to the conclusion that he's nothing but sad and lonely. The depictions of horrors and tortures are intentionally graphic, but in the silly way that a child might imagine an overly deadly scene in order to attempt to shock an adult.
If one reads the book as a serious tale of an arch demon, it would be disappointing, but read as a character study of a deeply flawed narrator who so badly wants to be evil but simply cannot manage to overcome his desire for love and belonging, it's both sad and amusing.
Barker tantalizes you with details and emotions, he doesn't bash you over the head with them. Read with an eye for the humorous and absurd, this is a fantastic black comedy with both soul and laughter amid the refuse and pain.
Certainly not your average book December 17, 2008
RaV
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is certainly not your average book. Mister B. talks directly to you throughout the whole book as if the two of you are sitting at a table having a discussion; Albeit one-sided and very demented. He interrupts his own stories to demand repeatedly to BURN THIS BOOK or he will kill you. And don't think he won't. He means it. Seriously.
There are no chapters to define different settings or trains of thought. It's just one continuous writing. Or speaking. Or... I don't know, it's so weird. He's talking to you, but it's in typed words due to the fact that he is, essentially, the book itself.
So basically, he regales you with the sordid tales of his life's journeys beginning with his abusive and unloved life in hell, to his ascent to the upper realm of Earth and his "relationships" with others on Earth, and then on to how he became stuck where he is now: In your hands. All this in exchange for your agreement to BURN THE DAMN BOOK (or him?) when he's through. After all, he knows we humans are too curious - or stupid, in his opinion - for our own good, and wouldn't just burn a book because some character in it told us to without telling us why. I mean, really... that's just absurd. Even if it is for our own good. And life.
What I liked: First, the pages of this book are beyond cool. They're made to look like old, weathered, water spotted pages and give the book a truly unique appearance. Second, the fact that the main character of the book talks directly to you is awesome. He makes you believe that he is actually looking at you from between the words on the pages and is watching every expression your face makes. It would be as if you had a demon friend from the lowest level of hell who you just happened to run in to one day and sat down to catch up with one another. You, only listening while he talks because, of course, your boring, inconsequential human life doesn't matter compared to his more intelligent, purposeful demon life.
What I didn't like: there are certain parts of the book when Mister B. has a tendency to ramble.
Last word: All in all, this book and its characters were well thought out and put together nicely. Clive Barker truly has a wild imagination and reading a book written in such a way was truly a unique experience.
Reviewed by Ceara
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