ONCE YOU BECOME A MAN, YOU START TO DIE
This is six short stories or novella’s. I liked one of the six, thought that two were okay, didn’t like one, but thought it had potential and was not crazy about the rest. All stories were predictable.
1. The Book of Blood. B-, This sets up the reason for the rest. It is written in a sort of Lovecraft style with masturbation thrown in.
2. The Midnight Meat Train. B-, Had potential, was probably the goriest. Has lots of butchered bodies. The word blood is in every other sentence. When will writers realize that for adults, just saying blood, does not scare us?
3. Pig Blood Blues, D+, A long drawn out story. Early on we find out that this pig eats people. We are told this several more times, each time as if it is a new revelation. This one was not mentioned in the summary.
4. The Yattering and Jack, B+, Kind of funny, closest to a surprise ending, entertaining. If ever sold by itself worth purchasing, but don’t buy this whole collection for it.
5. Sex, Death & Starshine, C, Starts with a blow job and later has a corpse giving a blow job. The bj’s were not enough to save the story. It’s another, the people in arts should be worshiped and perhaps given another award show.
6. In The Hills, The Cities, C+, just an excuse for Barker to write about men having sex with men, the story was pretty stupid.
The Barker worshipers have hit the unhelpful button on anyone with the balls to tell the truth, so read this while you can.
Q: WHERE’S YOUR SENSE OF ADVENTURE?
A: I FORGOT TO PACK IT.