The Great And Secret Show by Clive BarkerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Horror in the long form, usually doesn't work very well and it takes a true master to pull it off - Clive Barker is such a master. The story starts out simply, a lone man discovers hints and echoes of a greater reality in a dead letter office in Omaha, Nebraska. He reads of dreams, desires and rumors of a place where dreams originate, or from whose dreams our own reality is born. This takes him on a maddening journey for this place and something called The Art.
The tale then takes us to a small community where four teenage girls come across a supernatural force which will in turn spawn other characters in the story.
Clive Barker paints with a wide brush an epic tale of good vs evil, dream vs reality, and mind versus all. But epic as this novel is it is ripe with detail and intimate character moments, from describing small town life and townie dreams to the big questions of what is real and what si dream, if indeed there is any difference between the two.
Part fable, part philosophical musings and all horror, The Great and Secret Show doesn't disappoint, and with a very satisfying ending, too that sets up the next novel, Everville.
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