Books of Blood

This book has some printing errors or issues, the text itself isn't printed very well, which makes reading this book a little bit difficult sometimes. I like the covers for these books but if they were reprinted then I would definitely buy another copy of them.

Books of Blood Volume 1: The Book of Blood: Simon Mcneal visits 65 Tollington Place, his expertise is needed since he is a medium (a conduit for communication with spirits) due to it being haunted.
The house is haunted and uninhabited, it has an oppressive atmosphere, while Simon is there Dr. Mary Florescu went with him, she works for the Parapsychology Unit and she wants to prove ghosts are real, the house is haunted with Simon's help. At the beginning Simon faked his knowledge of the ghosts in the house by writing on the walls, used names from the yellow pages and banged his limbs against the walls. The spirits in the house are angry because he mocks their existence and eventually they got revenge by writing their life stories onto every inch of his skin to punish him. The house is part of “a highway of the dead” that has opened up and allowe a portal for spirits totravel through and manifest themselves in the real world. The spirits are “the victims and perpatrators of violence” they want to be heard or acknowledged, so they speak through SImon Mcneal. A Book of Blood is a book made of blood and necrotic human skin and written in blood. “The revelation of life beyond flesh, written in flesh itself” I really liked reading this storyand now it makes more sense, since I didn't really understand why the spirits in the film hurt
Si on but now I understand and still like the story. This is one of my favourite stories.

The Midnight Meat Train: Leon Kaufman is a New York Photographer, he wanted to find something new or interesting/edgy to document. Eveything is fine until he gets more than he bargained for when he discovers the butcher on the midnight meta train. The butcher travels on the midnight meat train, people watching for possible victims to butcher. The butcher wants “flesh worthy of use” that isn't already contaminated by disease, illness, obesity and so forth. He incapacitates the victim with various tools of his trade, removes their clothing, shoes, jewellery, body hair and hangs the corpses by the ankle on a meat hook. Next he slices the throat of the victim to exsanguinate them and collects the blood in a bucket.
All the belongings of the victims are packed into clear plastic packaging, neatly and fastidiously organised. The driver of the train, knows and acknowledges his gruesome “job” but they both serve their masters, they have no other source of “food” human corpses are the “meat” they desire and the butcher provides it to them. None of the victims are raped or totured, but they were dispatched as if they are pieces of meat. 3 of his vitims were discovered and 1 was found by a New York Reporter “a night-stalker” The butcher eventually notices Leon is following him, trying to figure out what he is doing on the empty train, but pries to much and eventually the butcher kills him. I really like this creepy story, it reminds of me of when I have travelled by myself and I was a train, I could easily fall asleep on a train, but I was on the train in the evening, by myself it was eerily quiet and creepy, so i'm not going to be travelling much by train anytime soon. At least not by myself! I like these stories and the adaptations of them.

The Yattering and Jack: The main character Jack was pledged by his mother to a demon, but didn't keep her promise so now he is being plauged by a demon. Jack's mother was religious so Jack (is achild of a worshipper of the church of the lost salvation) but this interesting plot is unfortunately not explored.
Jack is a simple and bland person and character in this story. I really wish more about Jack's mother was explained because it would give more detail and relevance to why he is being attacked by a demon in his own home. Jack is so annoyingly oblivious to his surroundings, that he either somehow doesn't know his wife is cheating on him in the next room or doesn't care?!
Why would he stay there if his wife is obviously cheating on him? His daughter is also gay, the only thing he says to her is don't get pregnant.
Jack is so oblivious that even the demon that was sent to collect his soul has became bored of trying to freak him out and cause general chaos, which in turn bored me to read this story. This story was reallyboring to read and I don't understandwhy this story was even included in the omnibus, it isn't scary and the title of this book is misleading, since I assumed it would contain only horror stories, but some of these stories I really hated reading, because I struggled to read them, due to the frustrating and confusing or boring but not fully explained plot of the story. I just thinking why is that happening? Or I didn't fully understand what the story was about, or what the point of the story was, so for some of the stories I was disappointed. Anyone that either reads my review or this book might be disturbed by the animal mutilation to cats in this story (I love animals, i've never understood why animal mutilation is in books or films, it's disturbing and disgusts me) it makes me feel sick to read about animals being harmed, so I don't like the book/film Cujo by Stephen King even if the animal mutilation isn't real, it's still sick and probably gives people bad ideas to hurt peope or animals.

Pig Blood Blues: Yet another story that I liked half of the story, but some of it didn't really make sense to me. A group of delinquent teenagers are in a juvenile detention centre or remand centre, farm animals are kept outside and the teenagers feed a huge pig that is big enough to eat a person whole. The pig demands humans to eat and then becomes possessed by tbe human it has comsumed, so they speak tbrough the pig. The pig states it purpose “to eat and be eaten” I don't understand the point of this story, it isn't scary and it was frustrafing to read. Does anyone else understand this story?

Sex, Death and Starshine: Actors and actresses are creating a film for a production company. Lichfield is a rotting corpse, (a softly spoken man, that is mysterious and ominous) his wife Constantia died at an early age and was embalmed, she was a well known actress.
Resurrected corpses of former Shakespearian actors/actresses that were former members of staff at the theatre returned for their favourite performance.
I really like this story, it was enjoyable to read, it was unique and creepy, which I lied about this story.

In the hills, the cities: I really hate this story because I didn't fully understand it while I was reading it, I read this story frustratingly slowly willing myself to continue. It has been a long time since I have read a story that I hated so much that I almost gave up reading it, due to how dull or expendable the characters are, the plot is not fully explained or clarified, so it is vague and confusing or not very interesting in particular. There is some kind of contest between to two cities and eveyone has to attend the event, according to the law of the city they live in. One of the two men travelling across europe is killed while the other joined the city structure thing, whatever the hell it is to achieve his dreams?

Book of Blood Volume 2- Dread: Students want to create an experiment that involves what you fear, and the feeling of dread what causes it and how to overcome personal demons. The main character want to cure the feeling of fear or dread, sohe won't have to remember traumatic memories about a crazed axe wielding maniac that chopped his family to pieces, but didn't kill him. Another character was severely ill, which made them temporarily lose their hearing and they deaf for awhile, so silence is deafening and mental torture to them, they can't stand the feeling of isolation he felt when he was ill, which is replicated during the experiment. The main female character is a vegetarian and is against eating meat. Her experience with the experiment, disturbs her mind, eventually she succumbs and eats the meat, due to starvation. All the characters have experience moments of dread, which have left them with traumatic memories, that deeply disturb them, they have possibly psychologically damages them so they are the way they are due to what they have experienced. They all want to overcome their personal demons, so they can cure their dread and feel no fear again. I really like this story the film adaptation and I still need to read the graphic novel as well.

Hell's Event: There is an annaul marathon, and demons want to participate and win, against humans.
A prime minister that has human familiars, are running the race for parliament to earn the right to run the government. The humans running the marathon and at the event as a spectator see the transformation of the familiars and they are terrified, they want to kill their competion. This story was okay, not one of my favourites but I do like the demons in the story.

Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament: This story is about a woman named Jacqueline Ess, she has some kind of psychic telekonesis or psykonesis abilities. She kills men with her mind, without ever touching them, because they mistreated her. No one knows about her psychic powers because she likes to remain under the radar, out of sight or of prying ears. Since she murdered someone that was noticeable their absence has been noticed so now she is on the run, she wascaught and held captive, but killed her husband and went back to her lover. I liked the way she killed men but I didn't care for the story to be honest.

The skins of the fathers: I really like the plot and the characters.
A man's car break down in the middle of nowhere in a Texan desert, he discovers a strange carnival of sorts and then goes to the police station for help.
There is a cranky old abusive man living with his wife and son, which are beseiged by the demons from the strange carnival, which have sex with the old man's wife, he believes that she offered his only son to the demons, and he is'nt related to him. The townspeople decide to fight together against the demons, but most of them are literally swallowed up whole by a tide of sand in the the desert, in an attempt to defeat the demons and save Eugene's son.
I really like the mundane mixed the the occult, or supernatural creatures/paranomal events that occurs and the way people choose to either embrace it or ignore it and fight against it, even if fighting back is futile. Sometimes evil is inevitable and canot be bested or hurt and defeated.
This is definitely one of my favourite stories.

New murders in the Rue Morgue: This story is a homage to Edgar Allan Poe's short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Lewis' grandfather was lucky enough to meet Edgar in a bar in Richmond, Virginia and Edgar picked his brain about stories that involve the bizarre, occult or were morbid in nature. The rest of the story relates a tale about Lewis in his younger years and his relationship with a nineteen year girl named Natalie Petec which he discovered dead, covered in blood and mutilated beyond recognition.
Due to his relationship with the girl he is the main suspect, however there is no physical evidence other than a mysterious stranger that was tearful and carrying a straight razor, an old fashioned barber from the 19th century would have used. Lewis saw this strange man at the residence where he spent most of his time with the young girl, but the stranger wouldn't tell Lewis his name and was crying before he disappeared.
Natalie was found covered in blood, with knife wounds, her skin was torn off in various places like it had been partially eaten, so much so that her bones were exposed. Her spine was visible and her tongue was severed by her own teeth and layed beside her on her pillow. When Lewis arrived the day afterwards, there was a noticable scent of petfume worn by the killer, who also stood outside watching and lying in wait to seize his oppotunity to kill Natalie the object of his affection and obsessesion. The killer wore smart clothing a hat and gloves, a scarf over his face to conceal his identity, but witnesses heard him speak a language that was foreign to them, even they have no knowledge of the languages they mentioned, so how would they know what lanuage he wasspeaking? It was foreign to them at least but maybe not to everyone.
Her murder is similar to the two women from Poe's short story which was about two women who were brutally murdered. Madame L'Espanaye was murdered and dumped in another part of the house she was so severely injured that she was almost decapitated and Mademoiselle Camille was murdered and stuffed in the chimney. The only acess to the room was the stairs since it was onthe third floor. When Lewis when to Phillipe's house to collect some clothing for his friend due to him being arrested for Natalie's murder he saw the murderer (it was an ape that was taught to walk like a human being)
The ape was kept by Phillipe as part of an experiment, he wanted the ape to become more man than beast, which was seduced by his girlfriend Natalie.
It was jealous of her relationship with Phillipe so he killed her but seemed like he regretted it because he crying at her apartment where she lives when Lewis was there and saw him. So eventually Lewis comitts suicide and the ape gets married! I really liked how this related to Edgar Allan Poe since I am such a big fan of his work, it's fascinating and creepy but I love it so much! He inspires me and his work creeps me out as well. I will review the rest of the stories once I have read them.

Son of celluloid: The main character Barberio is on the run from the police after escaping from prison. Barberio gets shot in the leg and he is injured/bleeding profusely. A friend of his named Geraldine patches him up but eventually he dies in the abaoned cinema where he took shelter. He dies due to blood loss, but no one knew he was there, so he was never discovered but people noticed a horrible smell. Other characters Ricky and Birdy are tormented by a celluloid that takes them into a alternative dimension, where well known actors/actresses exist. Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne are still alive but aren't quite what people think they are, or they aren't the same as people would remember them. A unknown shapeshifting creature is taking the form of these people to trick people so it can feed on their energy to keep the illusion alive. The longer they believe the illusion, the more it feeds on their soul. It is the cancerous cells from Barberio's body. “It was a ghost in the machine of the cinema, a son of celluloid” It feeds on souls that have wasted potential. There is a slightly condescending tone towards or about women which annoyed me, was I the only person who noticed this? Was it supposed to funny?
I liked this story, it was interesting, since I am a fan of the golden age of cinema and actors/actresses from an era I wasn't born in, it's fascinating.

Rawhead Rex: A small village has been usurped by tourists and Rawhead Rex also emerges from the earth itself to find food. A farmer is ploughing a field and, he discovers a strange stone in the field. Rawhead Rex emerges from beneath it, then goes on a killing rampage, to seek children to eat, since he considers them a delicacy of sorts. Rawhead is seven foot tall and has lived in the earth for centuries. I don't particualy care for this story, so I probably wouldn't bother watching the film adaptation either. The plot was boring, but I did like how the townspeople bande together to fit against Rawhead Rex.
If you like the character then you read this short story, I personally found it difficult to continously read this story.

Confessions (of a pornographer's shroud): First of all I thought I should mention that pornography is disguting and I have never understood why it is even made. It's degrading to women, it warps men's opinion of the way women look (or they should look according to men!)
A reluctant acountant finds out his employers are peddler's of flesh/ pornographers and he is disgusted by it. It makes him uncomfortable and disgusted. He was accused of being a pornographer but he was framed. His employers kidnap beat up and torture him and then kill him. He was wrongfully murdered so he wants revenge, he uses the shroud and then kills his former employers for framing him.

Scape-Goats: A group of people are stuck on an island, some of the passangers on the boat they arrive to the island on get into a fight, one of them as well as sheep on the island are murdered.

Human Remains: Gavin is a street hustler or (male prostitute) he sells himself for sexual favours in enxchange for money. Things are fine until Gavin meets a man named Reynolds who is quite what he seems. Reynolds is not human, but an effigy, that becomes more human whenever he bathes in his victim's blood, it makes his wooden body or likeness look human. Unfortunately due to Reynolds murdering humans, Gavin gets the blame for it, even though he isn't responsible, Reynolds is and rescues Gavin from being irrevocable facially disfigured, put out of commission in terms of earning money forever. From that moment they are bound to eachother, since Reynolds is Gavin's doppleganger in the form of an effigy, that is a little bit like a vampire because it has no blood, but bathes in the blood of humans. I really liked this story, but I am glad I finally finished reading this book ecause it was nit and miss for me, some of the stories were difficult to get through.