'Infernal Parade' by Clive Barker is a title I was initially excited to read, as I've been an occasional fan of his work. What we get here is a series of short stories that were originally written for a line of Todd McFarlane action figures.

The book is a collection of 6 linked stories about the formation of a gruesome parade of strange people with weirdly obvious names. Tom Requiem is a murderer who has been hanged and buried, and he is rescued from his coffin. Mary Slaughter kills babies and has a collection of dangerous swords. There is the unfortunate golem who finds himself without a master and Bethany Bled who is made to be tortured for the amusement of the crowd.

These are all stories of terrible people or victims of terrible people who find themselves grotesquely transformed, but we never learn the overarching reason for this. These are not very nice people and when they get their comeuppance, I just found myself not caring at all. If you are looking for the Barker of 'Books of Blood' or 'Hellraiser' fame, I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Subterranean Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

4 Stars!

I have been a fan of Clive Barker for decades. When I saw that Subterranean Press had a new novella that was another journey into his dark fantastical world, I was excited to get my hands on the book in hopes it would be another work by the Barker that I have come to know and love. I dove into Infernal Parade with high hopes that I was sure were to be met.

There was no doubt the Tom Requiem was a totally despicable man. He would not be mourned in death but it turned out that even death wanted nothing to do with the career criminal. He returned from death’s door to become the leader of a troupe of creatures known as the Infernal Parade. It was only here that he felt at home and he is proud to be the leader of this macabre troupe.

This novella is actually a connected set of short stories highlighting the denizens of the Infernal Parade. It starts by recounting how Tom Requiem was sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of lover, Mary Slaughter. Tom was hung and then buried but no one knew that he had been buried alive and would rise to enact his revenge. The next story focuses on Mary Slaughter and provides a peek into the world of Tom before his death and rise. Then the book takes a turn toward the strange. Next up is the story of Elijah, a golem, whose sole purpose in life is to commit cold-blooded murder. The story of Dr. Fetter and his strange family follows and then the tale of the Sabbaticus who is brought to the Earth from a dark realm to bring his own brand of justice.

This book is not a unified narrative as I had expected when I first started the book. Instead I found a series of loosely connected stories about the dark creatures that make up the Infernal Parade. That is not a criticism of the book but rather a surprise that I was not expecting. The book reads more like a work of ephemera rather than a short story collection or a novella but it is thrilling in its own way. Infernal Parade is a glimpse into the dark beings that inhabit Barker’s imagination as he unleashes them upon the page. The stories in this book are Barker at his weirdest.

Infernal Parade is a little strange as it is an anthology of short stories that are not connected but feel as if they should be. The book is a trip back in time to the type of stories that Barker wrote when he was first becoming a household name in the horror genre. The beings in this story are every bit as dark and bizarre as those in his early short stories and have a rare power to them. The creatures are alien but are also easy to relate to at the same time. These monsters are drawn straight from the darkest corners of the human mind and it is easy to see a little bit of them in the reader’s mind. The book may be a little difficult for new fans to sink their teeth into but Barker’s longtime fans will rejoice at this glimpse at the past. This book comes highly recommended for Barker fans.


I would like to thank Subterranean Press and NetGalley for this review copy. Infernal Parade is available now.

I find myself agreeing with a lot of other reviewers on this one. This collection felt very light and unfinished. There are for sure some interesting ideas to be had here, but none of them are fully realized. While I wanted a lot more out of this book, even a final short story to really tie them all together would have helped.

Upon reading the other reviews, I found that these shorts are actually based on figurines, but if this mattered so much I feel it should have been put into the book’s description. As it stands, this book should be able to standalone, and it just doesn’t quite do that. I really don’t consider it a novella either, it’s a collection without a solid, cohesive story required of a novella.

I originally rated the book 3 stars based on the interesting characters, but the more I think on it, the more frustrated I become by how much this book lacked. I’m thinking it warrants a rating of 2 stars, just OK, especially considering this is a book written by an experienced, mainstream author who should know better than to put unfinished books out on the market.

And here I was so excited about this one.

I see "Clive Barker" and I say, "Yes please!"

But in this case, I should've investigated further. This is another publication like 2014's "Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium." It is NOT a novella; it's a collection of brief texts that were designed to accompany collectible figures produced by McFarlane Toys.

The texts (or 'chapters') don't come together as a finished whole - which makes sense, as they weren't really designed to. They simply form the premise for having a collection of gruesome and grotesque horror characters and why they might appear together: a vicious executed killer comes back from the dead, and is 'assigned'? to collect a group of similarly depraved and tortured souls to form a kind of carnival procession of the damned. Why? To what purpose? Dunno.

As is to be expected, the segments are well-written and imaginative - but they didn't need to be collected as a book.

Thanks to Subterranean and NetGalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are solely my own.

This is such a hard book to review because I really enjoyed it, but it feels so unfinished, It tells the story of the Infernal Parade - a ragtag collection of rogues and freaks who will wander the land. This is a great premise, but this incredibly short book briefly tells the tale of some of these individuals being recruited into the Parade. Obviously, the prose is great and easy to read, but I can't get past the fact that it feels more like the prologue or first part of a far longer work.

An amazing peek at a world that only Clive Barker could create. It will have you begging for more.

I've never been quite satisfied with Mr. Barker's short stories. I think it's because his writing is on such a grand scale that it's difficult for me to be completely happy when the fantastique is scaled down. I always end up wanting more. These short stories left me wanting, well.....more. Even one last tale showing this grotesque parade. It would have tied it all together. Still, I'll admit that I enjoyed the show. Mr. Barker is an original. There's never been anyone like him. He and his unbelievably vivid imagination have given me untold hours of pleasure, and at times pure unadulterated fear. Thank you, Subterranean Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novella. Yep,I'd recommend it.

Probably the single shortest book of Barker's career thus far, Infernal Parade is less novella, more series of vignettes tied together by the parade itself. Even though the illustrations are not by Barker, each short piece reads like a highly-details character study that one would believe Barker creates for each painting of a character he produces. I easily read it in a single sitting and plan on returning to it in a week or two to read again as I'm sure there is infinite finer details to find on further readings.

I would like to thank Subterranean Press, Clive Barker, and Net Galley for the advanced reader copy of Infernal Parade!

Tom Requiem is hanged for the murder of Mary Slaughter. Tom was buried alive on purpose because the fates have a new task for him. He becomes the leader of the Infernal Parade. The Infernal Parade is made up of characters that are pulled into the Infernal Parade to wander the world between life and death. Infernal Parade is a novella that is made up of six short stories-each story follows a character of the parade. The Infernal Parade includes Tom, his lover/victim Mary, Elijah, the golem, Dr. Fetter and his family of freaks, and the Sabbaticus. The stories focus on the six characters, but they are kind of intertwined.

I have read several Clive Barker books, and they never disappoint me. With that being said, this novella could have been better. I read the novella without knowing anything about it. After reading it, I found out that the stories were based on an action figure line in the early 2000s. What is more, I still enjoyed the novella even though I didn't know about the action figure line.

Clive Barker uses his creative writing style to draw the reader in, and it doesn't let you go until the last page. He crosses genre lines with ease throughout this novella. It is both equal parts horror and fantasy. Clive Barker changed the way horror short stories are written with the Books of Blood volumes, and he is showing no signs of slowing down at all.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes horror or Clive Barker's work!

Tom Requiem is led to the gallows for the murder of Mary Slaughter, hung, and buried. But Tom was buried alive, intentionally, for the fates have a new task for him: he will become the ringleader of the Infernal Parade, a crazed cast of characters pulled into the parade to wander a sad world between life and death. The novella consists of six stories, each one tracking a character in the parade: first Tom, then his lover-victim Mary, before branching out into stranger ground. There's the golem, Elijah, created for single-minded murder; Dr. Fetter and his family of freaks; and The Sabbaticus, a monster called forth in a fantastic realm of bleak and sadistic justice. The stories don't have a narrative arc per se, instead focusing on the exotic characters.

Clive Barker has built an impressive reputation as a master of the "dark fantastique," writing stories that blend horror, dark fantasy, and surreal weirdness in ways that few other authors come close to. At his best, he is a grim visionary; at his worst, he offers unique and readable strange tales. Infernal Parade leans more to that latter because it's a bit disjointed; it originated as a series of short stories packaged with the McFarlane toy line of the same name, one story per figure/character. As such, the stories are a bit short and better at giving a feel for their character than any narrative. That said, they show that Barker's limitless imagination shows no sign of slowing down, the stories presenting a vivid array of characters and settings unrestrained by physics or reason. That creativity is Barker's main selling point, along with his blending of the grotesque with the sensuous, and his short stories do a great job of capturing that feel.

At the end of the day, Infernal Parade is a fascinating volume perfect for Barker fans---the fact that it's sold as a signed and limited hardcover should be one indication. Reading it gave me flashbacks to reading his Books of Blood short stories. But readers looking for a more complete, substantial read may be disappointed by a collection that's somewhat disjointed and inconsistent. I would have appreciated a little more meat to the stories, a little something more binding them together. Despite Barker's wild and vivid imagination, it feels like there's something missing from the collection as a whole, though the stand-out stories ("The Sabbaticus" in particular) are masterful. So, one that should be appreciated by Barker fans and short-fiction aficionados, especially readers who enjoyed his fantasies like Imajica or his older collections of short fiction.

I've been a fan of Clive Barker for many years and one of my most prized possessions is a signed copy of The Great And Secret Show. Not to mention that The Thief of Always is my go to book when I'm struggling for something to read.

The Infernal Parade sees the author return to short Stories for the first time since his highly successful Books of Blood series. While the book is a little on the short side, the stories and characters are vividly brought to life from a master assured of his touch.

The standout stories are The Sabaticus and the Golem and each tales comes with a certain warning of Be Careful What You Wish for. All in all an enjoyable if short read and will fill a gap until the next instalment of Abarat comes along.

This was my first Barker read, though I'm familiar with his work through the film, Nightbreed. There is no denying that Barker has a wild imagination when it comes to creating monsters!

Infernal Parade is shorter than most of his books. It's a series of short stories that are tied together with a theme, preparation for the Infernal Parade when the dead and demented invade the ordinary world. The one thing that is missing is that the book doesn't take us through to the actual manifestation of this parade, only the individual stories about some of the people and creatures destined to take part.

Barker manages to strike a balance with some of the more gruesome scenes in his stories so that every bit of torn flesh, every drop of blood spilled is relevant to the story at hand and never crosses into the gratuitous. This is a rare skill!

The individual stories each had their own morbid fascination. There were no duds among them. As much as I'm sensitive to Horror stories that involve murder and gore, Barker's treatment of the material just makes me want to read more of his work. The plots were original and imaginative at a level seldom seen in this genre.

3.5 stars!

Clive Barker always delivers in the creative department and this collection is no different.

Clocking in at only 88 pages, these short stories really pack a punch, yet as a whole, it feels like something is missing.

I think my favorite stories in the bunch were The Sabbaticus and The Golem, Elijah. Both could be interpreted as cautionary tales, as could Bethany Bled , and who doesn't like those? Be careful what you wish for and all that.

These stories did make me miss (and long for) the Clive Barker of old with big old door-stopper books like Imajica or Weaveworld, where there was plenty of time for Mr. Barker to weave his spell.
However, Infernal Parade did give me a taste of the wild imagination and words of Mr. Barker, so how could that be bad?

Recommended for fans of the Clive Barker of old!

*Thanks to Subterranean Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this collection in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it. *

Whilst I enjoyed this collection of interconnected stories I believe that this would have benefitted from an additional piece bringing all the stories together. I am aware that the stories originally came with a series of McFarlane toys but I think it would have been awesome to have read of the infernal parade in procession with all the characters brought together. The art throughout is brilliant but I also would have liked to have seen more of each of the characters each tale is based upon or maybe some concept art of the toys. Despite these criticisms the book is well written dark fantasy that Barker fans will definitely enjoy.