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  • The Hellbound Heart

  • Abridged Edition Read by the Author
  • By: Clive Barker
  • Narrated by: Clive Barker
  • Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (322 ratings)
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The Hellbound Heart cover art

The Hellbound Heart

By: Clive Barker
Narrated by: Clive Barker
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Summary

Frank Cotton's insatiable appetite for the dark pleasures of pain led him to the puzzle of Lemarchand's box, and from there, to a death only a sick-minded soul could invent. But his brother's love-crazed wife, Julia, has discovered a way to bring Frank back-though the price will be bloody and terrible . . . and there will certainly be hell to pay. This book is the basis for the blockbuster movie Hellraiser.

©2009 Clive Barker (P)2013 David N. Wilson

What listeners say about The Hellbound Heart

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Definitive Performance

The Hellbound Heart is a tremendous story that many of us were introduced to as fans of the movie Hellraiser. Although this is an abridged version, it excludes very little, and any of these shortcomings are negated by the fact that this is read by Clive Barker himself.

He's not a outstanding voice actor, but he does a surprisingly good job considering it's not his day job. But by emoting his own work you hear and feel intonations that provide real extra context to his written work, since, after all, he wrote it. It's a particular joy to hear how he depicts the Cenobites.

Out of the unabridged version and the short "performance" audio versions that I own, this is by far my favourite of the three, an enjoyable, easily consumable condensed version that is worth it for Barker's reading alone.

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3 people found this helpful

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Barker reads his own work

This was a real treat, Barkers beautiful early prose, read by him, you get the full package. Having read all of his work I sometimes have felt that my take on his writing sometimes looses a bit of delivery simply because I don’t have Barkers mind, so it’s nice to hear it straight from source. I would recommend this for any Barker enthusiasts.

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Great

I loved it, listened in one sitting, a good companion to the book. With barkers telling you can hear drama of love and lies unfurl leaving all hope lost

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The story

watched the film many years ago really enjoyed it. But the book was excellent clive barker reading it I think made it better

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Excellent!

Very good story and well read my the author. Set me on the road to read mor of his

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Absolutely brilliant

I’ve always been a fan of hellraiser and have known about the book, just never found time to read it. I got this book for a recent holiday and it had me gripped, only wish it was longer.
I really enjoyed the narration and found it really well done. I can sometimes feel a bit cringe when readers do voices for the opposite gender etc but this was well done.
Recommend to any horror fan, especially those who love hellraiser!

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definitely worth the read

Don't watch the movie before reading this. The book is atmospheric and for a novella l, it cuts through the imagery of the movie. In this case, to imagine is so much more chilling than to see.

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Barker's Best!

A deeply thought-provoking plot with characters to match! It combines the mundane and fantastical, as well as the sexual and the depraved seemlessly and blends them together in a manner that in turn produces a phenomonal novella for the ages.

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A pleasure to listen to!

Hellbound heart is one of my favourites, read by Clive its even better. I fancied rereading the book due to the recent Hellraiser remake being released, I decided to see if there was an audio book and behold there's one read by Barker himself! It's really interesting to see how Clive voices the characters to get a feel for how he intended the characters to sound, especially the Cenobites.

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The master of horror

I first read this book when I was a teenager. I'm now in my 40s, and it's even better than it was the first time. Usually the opposite happens. Horror defined through a whole book of lacerating poetry. Clive is a genius of horror. Looking forward to the movie reboot now.

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