The Hellbound Heart

Written by Clive Barker
Date of Publication: 1986

Frank is a sensualist and pleasure-seeker of the highest order who cares about nothing and no-one except himself and gratifying his own desires.  However he has become bored with what this world has to offer him, and obtains a mysterious puzzle box called the Lemarchand Configuration.  If he solves the puzzle and opens the box then otherworldly creatures called the Cenobites will appear and take him to their own world of ultimate pleasure and ecstasy beyond anything to be experienced on Earth.  However, when he does solve the box the Cenobites turned out to be hideously mutilated monsters, and the pleasure that they offer is the ultimate in pain.
Shortly afterwards, Frank's brother Rory moves into the house with his bored wife Julia.  However Julia, who was once briefly but passionately involved with Frank, soon discover that he is still there, trying to escape from the realm of the Cenobites.  The only thing that can help him escape and make him whole again is blood.  Lots of blood.

This book is really too short to be called an official novel.  It's really a novella, and was first published in an anthology called Night Visions 3 edited by George R. R. Martin which also contained stories by Ramsey Campbell and Lisa Tuttle.  It belongs really to the "early, scary ones" part of Clive Barker's career where he was specializing in gruesome horror stories, such as the Books of Blood series.  The story is well-written with Barker's usual evocative and seductive prose.  It is probably most famous as the inspiration for the cult horror movie Hellraiser which was written and directed by Barker.  As you might expect the film follows the book very closely, although there are several differences.  Barker had had some very unpleasant experiences with previous films of his work (Underworld and Rawhead Rex) and wanted to write The Hellbound Heart as something that he could adapt and direct himself.

While not Barker's best work, it is still a gripping and sometimes shocking horror tale and well worth checking out.