Lately, thanks to glories of audiobooks, ive been catching up on clive barkers work, both the horror and fantasy stuff and think i got nuff of his writing under the belt to make a recommendation.
Ive encountered his work way back when I just started delving into horror literature and it was love at first read. Ive read my Poe, King, Lovecraft etc., but Barkers approach to horror caught my interest more than the others. King is a grab-bag of genre and I always found his writing quite meh, especially the trope of items becoming haunted (there is a story of a clothing press being posessed by The Devil and going on a rampage ffs), Poe has a lovely literary style ('Mask of the Red Death' still remains one of my favs that kickstarted an art style phase for me), and Lovecraft is also a mixed bag - i love his earlier works, like 'the music of erich zann', when he was basically copying Poe, but most of his stories are along the lines of "And then i glimpsed x and went maaaaad!", so it gets samey.
Which brings me to Barker - his horror is more visceral and debases human dignity of his characters. Sexuality and instinctual fight or flight instincts play a bigger role in his character actions and reactions. And stripping away of what we deem as rational and treating human bodies just as a sack of meat adds just that existential horror that i rarely found in other authors.
Being from england, his earlier works are set there, while later are set in USA, specifically Cali and New York. I did notice that he didnt really get american culture, but that could just be me.
Being a gay man, Barker has plethora of homosexual characters and good understanding of roles in the scene, and some of his protagonists are homosexual men - he does depics heterosexual relationships as well, but lets just say, he doesnt do a good job with it, but eh, cant really blame um now, can we?
Ofcourse, there are movies based on his stories and characters, although i could only recommend the original Hellraiser, original Candyman (the new one, ive heard, is apparently very race-batey) and maybe, if you want some 80s shlock, Hellraiser 2. There are some other movies, one based on his book Cabal (havent watched it) and on his story Midnight Meat Train, which is an absolute garbage 2010s horror cinema.
As for the books, 'The books of Blood' is a good grab-bag of short stories - "The forbidden" is the story the movie 'Candyman' was based on, although if ya want psychological horror, there is 'Dread', for good old splatter, theres 'Rawhead Rex' and for suspense, theres 'Son of Celluloid'. The series starts slow, but builds up towards book three and four, with best stories imho, but then it just drops off - there is a King-esque story of hands starting a revolution and chopping themselves off (I think theres a movie based on this, but cant remember), a story where a guy meets some female deity and turns into an 18 year old girl (...ok?) and some other non-sensical stuff, like a story about a guy getting injected by some BS and goes on a rape spree, men and women alike, and eats their hearts. Its crazy, i tell ya.
As far as his novels are concerned, 'Cabal' is a great read - monsters, psycho killers and undead on mortal sex extrrrrrravaganza. It is a pretty fun ride, i can tell that much. A man finds out from his therapist that he is actually a serial killer during his blackout phases and, after a failed suicide, decides to find a place he heard only in rumors...and thats when the fun begins.
'The damnation game' is a much more serious work, and is probably my favourite - a con gets to work as a bodyguard for an eccentric millionaire who, basically, made a deal with The Devil or close enough to it, and shit hits the fan when The Devil comes to take a revenge for being slighted, dragging a pedophile murderer as his hencheman in tow. There is violence against animals in this book, buh the doggos live...again.
'Sacrament' is an ok book, a bit of a hard read, but i did enjoy a few imagery from it. A wildlife photographer, that only takes pictures of dying animals, falls into coma after getting mauled by a polar bear and remembers his childhood, when he met a man whose only purpose in life is to extinguish species. Main characters homosexuality plays a role in this story, and theres even some hot, steamy gay sex and furry foxes around...but no, no furry fox steamy gay sex, sadly. I wouldnt recommend this one, to be honest, but its still a solid read.
'Coldheart canyon' has a great plot hook and rather gruesome parts to it. A hollywood actor tries to do facelifting, it fails horribly, and he hides in an abandoned villa in coldheart canyon, meeting the owner there and the descent beginns. I dont recommend this book for one thing only - theres a whole chapter where he puts down his dog, and I know people dont leik that shit. On other hand, a chick gets ripped apart by ghosts in gruesome detail, so that might be worth the stay?
'The hellbound heart' is basis for the movie Hellraiser - man, in pursuit of pleasure, finds a puzzle-cube that, when solved, will have such sights to show him. The 'Hell' in title is a pretty dead giveaway, what kind of sights. Its a short novel, but one of Barkers classics, so pretty much an easy recommendation.
Which leaves us with his fantasy work. 'Weaveworld' is a pretty solid book, and easily one of my fav Barkers novels. A man stumbles upon a carpet and finds out theres more to it than meets the eye - a whole world and its denizens weaved in by magic to escape prosecution. The only warning i ought to give about this one is that theres an evil character that says the N-Word, but he dies, so justice served I guess.
'Imajica' is like weaveworld, but on a much grander scale. A copy-painter is called to help his ex by her new boyfriend, since he sicked an assassin on her and now regrets it. The meeting with the assassin triggers a cascade of events that has the protag find out more about their history and other dimensions and worlds surrounding the earth. It is a marathon read, but all in all a very good book. Just dont read it if you are depressed.
Im currently fighting through 'The art' series of books, which i cant really say id recommend, and still got 'Abarath' to read, although ive heard its for younger audience, so dunno how that will pan out.
All in all, if you are looking for some horror books with blood, sex and viscera, Barker is yer author.