Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Cabal
    Unavailable
    Cabal
    Unavailable
    Cabal
    Ebook256 pages4 hours

    Cabal

    By Clive Barker

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Cabal is the story of Boone, a tortured soul haunted by the conviction that he has committed atrocious crimes. In a necropolis in the wilds of Canada, he seeks refuge and finds the last great creatures of the world - the shape-shifters known as the Nightbreed. They are possessed of unearthly powers-and so is Boone. In the hunt for Boone, they too will be hunted. Now only the courage of this strange human can save them from extinction. And only the undying passion of a woman can save Boone from his own corrupting hell...

    This novella is the basis for the Major Motion Picture - Nightbreed.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrossroad Press
    Release dateJan 31, 2014
    ISBN9781310650673
    Unavailable
    Cabal
    Author

    Clive Barker

    Clive Barker is the bestselling author of twenty-two books, including the New York Times bestsellers Abarat; Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War; the Hellraiser and Candyman series, and The Thief of Always. He is also an acclaimed painter, film producer, and director. He lives in Southern California.

    Read more from Clive Barker

    Related to Cabal

    Related ebooks

    Occult & Supernatural For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      In Conversation With BARBARA KINGSOLVER

      Oct 27, 2022

      Barbara Kingsolver, whose novels include classics such as The Poisonwood Bible and The Lacuna, has won multiple literary awards as well as a devoted readership. She frequently addresses issues of social injustice, and her latest offering, Demon Coppe

      2 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Aug 28, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Knausgaard, Davies, North, and More

      Jan 5, 2021

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Karl Ove Knausgaard, Nnedi Okorafor, and Mateo Askaripour—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Knausgaard, Davies, North, and More appeared first on The Mi

      6 min read

    • Article

      'Dunbar' Is A Moving, Brutal And Apt Update Of 'King Lear'

      Oct 5, 2017

      For centuries, Shakespeare's tragedy was too painful for audiences; it was performed with an altered happy ending. But Edward St. Aubyn has never flinched at inflicting pain on his readers.

      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘A Man Of Miracles’: The Road Director John Hillcoat On Cormac McCarthy

      Jun 16, 2023

      Firstly, this is extremely hard for me to write. The loss of such a unique and monumental artistic force is one thing, and the loss of such a special friend is another. We first connected via a phone call one week out from shooting The Road. Cormac l

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Stupid Classics Book Club

      Apr 23, 2019

      The Stupid Classics Book Club
      11 min read

    • Article

      Reading Vonnegut to Cope with Death

      Oct 15, 2018

      I received the call late on a Saturday night. I live in Europe, far from my home in the U.S., so receiving a call from my mother at 10 p.m. my time (1 p.m. her time) was never unusual. But when the tone of her voice on the other line was a distinct “

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Lydia Kiesling

      Dec 16, 2018

      I couldn’t help noting that this reading assignment was the corner office in the women’s work of thinking about men who are not thinking about you. The post A Year in Reading: Lydia Kiesling appeared first on The Millions.

      10 min read

    • Article

      Lucy Corin Picks Up Where Virginia Woolf Left Off

      Apr 14, 2022

      The episodes of The Swank Hotel are weird because the world is weird. And the world is even weirder when the person you love most on earth might be dead but you still have to go to work. The post Lucy Corin Picks Up Where Virginia Woolf Left Off appe

      10 min read

    • Article

      His Pontiff What-if

      Dec 15, 2019

      His Pontiff What-if
      6 min read

    • Article

      Revision and Revenge

      Sep 1, 2017

      Revision and Revenge
      9 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Dec 19, 2022

      Books
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Best Fiction of Anxiety

      Feb 20, 2019

      The Best Fiction of Anxiety
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Reading James Baldwin

      Oct 11, 2017

      WILLIAM GIRALDI is the author of the novels Busy Monsters (Norton, 2011) and Hold the Dark (Norton, 2014), and a memoir, The Hero’s Body (Norton, 2016). A collection of criticism, American Audacity, is forthcoming from Norton in 2018. I WENT looking

      14 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Mar 6, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    Reviews for Cabal

    4/5

    497 ratings10 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This book consists of the novella 'Cabal,' the story which the movie
      'Nightbreed' was based on, and four short stories: The Life Of Death, How Spoilers Bleed, Twilight At The Towers & The Last Illusion.
      'Cabal' shows Barker at the height of his obsession with grotesque
      sensuality. It begins with Boone, a mentally disturbed man who had
      recently hoped he had been getting his life together and making a new start. he recently met a girlfriend, Lori, and things had been going well. But now, his psychologist has convinced him that he is actually a brutal serial killer who has been repressing the memories of his atrocious crimes. Right here, it seems this would be enough a a premise for a work of psychological horror - but Barker quickly
      changes tack and introduces the shadowy world of Midian - an
      underworld populated by monsters - but monsters who desperately needed a refuge from the horrors of our mundane life.
      Boone and Lori's flight from the deranged doctor, and their efforts to expose his deeds, are action-filled enough, but the really significant part of the story is Barker's morally ambiguous Nightbreed and their world, delicately and sympathetically portrayed, even while filled with unpleasantly corporeal and carnal details. While acknowledging that some outcasts are cast out for good reason, Barker also makes his case, eloquently, for the need for a refuge for all those with dark secrets, for those driven to desperation.

      'The Life Of Death' - a woman who has just - barely - survived a
      dangerous surgery has become oddly obsessed with death. She, driven by curiosity, ventures secretly into a just-dug-up plague crypt. In a bizarre state of mind, she becomes convinced that a man she meets there is Death. But is her strange state of mind just the aftermath of her surgery? Or is she becoming ill?

      'How Spoilers Bleed' - a couple of Europeans who cold-bloodedly
      murder a tribe of Native Americans meet the terrible curse of a
      shaman. (And never did two people deserve it more!)

      'Twilight At The Towers' - the CIA and the KGB have secretly been training werewolves to work for them. But werewolves want to run and live free, not to be secret agents.

      'The Last Illusion' - a stage magician's power has derived from a deal with the devil. And now, the magician is dead. But he wished to cheat the devil at the very last, and a mysterious friend of the performer teams up with a hired detective to try to save his soul from a fate worse than death.
    • 5/5
      This was the second Clive Barker book I've read, and it was fantastic! He's got a really interesting way of looking at Horror and Fantasy, and the pages just fly by.
    • 3/5
      It was fine. I wanted to read it and I have but I'll stick with the movie the next time I get an urge to visit Midian and the Nightbreed.
    • 3/5
      A decent tale, but this was not up to the usual standard that I expected from Clive Barker. The lead story feels rushed and I feel that it could have been expanded upon and taken more slowly to allow it to resonate with the reader. This detracted from the overall impression and momentum, scope, and effect that the story had. The short stories were passable, but barely. Not what expected, but still worth reading: 3 stars.
    • 3/5
      Have you ever wondered whether the things that can only come out at night really exist? Well in the town of Midian not only do they exist but they have made a home there. Those who belong with them know that Midian is a safe place for those that are made of humanity's nightmares.When Boone is confided in by his therapist that he believes that Boone has committed a series of brutal murders, Boone unsuccessfully tries to take his own life. While in the hospital he hears of Midian and believes that as a murderer he would be welcome in a place of horrors. Sadly, he is wrong.This was creepy. Very creepy.
    • 4/5
      Clive Barker's writing style impresses: His words are strong, raw, and blunt, while managing to still keep a literary feel to them, (although they're overdone at times, seemingly to exasperate disgust). In Cabal, (the entire work), particularly, he uses the technique of brutal wording to seduce the reader into dark, imaginative worlds bordering between the dredges of reality and the dredges of hell -- an admirable feat he is able to accomplish. Sewn together, he pulls you into the void with him.His plots are intricately and creatively woven along with his language, creating an atmosphere apropos to the theme largely at hand in this book: Death in many perspectives. Barker did well to tie up loose ends while still leaving them quite loose at the end of every story. I was expecting all stories to coincide with one another, and yet I closed the book satisfied. Good book -- creative, unnerving, and well-written.
    • 4/5
      [Cabal] one of Clive Barker’s earliest novels, published in 1988, contains all of the best of the author’s writing and vision and very little of the overindulgence that can sometimes mar his work.Boone, a deeply afflicted and sensitive man, has been seeking help from a psychologist, Decker. During therapy, Decker begins to display photographs from a series of mutilations and murders in the area, suggesting that Boone may be responsible. As Boone begins to accept his evil nature, he seeks out Midian, a mythical town he believes is a place a refuge for monsters like him. When he finds the town, he is shot dead by the local police force, who are also convinced of his guilt in the murders. But Boone doesn’t stay dead; and the refuge of Midian has a price that Boone may not be able to pay.In some of Barker’s later work, he becomes a little too enamored of his vision, giving over any sense of story or character to create every last piece of what his imagination breeds. The result can be messy and confusing. Barker is capable of fleshing out colorful and minutely detailed worlds, but the read is often exhausting and frustrating. There is a sense that the story will never move forward.[Cabal], on the other hand, strikes the perfect balance, allowing the reader to use their own imagination to bridge the gaps in Barker’s prose. The story never suffers from his habit of lingering too long over a description of some fantastic character or place. In [Cabal], he gives the readers just enough to spur their imagination along on its own. The Nightbreed, a sort of mix of vampires and shape-shifting monsters, are never described in whole cloth. Rather, Barker gives the reader just enough to allow the monster to shape-shift into the reader’s own personal fears.This edition also re-prints some of Barker’s earlier short fiction:The Life of Death, a cancer survivor believes that she has met Death, and while he might not be the mythical figure, he’ll do until the real thing shows up.How Spoilers Breed, a group of men purchase the rights to a tract of South American land that is populated by an all but extinct native tribe. Beware the Curse!Twilight at the Towers, werewolves as CIA and KGB operatives turns out to be a good fit.The Last Illusion, provides the first appearance of Harry D’Amour, a sort of noir-mystic detective. Harry guards the corpse of a magician from the Devil who has come calling for the magician’s soul.The short fiction features unique and carefully plotted stories with punchy, hard-boiled prose. Barker excels in the short fic
    • 4/5
      1: Cabal, A very unique tale, Barker's creativity never fails to entertain. There is nothing quite likeClive Barker's style and subject matter. He always has something completely different to offer. The tale harkens back to Shelley's Frankenstein in the way that you are drawn to care about the monsters, and the humans become the villians.also included in this volume are several short stories :2: The Life of Death, This seems to be Barker's version of Typhoid Mary. A woman unkowingly spreads death to any who encounter her. An enjoyable tale, that reads like a mystery that concludes with an ending only Barker could have penned.3: How Spoilers Bleed, A tale of "what goes around, comes around" . Several Men who "cheat" a tribe of natives from their land in the jungle, Become victims of mysterious ailments due to a curse placed on them by the tribe's mysterious shaman.4: Twilight at the Towers, A chilling tale of a mysterious breed of shapeshifters, that mankind has been trying to control unsuccessfully.5: The Last Illusion, The story that inspired the movie "Lord of Illusions." I found the tale to be much more enjoyable and in depth than the movie. Well worth the read. The Illusionist Swann who sold his soul for the power of Magic, has found a loop hole in the devil's plan, and requires the help of his friend Valentin and Private Investigator Harry D'Amour to successfully ensure his success in saving his soul.
    • 4/5
      If there's one book of Mr Barker's that's crying out for an expanding of it's mythology it's this one.Great concept,fast tight narrative and some chilling characters(Button head) make this a classic in horror/dark fantasy fiction.
    • 5/5
      Monsters have always played a large part in our collective subconscious. They lurk in shadows, under beds, at the ends of dark alleys. Monsters are always with us, in one form or another. Clive Barker realizes this. And Barker also realizes that sometimes, the monster we don't know is far more preferable than the ones we do.CABAL is Barker's ode to the monster, not as a fearsome predator that only lives to destroy, but as a misunderstood creature that is alternatively loathed and envied. We despise the monster, because we wish to be one ourselves.Boone is a young man who is teetering on the brink of insanity. While he has been getting treatment under the watchful guise of Dr. Decker, he is still far from unsure that he is well. And when Decker declaims Boone as a subconscious serial killer, with eleven confirmed victims under his belt, Boone decides that his only option is to find Midian, the place where the monsters play. What Boone discovers is an underworld of loneliness and despair, as the monsters of the world attempt to live their lives in peace, uninterrupted by the insanity of humankind.Barker has always had a, shall we say, fondness for the darker impulses of man. In his BOOKS OF BLOOD series, and his novels THE HELLBOUND HEART and THE DAMNATION GAME, he presents the readers with individuals who truly live their lives on the edge, daring life, limb, and soul to satisfy their primal yearnings. In Boone, Barker has created another unsatisfied loner who craves acceptance, believing he cannot function in normal society. Barker understands the human heart, and isn't afraid to admit that not all desires are the same. But just because one person's desires may differ from another's, does not necessarily make that person wrong. It's all a matter of persepctive.Barker plays this need of Boone for a family off his other two main characters, Lori and Decker. Lori, like Boone, also cries out for her desires to be sated. She desires Boone. And in a very touching love story, Lori proceeds to travel the paths of Hell in order to be with him.Dr. Decker's needs are also front and centre, but his needs are admittedly not of the same vein as Boone and Lori's. Without giving too much away, Decker's needs are far more primal than Boone's, and more insidious in their rationality. Boone wants a family. Decker wants no more families, ever. Decker, rather than the monster-lover Boone, is the real evil, the calm that masks the storm.But monsters are monsters, first and foremost. Barker is one of the more unusually vivid purveyors of the human condition, and his tale leaps from one grotesque to the next. CABAL contains some truly stomach-turning scenes, which is to Barker's credit. While he sympathizes with the monster, he knows that the monster must be true to itself in order to be complete. Like humankind, a monster must accept what it is in order to survive. And what a monster is, is a monster. And Barker does not shy away from the blood, gore, and vivisections that invariably follow such a creature.Part of what has always made Barker such an interesting writer is his mixing of the profane with the sacred, his ability to juxtapose the horrible with the holy. In his stories, men find redemption as monsters. The evil are rarely punished, and the innocent cannot be allowed to survive. And somtimes, love can cross the boundary between life and death. CABAL is possibly the closest Barker could ever get to writing a flat-out romance novel. Boone and Lori go through the pits of Hell to be with each other. They travel the battlefield of the final confrontation between man and his demons. In the end, it doesn't matter who the monsters are; we are all monsters. How we come to accept it is what makes us human.