Coldheart Canyon: A Hollywood Ghost Story

My best friend, April told me about this book "Marisa, you're got to read this, this will nock your socks off". I love the Kayta. Kayta is a sexy film star from the 1920's. Kayta and her agent are in Europe and the by some stuff that is haunted by a Count. Years later actor, Todd stays in the old house that Kayta used to live when she was alive.
I don't want to wirte anymore, The reader has to read the book because its so sexy. It makes "50 Shades of Gray" look the bible. I did enjoy reading the erotic parts.

When famous actor Todd Pickett goes missing after blotched plastic surgery, his most fanatical fan, a fat housewife named Tammy Lauper, decides to try to find
her missing heartthrob. She tracks him to Coldheart Canyon, a great mansion haunted by old Hollywood stars and controlled by Katya Lupi, a silent screen star whose youthful ethereal beauty is still strangely preserved despite decades of hard living, and who will do anything to keep Todd by her side.

What worked for me:

Tammy rocks! She starts off as a stereotypical character, a fat housewife obsessed with a famous actor; but she turns out to be a tough, sweet-natured and intelligent woman.
Size-wise, although her weight isn't mentioned, I expected she's a rather big girl.

What didn't work for me:

Not enough Tammy in this book, and she should have been given a love interest.

Overall:

I highly recommend this suspense-filled horror novel. Tammy Lauper is a great heroine; do not judge her right away. She becomes a wonderfully well-defined character as the story progresses.

Warning: There are mentions of the occult in this book, as well as some very violent and sexual scenes, including rape and bestiality.

(...)

This is the kind of book that leaves you exhausted, but in a good way. I could not wait to find out how it ended; now I am sorry that it did. This is a great summer read or keep it for when you snowed in. JUST READ THIS BOOK !!!

I enjoy Barker's imagination and reach, and even his sense of exquisite grotesqueness, and once this book got cooking, it had all of that Barker good badness that makes him so much fun to read. However, I found that the strange sex was layered on a bit too heavily in places-- and it wasn't terribly necessary to the plot, IMO.
The best things about this book (loss, sadness, fear of aging, imaginary worlds) could have stood on their own without the explicit nature of the orgies. It also felt as though Barker got confused with the ghost portion of the story because there seemed to be too many plot holes and inconsistencies where the ghosts were concerned.
Still, the best author still writing in the horror genre, I think.

While to much attention was paid in the last Clive barker interview in Rue Morgue about Clive Barker's return to horror I am finding increasingly annoying that people ever thought he left. Sacrament has many elements of Clive Barker in his classic form and Coldheart Canyon is no different. There is fantasy but not in the way that books like Weaveworld or even his Art books (Great and secret show/Everville) Sure CC often has a biting tongue in cheek satire of the imagine consciousness of Barker's new home town of Hollywood. This is the man who wrote the books of blood it might be fairer to say it is a shredded and pierced tongue in cheek.

The Dark and fantastic Barker we all know and loved from the Books of blood is alive and well in all his twisted glory. Don't be fooled by the sarcastic Classic Hollywood pretty boy photo fool you...this is a savage horror novel. Barker has like many of the great modern horror authors taken the classic haunted house story and given it a twist that is 100% Barker original. The dark fantasy and twisted sexuality that is a part of barker country is raging.

Themes Barker is fascinated with are at the heart of this story. Keys, puzzles and in this case tiles painted with a living imagine of the devil's country, the room becomes the gate to this dark world. Painted Lilth the devil's wife to...well that is a spoiler for sure. I was hooked from the first intensely gothic moments of the prologue where a silent screen movie star becomes the owner of the tiles the room and the gateway which is also a fountain of youth. Like all Barker gateways it leads to a sexually perverse and pain filled world that he is so good in creating.

At its heart is Todd Picket the world's greatest action star who in the failing years of his career is being courted by the evil forces of Hollywood to trying regain his youth. After the plastic surgery trying to hide from the media Todd ends up at a Hollywood dream palace hidden in a haunted canyon owned by Silent movie star Kayta Lupie and well you get the basic idea.

The only negative to the book is in the 100 or 200 pages of story that is a big over done. Most importantly the last 100 pages which is more of an extended epilogue, I enjoyed the ending but the book could have benefited from a shorter version.

This book could never have happened had Clive Barker not made the three films or lived in Hollywood; he was having fun grinding his axe about the city he loves and hates at the same time. The book has laugh out loud parts, but most importantly it is a horror novel that reminded me why there is no one in the same league as Clive Barker he is a artist and imagination on his own realm.

See Storyline above.
Well it’s good to see Clive Barker back with another epic tale. This time around it revolves around Hollywood. The old and the new. Barker’s stories generally involve all sorts of depravities. This one definitely has its share. Explicit sex, along with stunning and shocking visuals, lets you know you’re reading a Barker novel. Barker seems to create a great depth to his stories, and this is no exception. A ghost story that portrays Hollywood as a sort of sexual asylum. The talent that Barker has in bringing you into his fantasy worlds exceeds that of most contemporary horror writers, as well as most novelists. The violence as well as the sexual explicitness (nothing forbidden), will bring out a weird range of emotions in the reader, so beware.
Highly recommended, even though I liked the UK cover much better.

Barker tells us in his introduction about what a difficult time he had writing this book. By the time I finished it, I can understand what he meant. At its core, this is a wonderful story, and the Country is a marvellous invention. However, it is clear that in their attempt to ensure that he finished the project, the editors forgot to finish the job and make sure there was a viable novel at the end. I can almost picture some representative from the publishers standing over Clive with a whip and a cattle prod forcing him to complete his pages, despite any personal tragedies he was dealing with, and then ripping the still warm pages from his hands to take them straight to the presses.
That being said, I firmly believe there is no bad Barker, only bad editing. Case in point, the story of Todd's dog. It is beautifully written, and the emotion invested in the story is evident. But it doesn't belong in this novel. It is a wonderful stand alone story, but it adds too many pages to an already overlong book that takes way too long to get to the meat of the plot as it is.
There is a great novel hiding in here somewhere. Barker is still one of the most imaginative and sensuous writer out there. But the editors should be severely punished for not finding that book before releasing it to the general public. Barker should demand better of the people he is entrusting with his art.

I've always respected Clive Barker's ability to tell a truly imaginative, vivid tale that brings some dazzling otherworld into the familiar one where I reside. Coldheart Canyon is no exception; I delighted in reading about Devil's Country and Hollywood, both old and new. However, the book was poorly edited, overdrawn, and stuffed unnecessarily with ludicrous sexual perversions. I was surprised to see so much superfluous and inconsistant material, and the book seemed hastily written. I wasn't remotely convinced by some of the sudden "surprises" near the novel's end--they seemed arbitrarily added.
This could have been a good book and I'm glad I read it, but I won't pick it up again.

Coldheart Canyon has everything: an atmospheric setting, a house with a past, an artwork that seems imbued with a life of its own, a woman of mystery who couldn't possibly be who she says she is, a gallant if vain and self-absorbed protagonist -- and it's all happening in the Hollywood Hills just out of the bustle of L.A.
And therein lies its flaw: in its efforts to have everything the book loses its ability to chill to the marrow, and instead becomes a catalog of every stock situation that could possibly be conjured up with little regard to continuity and focus.
This becomes painfully obvious in the spoken format. Characters are established and then almost obstinately behave completely out of character, so much so that you wonder if Barker himself actually read the beginning of his book. Situations are set up as set pieces, often not actually moving the plot along. One incident is simply not sequenced properly, and implies character knowledge that we know the characters couldn't have.
This all culminates into a rather ghastly denouement with a number of dead and injured, and a stirring ending. Except it doesn't end -- the book proceeds into a second ending, which is nearly laughable. And it DOESN'T END! There is yet further ending material and it just serves to flatten the power of the previous narrative.
I listened to the book because I'm a long-time Frank Muller fan, and his portrayals do not disappoint. Unfortunately the material does, and I found that at some point I stopped listening to find out what happened next, and instead listened for how bad it could get.
Ultimately, this is a book about movies that can't decide which movie it wants to be. It begins like a Christopher Lee horror flick, tumbles into being a Nicholas Cage angst story, segues to a dishy Dinner at Eight sequence, suddenly caroms into Debbie Does Dallas, takes a brief turn as a classic Dynasty episode, reverts to a Friday the 13th stint, recalls Star Trek (keep an eye on the newbie in the plain uniform), and then, when it should be satisfied being The Fall of the House of Usher, instead becomes a lesser episode of Touched by an Angel.
Where are editors when you need them?

Clive Barker seems to have settled in to something a little more accessible with his last few books. The terror of his short stories and the all encompassing scope of his tomes such as Imagica and Weaveworld seem a thing of the past.
readers that were attracted to Imagica and the like might like to view those books as classics in themselves and not suppose that all of Clives novels reach such heights.
It seems to me that his outing of his sexual preferences have become the over riding themes of his work.
Coldheart Canyon had something of a Jackie Collins taint to it I felt. The characters seemed a little over emotional and not quite as coperal as in his previous works.
Long passages were something of a strain to plough though. I was particuly annoyed that he spent far too many pages releasing the grief of the death of his own dog within the pages of this book. I can understand the upset of loosing a close compainion but was it really nessary to layer this event onto the main character? In my opinion is was completely unneeded and diverted from the story to quite a large degree.
The ending of the story could of been wrapped up quite a few chapters before it finally did.
Clive Barker has peaked already i feel. Perhaps he should concentrate on making a *decent* movie of some of his earlier work.

I start to read Clive Barker and I am transported to another world; isn't that what reading is supposed to do? And noone has more amazing worlds that Barker! While The Great and Secret Show is still my all time favorite, what appealed to me about this story was that it was just your basic ghost/love story...with a twist. I became so involved with the characters, that even though I didn't like them all the time, I understood their "motivation". I loved the legend of the Duke and Devils Country, and how he made it all seem so...real. I must admit, I was a little taken aback by the eroticism, but I am not complaining :)
So, sit back and relax in Barker's world. Share the idiosyncracies of the Golden Age of Hollywood, revisit the silent Stars of the day, and enjoy.
Debbi

Those dreading another limp, mushy delivery from Barker (think Galilee or Sacrament) can release that collectively held breath. Barker is back...sort of. While Coldheart Canyon is no Imajica or Weaveworld in scope of vision or imagination, the suspense, mythology, and characterizations herein certainly make up for the new-age, nice-guy deliveries of late. Here Barker offers Hollywood satire sandwiched between the opposing forces of spirituality. It doesn't have the bloodied edge of Cabal or his short fiction, and there are jaw-dropping discrepencies and flat-out mistakes in the plotting--why is the quality of editing always inversely proportional to the projected revenue? And yet there are scenes painted within that resonate with beauty and dread as only Barker can accomplish, and it's good to feel that chill again. It's also nice to have a decent horror novel releasd this year, with Dan Simmons doing suspense fiction and Dean Koontz doing what I can only describe as evangelical suspense fiction. Along with Black House, Coldheart Canyon has reaffirmed my belief in the genre. Stay tuned.

This book is truly a masterpiece!When a once famous actor becomes obsessed with his looks encounters an accident that would push him through a world that we all take for granted,what could be better?

Here is the basic plot of the story:after having surger to fix his face,Todd was disfigured instead,at least temporarily.Needing a place where he could hide from the public and heal,his manager finds him a place.While there his manager makes know to him that she is leaving the job and will find him a new one.But before he knew it he was engulfed into a world of ghosts and hypnotised by katya,the former owner of the house who is still beautiful as she was when young!............

You see,Katya was an actress long before Todd.And her agent bought her a tile design.This design had "powers" when had a different effect on different people...It kept some young for example Katya...This is how she is able to be with Todd in spite of her age...

But there were other people whom Katya allowed to use her "tile room",at least for a while and these people who died became ghosts which haunt the canyon...The ghosts wanted to be let into the house to see the room,hoping it would help them in some way but they were denied entry by a spiritual force Katya installed by the doors of the house.

This is basically the main plot,there is alot more concerning the devil's wife Lilith.This book is truly a masterpiece.The only bad thing about this book is that it is difficult to put down!I wish that there could be a sequel to this...

The ending of this book is truly worth the wait,it could not be better!Just buy the book and read it,you wouldn't be disappointed,trust me...The people who are putting down this book don't know better and couldn't write a better book.Period

This book was horrible. I was about 3 quarters of the way through it when I realized I no longer cared about the main characters and was hoping they would die and get the story over with.
Aside from a couple of the more erotic parts, the writing style in this book didn't seem anything like Clive Barker. The characters were shallow and under developed, the plot didn't have any of the usual complexities you'd expect (total no-brainer), and it was almost painful to read. I actually read it to fall asleep at night which is something I never thought I'd do with a Clive Barker novel.
If you want to read a great book by Clive Barker, skip this one and pick up 'The Great and Secret Show'. It's amazing.
Hopefully Clive's next book will be more on par with the rest of his work.

For years I'd been awaiting Barker's newest publication, constantly checking and rechecking as the dates kept being pushed back, but perhaps they needed to be pushed back even more so that Barker could have turned this pale reflection of his talent into something more moving and cohesive.
All of the things I normally love most of a Barker creation were missing or malformed in this work -- the characters were forced into absurd situations, merely so the dodgy threads of this murky story would somehow weave themselves together. The story itself was forced forward instead of propelled by its own momentum of character and imagination. Everything felt out of place, I didn't care about a single person throughout the book's nearly 700 pages, all while I'm desperately trying to like a mediocre work from one of my favorite authors.
It just didn't work. Better luck next time, Clive. I'll still be waiting.

I have been rethinking my personal mission to read at least one book from authors I haven't read before, particularly famous ones I feel as though I should have read before but haven't due to circumstance, because many of the "must read!" books that fall into my hands are well below the bar I've (inadvertently?) set for myself. For a number of reasons, horror stories aren't particularly to my taste, but I can't even figure out if Coldheart Canyon is supposed to be horror or just horrible.

I can summarize the entire book in two words: Creepy Sex. It's slightly more convoluted than that, but what I could understand of the book made little sense beyond Clive Barker deciding he wanted to write about depraved fornication. BDSM? Check. Bestiality? Check. Ghosts? Check. Mutilation? Check. CHILD ABUSE?? Check!!! (although it's demon-child abuse, but still) I get the impression he just wanted to write the hardest-core sex scenes humanity could possibly (and even impossibly) manage, without any particular purpose to it. Granted, most horror stories I've been subjected to haven't struck me as having a purpose beyond the scare factor, but Coldheart Canyon takes 200 pages to start the story, and goes on for 100 pages after the story ends. No fooling--I skimmed so much of the book just because it was both disgusting AND boring, and the only reason I got through as much as I did was to see if there was anything of real substance there.

Nope.

The book starts with an introduction from Clive Barker himself discussing his thought processes in writing the story, which feels like it belongs as an author's note at the end instead of a delay getting the story started, but this is hardly the book's worst fault. In the intro, he discusses how, following the death of his father, the story took a different turn from what he'd planned--which in retrospect seems even more creepy, as I'm certain I wouldn't want MY child writing a horrible porno after being wrapped up with grief over MY death.

Part one is six chapters, which don't really need to be six chapters. This is the entirety of part one in significantly fewer pages: "This guy Willem Zeffer made an unknown orphan named Katya into a famous movie star. To please her, he set out to find a uniquely fabulous gift she would truly appreciate. Somehow, he ends up at a fortress-turned-monastery, where the monks have carefully guarded a room with an elaborate mosaic depicting the most hellacious orgy, including a section where women have flayed off a man's skin (I won't describe the rest of that, but it's needlessly awful). SOMEHOW, this intrigues him, and he buys the room from them, hiring a crew to carefully dismantle it for reassembly in Katya's house. After the room is gone, the head monk spontaneously dies with a broken spirit, and the other monks disperse."

Part two changes the subject to the completely not-sexily-named Todd Pickett--a "fantastically handsome" actor who's known almost entirely for being fantastically handsome. This is the entirety of part two in even fewer pages: "Todd wants to be in a movie that promises to be good, but the movie gets canned. He throws up at his most recent movie premiere from its sheer awfulness. He starts to audition for another movie, but his beloved dog Dempsey gets cancer, and he makes the heart-wrenching decision to put him down."

Seriously. I am not kidding you that there are at least fifty pages devoted to this dog, and the dog plays almost no role in the rest of the book.

Part three is where the actual story starts. I suppose you could argue that part one was important for exposition, but not nearly so important as to go on for as long as it did. The rest of the book goes basically like this: "Todd spontaneously decides, post-Dempsey's-death, that he needs a facelift to continue to compete, but it goes SO BADLY that he goes into hiding, coincidentally into Katya's house with the creepy sex mosaic room. This causes Tammy Lauper--the (fat) woman heading his 'appreciation society'--to go stalking for his whereabouts. When Todd discovers the room, he discovers Katya, who has mysteriously not aged in a hundred(?) years due to the inexplicable powers of the room itself, and who craves Todd because she's tired of sexing up the psychotic ghosts that haunt the canyon. I guess. When Tammy discovers Todd, she also (eventually) discovers the room and breaks the spell over it by letting the incredibly hung(!??) son of the Devil himself suckle from her breasts. Katya gets mad that the room is effectively destroyed and kills Todd (who was protecting Tammy). Tammy defeats Katya by managing to open the doors and let in all the ghosts, who tear Katya to pieces (literally, rending flesh)."

That's really the end of the story, but it keeps going, as I mentioned.

Because he died protecting Tammy, Todd ends up as a form of ghost, which Tammy and Todd's agent discover when they go back to the house "because it felt like unfinished business." There, they find Todd as a partial ghost, sporting a permanent hard-on (as important as THAT is) and running from a bright light that's apparently an angel come to take him to Heaven, seeing as he's dead and all. Todd runs for a while, but after Tammy gets hit, he decides that getting her to safety is more important than not going to Heaven and being dead, so after Tammy is safe, he rejoins his dog.

Yes, the fifty pages of dying dog is important for ONE SENTENCE at the end.

I guess, if anything, I found myself actually growing to like Tammy, who initially comes across as a delusional fanatic so centered on this one actor's looks as to make it nearly her entire life (as her husband leaves her in the end, but her fanatical devotion to Todd makes it surprising that she had a husband in the first place). Her fatness is a strange thing to fix on for so much of the book, where nearly every person who speaks to or even sees her can only think about how fat she is, but it's also a little refreshing to have a deliberately unattractive central female character--however shallow she starts out being.

It's just too bad about the rest of the book.

I can't honestly recommend Coldheart Canyon to anyone. I can't even begin to imagine what audience this is for, except MAYBE whoever claims to like the Fifty Shades of Grey books. It's like a particularly trashy trashy romance, with a side of trash in its own trashy collectible trash bin. If you paid money for this, you got robbed. I didn't pay a thing, and I feel robbed. I want my three hours back!

Being a great fan of Clive Barker, I purchased his newest book as soon as I had a chance. I had high expectations, but this book was somewhat a disappointment to me. I have to agree with people who have written reviews before me. This novel will stay in the shadow of his earlier masterpieces - Imajica, Weaveworld, Galilee, even Sacrament. Why? Here is a list of reasons:
1. it lacks the depth his previous books posessed: no brilliant quotes revealing the veiled philosophy, no signs of his perfect knowledge of ancient mystical knowledge he has used so perfectly in Imajica and Weaveworld.
2. it is too emotional: his approach is too personal and emotional this time. Considering his close ties with Hollywood, perhaps he should not have chosen this topic for his book. The death of his dog was of course a tragic event in the writer's life, but he shouldn't have let this tragedy to influence the story line to the limit it has.
3. errors of logic: there are some, at least two occasions where there seems to be a hole in the story line - people seem to have vital information that was not told to them before. Probably the book has been not reviewed very thoroughly by the author and the editors.
4. it is too long: although Imajica is even closer to reminding the Bible, I never got the feeling that it could end sooner as it did. With Coldheart Canyon, though, I felt that around page 400 it could have been ended.
At the same time this book is without any doubt a classical "Barkerian" book in style. Although some passages seem to irritate and even bore a little bit, the way story is told in general, is forcing you to read further. Too much sex should not be a problem, for his other books are pretty sexual too and Sacrament contains much more fragments of gay sex than this book.
I read the HarperCollins special overseas edition (2002) and the quality of the content and binding were pretty much the same - I have never in my life managed to break the back of a book - and I have read a huge amount of paperback books - but I did it in this occasion. Believe me, it was quite accidental and happened because of the quality of the binding.
Anyway, I will be looking forward to the publishing of "Abarat" and the return of Clive Barker in his glory. I really would not like to believe his decline as a writer has begun. After all, even one of the worst among his books, Coldheart Canyon is still better than most of mystic and horror books on the market today. And we must respect Clive's honest statement that "it was a devil of a book to write". It seems it really was. I gave it four stars in comparison with the book market in general; comparing with other books from Clive only, it would have received 3 stars a maximum.

"Coldheart Canyon" is nothing less than a bittersweet satire on the hidden hedonism during the Golden Age of Hollywood; an indicting portrait of the destructive vanity and artistic barrenness of modern day Hollywood; and, most importantly, it is a startling, erotic, metaphysical ghost story, with passages that rival the most profligate work in Mr. Barker's canon--bringing to mind the excesses of Fellini's "Satyricon"-- conincided with touching, thought provoking ponderings on the meaning of life. And still it remains laugh-out-loud funny at times, and never fails to entertain.

"Coldheart Canyon" is one of Barker's most acclomplished works, continuing to solidify him, as Quentin Tarantino pointed out on the book's back cover, as the world's foremost imaginer. Come along for the ride if you like fiction that pushes the envelope of both craft and content--Barker is literature's undiscovered gem and the horror genre's misbegotten master. Like the characters in his books he lies on the threshold of uncertainty, a lost soul of sorts in a world that has no need for souls. To acknowledge Clive Barker is human, to read him divine.

(Postcript: I wrote this review a few years ago when I was obviously too-enamored by Clive Barker and his works to write anything objective about him or his books. Today I would give this book between 3 and 4 stars, since it is written without any restraint -- though its profligate imaginings offer some delight.)

Barker rocks in this book. He takes all elements that makes him such a great writer and combines them into one great story. I have read reviews that give this poor ratings because of being too weird or too many sex scenes. Give me a break people! You cant handle sex scenes then why on Earth would you read a Barker book? The story just sucks you in right away and then takes twists and turns that keep you reading until the end. I finished this book in a few days and just couldnt put it down. You will finish this book realizing that being a Hollywood star may not be all its cracked up to be (well, if you enter a horror element to it).

Once again, Clive Barker turns out a masterpiece. Back from some of his softer, more "new agey" work, here's a great read that hits on a number of levels.
Okay, so Imagica it's not. But, combine an insider's satire of the Hollywierd world of today and the great silent movie area with liberal touches of lewdness, spirits, demons, and the inevitable ordinary characters that get sucked into unexpected roles, and you have a highly enjoyable piece of reading.

"Coldheart Canyon", along with "Mister B. Gone" and a few of his other works, are probably considered Clive Barker's weakest works among his fans. For instance, the scathing 1-star review on the main page of this book appears to be written by a Barker fan. I however, care to disagree.

"Coldheart Canyon" is simply a masterpiece. I loved every second of this book - and to testify to this, I finished the mammoth 700 page volume in a solid four days. It is fun, it is entertaining, it is thought-provoking - but most of all, and also ironically (if you know the plot of the book) - this book is addicting.

Yes, addicting - much like the Devil's Country, and just like Todd Pickett and Katya Lupi's addiction to fame and beauty. This book is addicting. The characters are believable. Some of them are intriguing, arousing and astonishing (Katya and her accomplice, Zeffer), some of them are very human and very real (our hero, Todd Pickett, Maxine, Tammy, Arnie, etc), some of them are sheer comic riot (Eppstadt, Brahms), and some are downright terrifying (Duke Goga, Lillith, Qwaftzefoni).

This book is a versatile, read as well. Versatily is perhaps a strange adjective to use for a novel, but this novel truly is. In the chapter about Todd's dog, Dempsey - I shed tears, as I did during the last segment with Todd and the Angel. In the bits about the ghosts, and the chases throughout the Devil's Country - I was terrified. I laughed, I cried, I threw the book at the wall in sheer anger (*SPOILER ALERT* - I was pissed because I wanted Todd to stay with Katya.)

This book is fantastic. It invents it's own mythology; it is a myth unto itself. Clive Barker is genius, but he really out-does himself here.

More semi-spoilers:
I could find no gripes with the book. Some people, like a review here, don't understand why the people were "addicted" to Devil's Country - but it was spelled out pretty plainly: it either terrified you, or you fell in love with it - and never wanted to break away from it's gorgeous hold on your soul, or it's rejuvinating effects. In fact, I remember Barker clearly devoting a few pages to explaining that once you had stepped inside the Devil's Country, nothing was the same in reality after. This clearly explains the addictions.

This is a work of genius. If you are looking for an epic book that will entertain you on every page, this is the book to get.

It's only my obsessive compulsive need to finish a book I've started that qualifies me to write this review. It just goes on and on with insignificant detail about insignificant events, flora, fauna, people, whatever. I didn't care about anyone in the book. I didn't care what happened at any point in the book. The very detailed and explicit sexual scenes weren't erotic. The gore was gratuitous, and like the book, went on and on and on and on. The supernatural scenes weren't scary. The plot wasn't interesting.

My mother-in-law, bless her heart, used to tell you (if you didn't get up and leave), everything that had happened to her from the moment she got up that morning, until the moment she started talking to you, without ever relating anything remotely interesting. This book is more tiresome. There was a climactic moment about the middle of the book. The book could have ended there, and it would have been a waste of time, but far less time, and it would have been a better book.

I enjoyed Coldheart Canyon, but I wouldn't put it in the same class as Gallilee or Sanctuary. There wasn't the depth of character that Barker usually provides, and it seemed to me that he just wasn't his usual meticulous self in crafting the small details that characterize his work. I kept wondering where Tammy got the money to fly to LA, get a rental car, and stay in a motel on her husband's pay as a baggage handler, for example. And I couldn't make sense of the timeline around Marco's flight from the house and the events that logically followed from it (I won't say more to avoid spoiling a significant plot development).

That said, I didn't want to put it down, and I did enjoy it. Unlike his other works, though, I probably won't want to read it a second time.

I first Read Weave World, the book with Cabal, etc. and the Theif of always and fell in love with Clive Barkers Writing. But after reading The Great and Secret Show (semi-boring and very long) I began to get bored with his writing (like Stephen King, long and tedious). But then I Read Coldheart Canyon. My faith has now been restored. Not only is this a book filled with descriptions that fall into the imagination, but the Main and supporting Characters are easy to understand and identify with.
I highly recomend this book if you are looking for an intelligent and yet imaginative read along with a strong step away from the reality we know.

i just finished clive barker's coldheart canyon and i wasnt disappointed. i must agree with other readers and say that it was about 100 or more pages too long (unimportant or nonrelevent information), but all in all i wasnt ready for the story to be over when i finished it. it took me about 3 days to read it; when i would start again i didnt want to put it down. it does have a lot of sexually explicit language and scenes throughout the story so if youre weary of those types of reads then i would pick something else (i like those types of reads myself so i thoroughly enjoyed it). i also didnt find it at all scary, frightening or suspenseful either, but like i said i liked the story and in a couple-few years i'll probably pick it up and read it again for old times sake.

Frank Muller's breathless monotone, punctuated with bad Bela Lugosi impersonations does nothing to improve this over-long ghost story. If the author's intention was to make Anne Rice read like Mother Goose, he succeeded, but only with his repetitive detail of every excess, moral deviation, grotesque sexual practice and vile genetic atrocities. The text needed a heavy handed editor. Twelve cassettes would have told the story(e.g. why devote almost an entire cassette to the details of the death of a pet who had no role to play in moving the story along, and failed in its attempt to portray the "hero" as "human"). Barker has no way with words, belabors the plot and certainly has no idea how to wrap things up!
This is the first book by this author I've read, and frankly, it will be the last.

Before this book came out, I was begining to believe that Clive Barker was past his prime. I enjoyed the Books of Blood through Sacrament, and then I waited a long time for Galilee, wich was good, but not quite as good as the rest of his work. Thankfully, Coldheart Canyon blew me away.

There was good reason to believe that this tale of hedonism in the early age of Hollywood was going to be another soap-opera like the previous book. It was nerver wrecking to think that maybe he was just going to re-hash some of his ideas of fetishism with a bit of hollywood gossip tabloid drivel.

I was not expecting such a powerful and surreal experience. There are scenes here that are so suspenseful the hairs on the back of my neck were raising. The monsters, ghosts, and wonders here rival anything that he has written before. The parts of the story that deal with "the hunt" are downright nasty. Meanwhile, the celebration of the hollywood ghosts are so surreal and beatiful in their dark way. Never before have I met such a seductive and evil bad-girl as Katya, she could teach the sisters from Weaveworld about cruelty.

This is a long book, but it rewards heavily. There is no one in any genre who writes storys as complex and imaganative as Clive Barker. These images and characters will be in your head for a while. As this stroy builds to it's climax, it will have you gripping the pages so hard the circulation will be cut off from your fingers. When the revelations hit, as all the plotlines converge and things click, your mind will be blown.

A powerful performance that is somehow very underrated. I reccomend it to all fiction readers that have an open mind. Those looking for another Stephen King knock-off might want to pass.

I picked up "Coldheart Canyon" by Clive Barker because it was a Hollywood ghost story and I enjoy those Hollywood stories. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong book to start reading Clive Barker. I heard that his books were great, but although this story started out okay, it soon become drawn out and slow and boring. I could not connect to the story or the characters whatsoever. I was looking for horror not sex. Can anyone recommend a better Clive Barker story?

Wonderfully descriptive and creative. Katiya is a deliciously seductive character and I loved the fall and rebirth of the Madonna man. First Clive Barker book I have read but personally do not own the kindle version... yet. Definitely worth a read.

Barker is clever and imaginative, but missed his mark with his latest novel. The book seized me at the beginning, but soon grew wearisome. Barker strained to drag the story along for the last third of the book until he could finally find closure. I suggest reading some of his previous noteworthy works first and avoiding this one.

Clive Barker is one of the most esteemed writers in imaginative fiction today. Just when you think there's no place left to go, Barker opens another secret panel and lets the imagination flow. Coldheart Canyon is Barker at his most powerful and chilling best. A non-stop flight of fantasy and subtle, nerve-wracking chills. Not since Straub's Ghost Story has there ever been a novel like this...intense... Gary S. Potter Author/Poet

This book is full of dragging detail and gross scenes. There is a little bit of sickness for everyone. Lots of sick sex scenes. Some discusting kill scenes. Some ghosts and an angel. Oh and some characters that you end up hoping will just die so the book will end. The book drags on and on. I gave it three stars because the discusting details are pretty good. I have to give Barker credit for not disappointing me on the gore. I don't think i could really in good concience recommend this book to anyone. Maybe to someone who just wanted to skim for certain kinds of scenes.

I realise that Barker has an excellent imagination, but sometimes i think he tries too hard, i would like to see more of a storyteller's discipline in his books, because he has the potential to be great (Damnation Game) in that style.
This book started out very promising, i liked the idea of the secret world of the weird tile painting, with its fantastic sun and misshapen beasts. I also liked very much the bluntly realistic description of the Hollywood lifestyle, all false and pretentious, and one sympathises with the actor Todd Pickett more because of the way this lifestyle sucks him dry, finally sacrificing him in a horrible plastic surgery accident which ruins his career. However when he comes to take refuge in the Coldheart Canyon house, things start to go downhill in the book. Far too much time is spent here, and the story almost becomes centred upon this house and its weird little secret. I would like to have seen Pickett brutalised by the media over his accident, instead of the soft surrender at the home of his agent, where he is humiliated by the Hollywood set. The love-interest-triangle between the evil Katya Lupesci and his gullible and appropriately named super-fan Tammy also drags on a bit. And somewhere we lose total sympathy with our would be hero Pickett. Indeed at the end of the book Pickett is relegated to just another character, an effect which doesnt work very well im afraid, he becomes dull and confused. As for the 'other' element of the novel, the supernatural dimension, it works well for a while, but then degenerates into something resembling a B-movie plot.
I was seldom surprised by anything that happened in the novel after Pickett leaves the Hollywood party. My enjoyment of the novel effectively ended there, and there was what... a hundred or so pages to go? The most important part of a novel lies in its ending, simply because its the very last thing we remember when we put it down, and it recalls in our minds all that went before, this is primarily where this book fails.

Coldheart Canyon is a stange combination of modern-day ghost story, light erotica and Hollywood parody. The plot's a bit outlandish, but Coldheart Canyon is ultimately a fun story with well-developed characters. I listened to the unabridged audio version, and Frank Muller does a fine job pacing the plot, and making the dialogue sound authentic. Coldheart Canyon is enjoyable overall, and a good listen on audio.

I read many of Cliver Barkers books, From Cabal to Weaveworld but this book was had pulled plenty of Ghost tales all together in one great story. What is exceptionally interesting about this book besides the "pull you right in" story line are the characters. As you read Coldhearted Canyon, you really enjoy the characters they come to life in the story. Clive Barker created such strong and vivid personalities its hard to put this book down. Visual, intense worth every penny,, even to read it twice.

This was the first Clive Barker novel I have read. I got the title from a list of scary ghost stories. I can not complain too much about a book that is almost 700 pages and I read in three days. It was entertaining and interesting, just not scary. I was hoping for a good ghost story that might make me check under the bed, but did not get it. Not a bad book, just not scary.

This is not your typical in depth, fantastic voyage that Barker has put out in the past (Imajica, The Great and Seceret Show, etc.), but it has its moment of beauty and insight into the corrupt lifestyle of the famous and rich. It reads quite easily and is gripping despite its grammatical flaws. There are classic Barker moments of the flesh and desire and his view on Hollywood gives us some relief that we are not of that genre. It does seem that this was written a little more haphazardly then most of his work, but it still entertains and leaves you with a slight tingle in your bones when you are finished.

The only thing worse than the style and content of this novel was the length of this novel. It was as if this great author knew how bad this was and tried to write his way out of it---I'm sorry to say that he never made it. Oh so predictable one dimensional characters permeate a plot that wanders and never really comes into focus. His attempt to write dark erotica was pitiful and I felt for his futile efforts. If this book could've been half as long it would've been twice as good---but even at that length it still would've been lousy.

ColdHeart Canyon is a book filled with surreal imagery. Namely the tile in the bowels of the Devil's Country. Clive makes everything come to live when fleshing out this world within a world. But this is just one aspect of this book which I thought was not as good as "The Great and Secret Show" but then again, what book is?

Another amazing book from the mind of Clive Barker. Scary, sexual, and original!
I enjoyed this story immensely and I had a hard time putting this book down. Ghosts and demons, creatures and Hollywood's dark underbelly. All these words come to mind when I think of this book. Everything you expect from Clive.

This book should not have been published and if Clive Barker had not already been an established excellent novelist, this book would not have gotten published. Very poor character development - I did not care about what happened to any of the characters - and ridiculous, over-the-top sex scenes. I normally appreciate Barker's smatterings of sex throughout his books but this one seems to have it all throughout the book just in order to keep the voyeur in all of us reading.

Some of my favorite novels of all time include Imajica, Galilee, and Weaveworld. These are fantastic, wonderful works of art, and its a shame this book has to tarnish Clive Barker's reputation. Boo.

This book was creative, imaginative, and created an entirely new world to imagine yourself in.
It is well written and exciting to read.
He created lifelike characters and made the totally unbelievable, somehow believable.
Some of these reviews are so quick to judge, and so cruel.
Well I am a fan, Clive. And I think you did wonderful job. You should be proud of yourself!!

I found this book when I was browsing the bookshop (I will totally miss that) and since I loved Hellraiser I thought I'd give it a chance. Glad I did. It had the perfect blend of weird, sexy, evil, macabre all the things I love. The best by Barker.

This book was so good that I actually wondered if it hadn't already been written before the beginning of time, before the universe itself was born and Mr. Barker didn't actually just discover it for us, and translate it for us from the pure language of the cosmos that it was written in. Perhaps it was originally written upon papyrus in some ancient tongue and buried deep in a crypt only for Clive Barker to have been led there by an angel (or a demon). Perhaps it miraculously survived the burning of Alexandria and through a long sequence of coincidences and synchronicities wound up in the hands of Mr. Clive Barker.

However the book actually came to pass I still kept wincing and my stomach kept turning at all of the perverted and gory details of the book, only for me to realize in the end that they were all necessary for us to still understand the possible condition of the afterlife that he was suggesting, and the development of his characters and the drama of souls struggling after death to overcome the channel to anguish and torment in the region of the dead that people dig for themselves in life.

The old Hollywood of the 1930s and 1940s meets the Hollywood of the 21st century. The emphasis is on staying young and the lengths the rich and famous will go to stay young. This book is REALLY CREEPY and will leave you breathless at the end.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Initially, I was afraid it was going to be too long and I'd get bored. On the contrary, I couldn't put this book down. Finished it in three days and found myself wanting more. Clive Barker really outdid himself with this one. It's a great combination of History, Horror, and Science Fiction with a little Romance mingled in. Happy Reading!

Not a masterpiece, not incredibly awful---just a mildy entertaining piece of fluff. It occurred to me early on that this book is nothing but a beach read. There's nothing here to challenge your mind. Good book for a long train ride or the ICU waiting room.