Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker
A Hollywood Ghost Story
Harper - October 2, 2001
ISBN: 0694524018 - Unabridged Audio
Fiction Horror - Very xplicit content

Reviewed by Brenda Weeaks, MyShelf.com
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Clive Barker's latest accomplishment is a ghost story of sorts with real ghosts who float around begging to be pleased; ageless souls similar to ghosts in that they haunt the canyon waiting, wanting back what their licentiousness had cost them; and yet another kind, trapped, reliving a tragic mistake, over and over again.

Todd Pickett is just one of the celebrities caught up in his own image. In fact, when it looks like his star is fading, he runs to a plastic surgeon. He doesn't react well to the surgery and goes into hiding. His agent puts him in an old 1920s house in the canyon. All seems normal at first, to Todd anyway, but to the reader things are slowly revealed to be worse, repulsive even, than one can imagine. Todd thinks he has hit the jackpot when a young woman appears offering him some entertainment, but soon he realizes there is nothing normal about her, those she commands, or the room she controls. So, does his vanity and despair have him falling into the crude pleasures of darkness or will his last ounce of sanity send him running?

Todd's fan club president, Tammy, becomes concerned about her idol and shows up at the house. She meets up with the mysterious caretaker who knows the canyon best, but it's not enough to save her from the shadows of the coldheart canyon. Her character is homely, overweight, and loaded with common sense. Let's hope it's enough to save her from this place of passion, perfection, and perversion!

The story runs from gripping to gross. At times it became so disturbing I had to walk away. The premise of the storyline is quite unique, and would have been just as successful without the barrage of erotic descriptions. Clive Barker came up the idea of a room built for the devil's wife. This room is the key, and the further one gets into the story the more in depth it becomes, growing beyond reason and imagination. Coldheart Canyon is not a story for the faint of heart. Its intense and erotic - disturbing at it's best. Readers can expect a horrific wild ride that will have them cringing and flipping pages just to see who survives.