SOURCE: Tucker, Ken. Review of The Inhuman Condition, by Clive Barker. New York Times Book Review (21 September 1986): 26.

In the following review, Tucker praises the stories in The Inhuman Condition, which he contends effectively “create an atmosphere of dread and foreboding.”

Clive Barker is a young Englishman who writes short stories that regularly veer into the category of horror fiction. He avoids the breathless tone that makes most modern horror tales seem foolish, instead setting scenes in a measured voice with meticulous details that accumulate to create an atmosphere of dread and foreboding. This sets you up properly for the scary parts—in this, Mr. Barker is mindful of such predecessors as H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur Machen. What he adds to this tradition is a wicked willingness to use vivid images of violence to provide a jolt of R-rated realism to his fiction. Try to imagine “The Texas...