Hellraiser

Be careful what you wish for. It could come true! The amoral indulger Frank Cotton seems to have exhausted all the distractions the human world has to offer. That is why he was desperate to unravel the mystery of the Lemarchand Cube, the mythical puzzle that opens the door to another dimension. For he was eagerly awaiting the arrival of his guides, the mysterious Cenobites, members of the secret order of the Shrama, dedicated to absolute pleasure. He forgot, however, that intense sensuality is inherently linked to agonizing pain, which takes one beyond the limits of existence and common sense. Only Julia, the charming wife of his boring younger brother, can bring him back from the darkness, but she is more in need of Frank's rough and passionate embrace. The price is high: Liberation from hell's prison and torturous agony will claim the blood and even the lives of innocents, and the resurrected monster doesn't even remotely resemble Julia's dream lover... An iconic novel by a star of the horror genre and one of the most influential fantasy authors of recent decades. Clive Barker also gave his emblematic work a cinematic form (1987) and the world of his Hellraiser inspires artists to this day. "I saw the future of horror: his name is Clive Barker." - Stephen King "This is typical of Barker - sex and violence, all mixed into one disgustingly delightful concoction." - Fangoria "The book is one of Barker's greatest literary achievements, and a reminder, why he is the true master of horror." - Horror Novel Reviews "Hellraiser, whether we're talking about an amendment, or a movie, has every right to be in people's pop culture consciousness after 40 years." - sarden.cz In the end, they brought him untold suffering. They overdosed him with sensuality until his mind teetered on the edge of madness, and then they initiated him into things that his nerves could only remember in spasms. They called it pleasure, and maybe they really meant it. Maybe not. There was no way to tell with such minds; were so hopelessly, flawlessly ambiguous. They recognized no principles of reward and punishment which would have offered him any hope of obtaining relief from their torture, nor were they seduced by any pleas for mercy. He had tried, in all the weeks and months that had separated solving the puzzle from today. On this side of the Schism, it was impossible to reach compassion; there was only crying and laughter. Sometimes tears of joy (for an hour without a scare; sometimes even just the length of inhalation and exhalation); and laughter, which, paradoxically, came in spite of some new horror the Creator had invented to induce grief. The torments were characterized by yet another subtlety, for they were devised by a mind that understood the nature of suffering directly and perfectly. Prisoners were allowed a glimpse into the world they once inhabited. From their resting places - when they weren't hating pleasure - they could see the very places where they had once struggled with the Configuration that had brought them here. In Frank's case, it was the upper room of number fifty-five Lodovico Street. - excerpt from the book