Books have a way to find us at the moment when we need them the most. For me, it happens from time to time that a book finds me and opens my eyes, but one of them still haunts me. Clive Barker's „Sacrament“. Maybe because I was reading it at the time I was in a hospital, struck with COVID, attached to oxygen and I could relate to some degree with Will Rabjohns. We were both running away from our past, and we were experiencing life-threatening situations and we lost friends. All of that made me wonder about my life, just as Will does once he’s awakened from a coma after he was attacked by a polar bear. Whatever it was, the book gripped me and I consider it one of the best, if not the best, works of Clive Barker where he showed how good of a writer he was.
Because of his earlier works, he can be dismissed by those who don’t know him, as a horror writer, but after [b:Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three|32626|Books of Blood Volumes One to Three (Books of Blood, #1-3)|Clive Barker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1306747123l/32626._SX50_.jpg|1913322] and [b:The Damnation Game|34605|The Damnation Game|Clive Barker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390447329l/34605._SY75_.jpg|3059336], he veered off into some dark fantasy world fuelled by his ingenious imagination. “Sacrament” is best described as magical realism with Barkeresque elements of sex and gore, albeit not as usual. Unfortunately, it’s his lowest-selling novel for which there are many reasons, but in reality, there shouldn’t be any as this novel deserves to be read and talked about.
The main reason that it’s full of autobiographical details, which also makes it intimate for Barker, the fact he mentioned in several interviews. Even without those, it’s hard to miss connections between Barker and protagonist, Will. Mid 40’s, gay, artists. The novel was written in the mid-90s when there was still no treatment for AIDS and Barker, just as Will, has seen friends and lovers go due to the horrible plague that has befallen them. They are coming to extinction, as Barker makes parallels in the novel.
It's those parts set in San Francisco that are the most powerful, filled with melancholy they speak of desire for life as Will is questioning himself. There are some moving scenes there, which only go to prove how good of a writer Barker is and how much of himself he poured into this novel.
This doesn’t say that the part set in Will’s hometown in England is worse, it’s not. It contains scenes that make us ponder and contemplate, scenes that make us gasp. The problem with that part is that it contains the key to Will’s past and future. Jacob and Rosa. Ruins of a court built by a person to judge those who wrong animals. All those Barkeresque elements are here, violence, sex, gore, fantasy.
Jacob and Rosa are a symbol of duality: Eros and Thanatos, Yin and Yang, masculine and feminine. Jacob has a mission, to be the man who will kill all extinct species while documenting it in his journal (while Will takes photos of dying species). He’s violent and abrasive. Full of hate and anger. The chaos. Rosa is somewhat different. She’s not far from him, she feeds off the desire of the young men. She wants kids, unaware that all their kids were killed by Jacob moments after their birth.
There is also Will’s dead brother. The “perfect” brother which makes us wonder did he ever existed or if it was Will, the loved child, the perfect child, who becomes despised by his parents after coming out of the closet. It might have been the case. Everything is pointing to that.
Suffice it to say, “Sacrament” is a puzzle box, that hides many secrets for the reader to discover. It deals with heavy subjects, it goes deep. It’s intimate, and moving. Melancholic.
The main problem with “Sacrament” is that you have a feeling of reading two novels and I do believe there should have been some more editing to better streamline these two stories. It might not be the right novel to introduce yourself to Barker’s work, but it will give you insight into his beautiful mind. It’s also not the novel for those used to Barker’s work and who seek body horror or twisted creatures and worlds. Nonetheless, it’s a novel worth reading, not once but more times as you will peel off new layers with each reading. There is so much I could say about this novel, so much analysis, and so many parallels to be drawn, but I won’t. Better to leave it to others to find out. Read Clive Barker and “Sacrament” to see how good of a writer he is and how close he is to being a literary classic.

Clive Barker once again wrote about a world so real, so much like our own - then it took a turn left and 'strange' elements started to creep in. Still it all stays so realistic, so true to what we know as reality, it fits in seamlessly, which makes his stories so believable.

We follow Will from his present back into his past, then keep following his story and the story of people he met - all intertwined, nesting inside each other like Russian Dolls.

Right now, I feel whatever else I write here won't do the story justice, so I'll just leave it at this - I might update my review later.

Wow. Clive Barker is a master. This novel is a truly meditative and breathtaking exploration of death, love, loss, forgiveness, and coming of age. It is a philosophical probe into our fears and hopes, and is an unapologetic reverie of sexuality, desire, and LIFE. This book is a commentary on the human experience. It took me a while to read this novel, mostly because I wanted to think about what I was reading, meditate on it, and relish the way Barker strung together his sentences.
The imagery is nothing short of stunning.
I laughed. I shivered. I burned with desire. I hungered for more. I recoiled when there was sensory overload. I probed the darkness and bathed in the light. I wept.
I wept.
This is one of my favorite novels I have ever read.

Thematically fascinating but this is far from Clive Barker's most entertaining work.