I was disappointed. I'm not sure what I was expecting but this wasn't it. Clive Barker often blends urban fantasy in with his horror but this time the horror was almost completely overshadowed by the urban fantasy aspect. There was blood, and hooks, and hell, but I can't remember any moments that compare to the uncomfortable horror of The Hellbound Heart. My friend, Gregor, called it cartoonish and I think he nailed it. 
 I had two major complaints. The setting in hell didn't work for me. I thought Hellraiser II was the cheesiest of the original trilogy because it took place in a literal hell and Scarlet Gospels does the same thing. In The Hellbound Heart, the cenobites are distinctly alien, beyond our understanding of heaven and hell, pain and pleasure. When asked their identity, a cenobite famously replies "angels to some, demons to others." They are unknown and that's what makes them awesome. 
 Here we have such a literal translation of hell and its occupants that Lucifer himself becomes a main character. It all got a bit silly by this point and I couldn't take it seriously. The mystery was gone. It became the same hell I've read about in everything from The Bible to Paradise Lost. It's been done. I got bored. 
 I also didn't care for the use of the name "Pinhead." In Hellraiser, that dude was cast as "lead cenobite." Fans later gave him the name Pinhead. It works for fans who want to use cute humor. It doesn't in the actual horror story. Super cheesy. Not scary. It pulls me out of the story and that's never fun. 
 If you want to see Gregor's thoughts on the book you can check it out here - 
 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... 
 I can't guarantee he'll ever finish reading it, though. Neither of us is exactly bursting with enthusiasm.