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Hellraiser: The Toll
Thirty years after Kirsty Cotton escaped from the clutches of the Hell Priest, Pinhead, and lived to fight another day, her life has never been the same.
Every few years she fashions a new name, a new identity, and a new home for herself; She is a woman who is running from her past at all costs, which is why it comes as such a surprise when she receives a mysterious letter in the mail, addressed to the woman she's been running from over half her life. Answering the letter's query, she begins a descent down a rabbit hole to the ultimate confrontation.
Her actions stir something unnamable in the ether and throw her into a game where nothing, not even what she sees in front of her very eyes, can be trusted.
With equal parts economy and eloquence, author Mark Alan Miller brings to life the beginning of the end as "The Toll" expands the Hellraiser universe, and shows that before Harry D'Amour's adventures in "The Scarlet Gospels," there was a first witness to Pinhead's infernal plan.
This new illustrated edition included new artwork by Derik Hefner as well as three terrifying short stories.
Every few years she fashions a new name, a new identity, and a new home for herself; She is a woman who is running from her past at all costs, which is why it comes as such a surprise when she receives a mysterious letter in the mail, addressed to the woman she's been running from over half her life. Answering the letter's query, she begins a descent down a rabbit hole to the ultimate confrontation.
Her actions stir something unnamable in the ether and throw her into a game where nothing, not even what she sees in front of her very eyes, can be trusted.
With equal parts economy and eloquence, author Mark Alan Miller brings to life the beginning of the end as "The Toll" expands the Hellraiser universe, and shows that before Harry D'Amour's adventures in "The Scarlet Gospels," there was a first witness to Pinhead's infernal plan.
This new illustrated edition included new artwork by Derik Hefner as well as three terrifying short stories.
- GenresHorror
127 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 14, 2023
20 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 29, 2024
“Hellraiser: The Toll” by Mark Alan Miller and Clive Barker is supposed to be a continuation of the original novel “The Hellbound Heart” written solely by Barker. I was excited to read this one after the incredible 5-Star experience the first book gave me to the point of no control. Seriously, that book is a horror masterpiece and I devoured it in a single day because it was that epic. Unfortunately, the second entry in the Hellraiser trilogy was a complete and utter dud.
At first, I was thrilled to see that I would finally get to know more of the backstory of Lemarchand’s Configuration. The start of the book was pretty good since it started to go into the origin of Phillipe Lemarchand and how he created those hellish little puzzle boxes. That only lasts barely a few pages before we go heavily into what Kirsty has been up to.
The backstory of her character confused me since again, I thought this was a continuation of the original book and a prequel before the final book in this trilogy but I was dead wrong. It was confusing because this is NOT a sequel to the original and NOT a prequel to “The Scarlet Gospels” but a sequel to the original Hellraiser movie.
Needless to say, that was a huge letdown and even knowing that after looking it up, this book dragged on big time from the 20% mark on. It got boring and contained a whole lot of fluff to the point where I wasn’t even sure what I was reading. It’s broken up into three parts, the first part is on Kirsty and her “battle” with Pinhead (more on that nonsense in a bit), the second part is on some random person, and the third part is on a few random people.
That’s it, that’s the book. Kirsty’s character development regressed big time and I find it hard to believe that her “battles” with Pinhead ended up the way they were. Don’t worry, I won’t ruin it for you but let’s just say they felt unbelievable. It lacked any true horror, body horror, or anything cool as seen in the original book which again, made me start to despise this book. Even their “battles” were too dialogue-heavy with weird interactions and nowhere as horrific or exciting as I was hoping for.
Besides the numerous spelling and grammatical errors, I felt this was not edited at all which is ironic. In case you didn’t know, Miller was Barker’s editor for over a decade and yet this book felt unedited. I couldn’t believe it all as I was coming off the high of “The Hellbound Heart” and this shocked me at how bad this book was.
There’s way too much dialogue here, nowhere near enough horror as there should have been, and honestly, I felt misled by this book. Nowhere on the cover or description does this say it’s a continuation of the Hellraiser movie. I mean, am I reading this wrong? Here’s what it says in the description…
“Hellraiser: The Toll tells the story of what happened between Clive Barker's iconic works The Hellbound Heart and its follow-up, The Scarlet Gospels.”
What? Common now. I should also note that this edition I got included “The Toll” and two other short stories in the “Hellraiser Universe” but they were both terrible. I questioned myself a few times as to what the hell am I even reading. This book feels like a lost project that was dug up and thrown to readers with no rhyme or reason.
It came off as a weird book involving Kirsty and two random stories that read like rambling thoughts that had nothing to do with anything involving Pinhead, Lemarchand’s Configuration, Cenobites, or anything interesting. As much as I hate to say it, this was such a disappointing read that didn’t continue the original book but the movie, and even with that being said, this was a waste of time. I kept flipping page after page after page with literally no horror at all. Common now.
Thankfully, I type and read fast so it’s not like I spent 2 weeks reading this or anything as it is a novella. The writing here is inferior to that of Barker and was oftentimes confusing. This felt just as mysterious and puzzling as Lemarchand’s Box.
I give “Hellraiser: The Toll” by Mark Alan Miller and Clive Barker a 1/5 for being a weird, confusing, and unscary book. It felt like a fan fiction book where fans of the Hellraiser franchise wrote some random stories that could fit into this universe and it would be fun to do. This didn’t add anything good to Kirsty, Pinhead, Lemarchand’s Configuration, or anything.
This would have been better if it perhaps just focused on the origin of Phillipe Lemarchand and filled in that backstory. Or maybe even go into the backstory of Pinhead and the Cenobites to fill in that backstory. I’m not sure what this book tried to accomplish but for me, it was terrible. I now see why many readers say to skip this book entirely, pretend it doesn’t exist, and just read “The Hellbound Heart” and “The Scarlet Gospels” since they were written by Barker who is the better author. Here’s to hoping that’s the case as I begin the final entry in this Hellraiser trilogy hoping to rid my memory of this disaster.
At first, I was thrilled to see that I would finally get to know more of the backstory of Lemarchand’s Configuration. The start of the book was pretty good since it started to go into the origin of Phillipe Lemarchand and how he created those hellish little puzzle boxes. That only lasts barely a few pages before we go heavily into what Kirsty has been up to.
The backstory of her character confused me since again, I thought this was a continuation of the original book and a prequel before the final book in this trilogy but I was dead wrong. It was confusing because this is NOT a sequel to the original and NOT a prequel to “The Scarlet Gospels” but a sequel to the original Hellraiser movie.
Needless to say, that was a huge letdown and even knowing that after looking it up, this book dragged on big time from the 20% mark on. It got boring and contained a whole lot of fluff to the point where I wasn’t even sure what I was reading. It’s broken up into three parts, the first part is on Kirsty and her “battle” with Pinhead (more on that nonsense in a bit), the second part is on some random person, and the third part is on a few random people.
That’s it, that’s the book. Kirsty’s character development regressed big time and I find it hard to believe that her “battles” with Pinhead ended up the way they were. Don’t worry, I won’t ruin it for you but let’s just say they felt unbelievable. It lacked any true horror, body horror, or anything cool as seen in the original book which again, made me start to despise this book. Even their “battles” were too dialogue-heavy with weird interactions and nowhere as horrific or exciting as I was hoping for.
Besides the numerous spelling and grammatical errors, I felt this was not edited at all which is ironic. In case you didn’t know, Miller was Barker’s editor for over a decade and yet this book felt unedited. I couldn’t believe it all as I was coming off the high of “The Hellbound Heart” and this shocked me at how bad this book was.
There’s way too much dialogue here, nowhere near enough horror as there should have been, and honestly, I felt misled by this book. Nowhere on the cover or description does this say it’s a continuation of the Hellraiser movie. I mean, am I reading this wrong? Here’s what it says in the description…
“Hellraiser: The Toll tells the story of what happened between Clive Barker's iconic works The Hellbound Heart and its follow-up, The Scarlet Gospels.”
What? Common now. I should also note that this edition I got included “The Toll” and two other short stories in the “Hellraiser Universe” but they were both terrible. I questioned myself a few times as to what the hell am I even reading. This book feels like a lost project that was dug up and thrown to readers with no rhyme or reason.
It came off as a weird book involving Kirsty and two random stories that read like rambling thoughts that had nothing to do with anything involving Pinhead, Lemarchand’s Configuration, Cenobites, or anything interesting. As much as I hate to say it, this was such a disappointing read that didn’t continue the original book but the movie, and even with that being said, this was a waste of time. I kept flipping page after page after page with literally no horror at all. Common now.
Thankfully, I type and read fast so it’s not like I spent 2 weeks reading this or anything as it is a novella. The writing here is inferior to that of Barker and was oftentimes confusing. This felt just as mysterious and puzzling as Lemarchand’s Box.
I give “Hellraiser: The Toll” by Mark Alan Miller and Clive Barker a 1/5 for being a weird, confusing, and unscary book. It felt like a fan fiction book where fans of the Hellraiser franchise wrote some random stories that could fit into this universe and it would be fun to do. This didn’t add anything good to Kirsty, Pinhead, Lemarchand’s Configuration, or anything.
This would have been better if it perhaps just focused on the origin of Phillipe Lemarchand and filled in that backstory. Or maybe even go into the backstory of Pinhead and the Cenobites to fill in that backstory. I’m not sure what this book tried to accomplish but for me, it was terrible. I now see why many readers say to skip this book entirely, pretend it doesn’t exist, and just read “The Hellbound Heart” and “The Scarlet Gospels” since they were written by Barker who is the better author. Here’s to hoping that’s the case as I begin the final entry in this Hellraiser trilogy hoping to rid my memory of this disaster.
May 9, 2023
3.5 Stars from me
There were some things I enjoyed about this book and some things that I felt weren’t as good. My favorite was probably the last two short stories (although the last one was definitely sick and twisted and not for everyone). There were a lot of spelling/grammatical errors in the version I got which was disappointing. The book was alright.
There were some things I enjoyed about this book and some things that I felt weren’t as good. My favorite was probably the last two short stories (although the last one was definitely sick and twisted and not for everyone). There were a lot of spelling/grammatical errors in the version I got which was disappointing. The book was alright.
May 1, 2024
The title story feels like DLC for The Scarlet Gospels, nonfunctional on its own.
The final two short stories in the collection don't seem to have any connection to the Hellraiser world and are all the stronger for that independence. (Although the last one is about a menstrual vampire, so it's not too far off the mark from a Clive Barker story.)
The final two short stories in the collection don't seem to have any connection to the Hellraiser world and are all the stronger for that independence. (Although the last one is about a menstrual vampire, so it's not too far off the mark from a Clive Barker story.)
December 18, 2025
It's a no for me
The first story was a disappointment. It's filled with inconsistencies from the first, original book, the characters lack motive for most of their actions and it reminds me more of fanfic really. But a poorly written one. The rest of the stories was better written, but not exactly closely tied to Hellraiser
The first story was a disappointment. It's filled with inconsistencies from the first, original book, the characters lack motive for most of their actions and it reminds me more of fanfic really. But a poorly written one. The rest of the stories was better written, but not exactly closely tied to Hellraiser
October 6, 2025
Pretty fun stories, but in desperate need of an editor.
The stories aren’t bad, but the editing is amateur in the worst way. One of the stories literally changes the race of a creature from satyr to centaur and then back to satyr. How did no one catch that? Amateur.
The stories aren’t bad, but the editing is amateur in the worst way. One of the stories literally changes the race of a creature from satyr to centaur and then back to satyr. How did no one catch that? Amateur.
May 25, 2025
So good!
The stories in this book are so gloriously simultaneously disgusting and fascinating, I love it!! The author's imagination is phenomenal!
The stories in this book are so gloriously simultaneously disgusting and fascinating, I love it!! The author's imagination is phenomenal!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews