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809 Jacob Street by Marty Young Review!

18591386A psychological tortured journey down the streets of madness ending in a true house of horrors and fears to be confronted or allowed to consume your every being. 

809 Jacob Street is well known throughout the tiny town of Parkton. The street itself is not one ventured after night. There are tales of shadowy figures that will swallow you whole, tales of a house that holds a terrifying entity ready to capture and engulf any child who steps out of line. At least that’s the story told to kids in Parkton by their parents to keep them in line. What this town fears the most is brought to life by The-Man-of-the-House or the Shadowman as many know him. Clearly the house on Jacob Street is just a story to scare kids or is it? What secrets does this street hold? What spirits and tortured souls are screaming in the night? Three outcast teenage boys are about to find out, whether they like it or not.

The story opens with Joey Blue. An old jazz player roaming the streets of Parkton trying to escape his own inner demons that have manifested themselves into shadowy figures of the night, haunting his every dream and waking life. Joey drinks like a bum to suppress his demons, to suffocate and rid himself of his wrong doings, but an old friend won’t allow him to do so. Joey Blue is confronted with the ghost, soul, entity of his buddy Gremlin who urges him to 809 Jacob Street to confront his fears and give into the darkness that screams to him every night…..

After meeting Joey Blue and getting a glimpse into the horrors that Jacob Street holds, we are pushed towards the present and introduced to our three teenage outcasts. Byron is new to Parkton. It’s hard enough moving to a new neighborhood and making new friends, especially when the first two people you meet are on the strange side.  Iain is the “leader” of the group. Something is obviously very wrong with this kid. His obsession with monsters and the house at 809 Jacob Street consumes his every thought and it is he who has the idea to confront that house. But what dark secret is driving Iain to this place and what lengths will he go to in order to find his answers? Hashim, is Iain’s friend and pretty much keeps to himself. He allows Iain to give the orders and he follows knowing that his friend isn’t quite right.

Everyone in Parkton knows the legend but it is Iain who has spent hours gathering a scrapbook of the history revealing a grisly past of murder within the house. A family of three back in the 30’s were murdered in the house and some say it is the souls of that family that haunt the house. After coming up with very little on the history at the library, Byron starts to think that Iain and Hamish are full of crap. Despite his feelings on the matter it is too late to turn back once Iain and Hamish enlist Byron to investigate the house at 809 Jacob Street.

I liked the concept of this book quite a bit. The author constructs a story based on human fear and inner demons. Jacob Street is a dark dead end street where tortured souls scream in the night and others never return from. I feel like there was quite a bit of symbolism in this story. Humans as a whole have a fragile mental construct and when someone is plagued with guilt or anger those feelings can manifest themselves in ways that can drag you down into despair or give you the feeling of relief once the fears are confronted. The house itself turned people mad. It allows them to see what fears them most and they can either be swallowed whole by that fear or stand strong and confront it.

The pace of the book was a lot slower than I thought it would be. Parts tended to drag on and other parts I thought needed more explaining. I got that Iain had a less than happy upbringing with his father but It all came to an abrupt head at the house which again I THINK was illustrating that his anger and resentment consumed him so much and that is what the hose and the street feeds off of. It calls to those that hold onto fear, anger, resentment  and any other negative feeling that is so easy to consume one’s mind if they let it.

This is a well written psychological thriller, with a slower pace.

 

Meet the author! (Bio courtesy of Marty’s Goodreads Page)

 

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Marty Young (www.martyyoung.com) is a Bram Stoker nominated and Australian Shadows award winning editor, fiction and non-fiction writer, and sometimes ghost hunter. He was the founding President of the Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) from 2005-2010, and one of the creative minds behind the internationally acclaimed Midnight Echo magazine, for which he served as the Executive Editor until June 2013.

 

Kris Lugosi

Kris Lugosi is an honorary member of the Midnight Society, avid horror fan, horror convention nut, and voracious reader. Obsessed with the 80's B-movie horror genre and looking to introduce you to the seedy, underground world of horror and bizarre fiction.

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