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Snarl by John Boden

Snarl by John Boden a horror book review by Kit Power

Kit Power provides a thoughtful perspective on the characters and their experiences in this dark tale. The review captures the essence of the book’s melancholic poetry and intense narrative, making it a compelling read. If you’re a fan of horror fiction and appreciate a writing style that finds beauty in darkness, this review might pique your interest in “Snarl. by John Boden.

Snarl by John Boden

So I know author John Boden, by longstanding Facebook acquaintance, and I consider him a friend. So, take this review with that info in mind, but also this; I only review books I a) finish and b) enjoy.

Marlin lives in a trailer on the edge of a small town. Any time not spent working in the local auto shop is taken up with caring for his mother, whose terminal cancer is entering its final stages, talking with his twin brother (who died in the womb, and who comes to Marlin in the form of a cat), and writing fragmentary thoughts in his notebook.

As someone familiar with Boden’s past work, there are many familiar elements here; a brilliantly realised blue-collar sensibility, a deeply skilful blend of sensitivity and grit, a poetic turn of phrase that will often raise a smile at the same time as bringing a lump to the throat. Marlin is an archetypal Boden protagonist, in many ways; hemmed in by personal circumstance and familial obligation, pinned in place by the twin crushing forces of working poverty and his mother’s terminal illness. It’s a devastating pen portrait of a situation that’s all the more horrifying for its commonplace nature, and for all of the characters’ numb acceptance of an intolerable status quo.

It’s fascinating to see the emergence of a crime narrative in this setting, and the sickening inevitability of that story thread adds a further layer of tension to what is already a dense, layered piece of fiction. Boden’s prose absolutely soars, both in the chapters themselves and in the extracts from Marlin’s notebook that are scattered throughout the book; I’ve yet to find a writer who more brilliantly welds the lyrical and poetic with the increasingly impossibly grim reality of the loves of the working poor underclass of 21st century America. His gaze is both deeply empathetic and utterly merciless, and Snarl spares none of its characters from their many and varied flaws, nor the often pitiless consequences of those flaws. But he also explores the deeply uncomfortable notion that love itself may be as much of a trap as it is a chance of salvation and/or rebirth.

Snarl is a dark tale, and the explosion of violence in the finale makes for a deeply uncomfortable, visceral read, but it’s the melancholic poetry of Marlin’s day-to-day, impossible life that stayed with me the most. It’s a stunning portrait, and Boden has, once again, delivered a story that finds poetry in the darkest of places, a fragile chimaera of hope, and a sense of creeping fatalistic doom that few other writers can match and, for my money, none can better. Unreservedly recommended to anyone to whom the above remotely appeals. Boden’s an extraordinary talent, and Snarl yet again delivers an exceptional reading experience. To steal a line from the great Joe R Lansdale, There ain’t two just like him.

KP

Snarl by John Boden

Snarl by John Boden
Snarl by John Boden

Marlin Stains is a lonely man who is filled with words. Words that he longs to share with the world but so far only shares with himself. He has over 300 notebooks brimming with them in his trailer room. A wood-paneled tomb of prose and syllable.

Marlin Stains killed his brother in the womb, buried his father when he was a young man and now, a bit older, he watches the same monster devour his mother. While grappling with this, he experiences a combination of exchanges and events that point him on a new trajectory with an outcome that is both expected and anything but. Marlin Stains has learned plenty in his thirty-two years: Love never dies, it just hides for a while and gets punchy. Death is never afraid and never gives a damn. Life is a thing that stretches, sometimes so far that you forget about it until it snaps back and hurts you. A snarl is an angry sound or a tangled trap, Marlin is familiar with both.

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Author

  • Jim Mcleod

    Jim "The Don" Mcleod has been reading horror for over 35 years, and reviewing horror for over 16 years. When he is not spending his time promoting the horror genre, he is either annoying his family or mucking about with his two dogs Casper and Molly.

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