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 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.

Marlin Stains spends his lonely life caring for his sick mother, blaming himself for his twin brother's death before he was ever born, and writing out his thoughts in hundreds of notebooks.

 

"My thoughts, they're always like minnows. Dozens of them. All of them small but swimming fast, gasping when I catch 'em."

He never shares his writing. Maybe things would be different for him if he had. Maybe he knows this and feels he's not worthy of happiness or attention.

When a woman he has loved from afar ever since they were in the eighth grade tells him that her husband has been abusing her, he starts to consider the possibility of a different kind of life.

Snarl is a sorrowful tale of an unfortunate man and the disturbing path he found his life on. The grief and loneliness are palpable. I literally need a hug right now.

My emotions ran the gamut and ran me ragged while reading. This is my second time reading a John Boden novella, and I'll definitely be back for more.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to the author and Dead Sky Publishing.

Available for pre-order

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