Mother Howl

By: Craig Clevenger

Narrated by: Greg Lockett

A compelling literary crime that follows the son of a serial murderer who changes his identity in a bid to escape his past.

Sixteen-year-old Lyle Edison recognizes the face of a murder victim on the nightly news–the waitress at his local diner. A place he often frequented with his dad. The following day, his father is arrested and charged with her murder. And then, eight further bodies are discovered.

Following the revelation that his dad is a serial killer, Lyle is outcast and shunned. Forced to abandon his family, illegally obtaining a new identity, he moves away to start all over again.

Some years later, Lyle thinks he has finally moved on. But after several brushes with the law, Lyle’s past eventually catches up to him when a mysterious stranger known only as Icarus shows up and seems to know Lyle’s secret....

©2023 Craig Clevenger (P)2023 Datura Books

Interesting but…

Had trouble getting into it at first then I was immersed in the story. Ending left me wanting. Author is a really talented writer, but as a reader I don’t like to be left hanging. Don’t mind done things open ended but this didn’t do it for me.

I didn’t want it to end…

But then it did. Abruptly. This was a very engrossing story, and I like the voice performances that really brought the characters to life. And then just when it seemed the storylines would finally tie together — nothing. The end.

Great performance, weird story

I almost stopped listening when the father son interaction happened. Now that I’ve finished it, I wish I had stopped. Very disappointed that I wasted my time and money on this one.

Mother Howl

Didn’t care
For the other worldly part of this book. Disappointed in the ending. Needed to take the ending further.

Good As His Story Sunder from In Filth

Though this isn’t initially as slangy as Craig Clevenger’s piece from In Filth It Shall Be Found or as drug-drenched as Dermaphoria, it is like an easier to follow Contortionist’s Handbook (all great). Here, 17 y/o Lyle wants a new identity because the father he shares a name w/ is the town murderer—even to girls his sim fancies. While he’s in prison, this Lyle is treated as poor, ignored by even government agencies when he wants to change his name. There’s a stripped version of his specific evocative images like Lyle’s school crush w/ green ribbons and a cardboard-scraped roadkill cat. Once he bribes someone to legally change his name to Edison, we get a time jump to where he’s on probation for being a drug dealer, so he’s in NA meetings after a Pursey-style cop tosses his apt

Icarus is another POV who thinks he’s beyond Earth so tried to kill himself so winds up in a psych ward, much like the soul-transporters in Craig’s piece Sunder from Filth. He’s blunt in the charming way of a southern black man (but maybe that’s the Audible narrator’s spin). He speaks of Mother Howl, what he personifies the universe as. “Silly String Theory,” medicine as “brain candy,” “I know you think I’m a foilhead who thinks Elvis shot Kennedy or something… PTA been after me for years” make me smile.

Lyle has so many coincidental run-ins with the law, I wouldn’t believe him as a cop either. He makes stupid decisions like getting involved between a petty criminal and Korean store owner. His good deed def comes off like he’s pals with the thief. If I was his wife, I’d get close to stabbing him over all his dumb decisions and how he doesn’t seem to love their baby besides keeping up a front or just to get his wife off his back. It shouldn’t take the threat of jail to wanna spend time w/ the kid. Good thing jazzy-voiced Ray checks his selfishness/victim mentality. It’s good we don’t know about the wife’s background until the end so we can leave sympathizing with everybody more.

I like that the MCs verge paths sooner than most books would but not crazy soon and that the romantic relationship stuff isn’t dragged out. The meeting w/ his father brings up a lot of unique points and good tension, possibilities of what could happen. Maybe Icarus’s purpose was obvious but I didn’t catch on until it was spelled out. The dream at the end is beautiful, the reality not unrealistically sappy.