Lyle Edison is a young man with a past. A past he’s desperate to escape from. Lyle’s father is a convicted serial killer and the burden of carrying that through his life, of people knowing what Lyle’s father did and associating him with his father’s despicable acts, weighs heavy on Lyle’s shoulders. So Lyle illegally changes his name, believing that will banish the past and enable him to live his life. But what Lyle doesn’t account for is the guilt of committing a crime along with the knowledge that at any point, he could be caught. Particularly when a strange man called Icarus, who claims to be not of this earth and receiving messages from a god-like entity called Mother Howl, seems to know everything about Lyle. Lyle needs to decide whether to confront his own past or risk destroying everything he holds dear…
Mother Howl is a slow burn, character-driven, literary crime novel about a young man who desperately wants to escape the trauma of his past. Lyle is a good man but turns to a criminal for help to rewrite history in the form of a brand new identity and accompanying paperwork. With his new found persona, Lyle moves away to a town where no one knows who he is and starts to build a new, untarnished life. I felt desperately sorry for Lyle who has an innocence to him that I became quite fond of. I wanted him to be free of the burdens of his past. I wanted him to start a new life with his new name and new wife that would be fulfilling and without repercussions. But of course, nothing is ever that easy and things take an unexpected turn for our lead protagonist in the form of Icarus. The introduction of this strange, otherworldly being really does blur the genre lines of this novel. Is it magical realism? Perhaps urban fantasy is a more fitting label? (Not that I read any urban fantasy so what do I know? Not a lot!) The reader is introduced to Icarus early on in the novel but you never really get a strong hold on who, or what, he is. And I’ll be completely honest with you, Icarus hurt my head a little. He’s frantic and jumbled and wordy and impossible to explain. The story is told from both Lyle’s point of view and Icarus’s. But the two don’t meet until much later in the book. I was 100% there for Lyle’s chapters. I wasn’t so keen about Icarus’s.
Would I recommend this book? If you’re looking for something to get your teeth into, something a bit different with a slightly slower pace and an interesting lead then yes, I would recommend Mother Howl. Parts of this novel really worked for me. Others, not so much. But the overall package is good and Lyle’s story is interesting. Also, if you enjoy books that blur the lines between genres then you should pick this one up as, despite me not being 100% sold on Icarus, I do think the gradual merging of the two storylines worked well. An interesting read which I’m glad I took a chance on.
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