Mama's Boy

by Fran Friel, James Newman (Introduction)

Deep within the confines of Penn's Asylum waits a scarred and broken man with a seemingly non-existent past. Found burned and unresponsive twenty years prior, Frank Doe's dark secrets have remained locked away in mute silence. That is until Rebecca, a beautiful young doctor newly assigned to the wards of the asylum, steps in to unlock and scour Doe's psyche for answers about his past. Shocking revelations bring about the doctor's own troubled history, opening a long-closed set of wounds that she herself must face.

A Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella of deep, dark and disturbing images, Mama's Boy is a story you won't soon forget. Perhaps it will even unleash your own wounds lying just below the surface. Will you withstand the demons inside?

97 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

FRAN FRIEL is a two-time Bram Stoker Award Finalist, and Winner of the Black Quill Award. She wrangles her small beast overlords and writes Science Fiction, Horror, and Dark Fantasy in her Tiny Cow Pasture Paradise in West Cork, Ireland.

Look for the Fran Friel's Dark Tales in Amazon Shorts. You’ll find new stories plus revised and expanded pieces plucked from her Award Winning Collection, MAMA'S BOY AND OTHER DARK TALES.

Fran Friel's Dark Tales (individual shorts and novellas):

The Sea Orphan
Beach of Dreams
Under the Dryer w/ Bonus Flash - Orange and Golden
Bessie’s Green Thumb

Coming Soon:

The Whispers of Chickens
Mashed
Fine Print
Widow
Wings with Hot Sauce

SF/Fantasy Series:
The Realm Tree Chronicles


And don't miss the fantastic anthology, BARBERS AND BEAUTIES, with fiction from Multi-Award Winning Authors, Gary Braunbeck, Tim Lebbon, Kealan Patrick Burke, Lisa Morton, Fran Friel and Others.

Stop by for a chat with Fran at Facebook and Twitter. And have a look at her blogging antics at Fran Friel's Yada Feast. Fran's cyber-door is always open. For more info visit: www.franfriel.com or franfriel.com/vip.

Reviews

[Fran Friel · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first novella - Bram Stoker Finalist for Long Fiction in 2006

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, Fran Friel is something else. Just when you think you have yourself a good grasp of the names and faces and works of the rising hot lava flow of literary talent accumulating out there these days, out pops another one, another something else, a writing entity fresh and exciting that has his/her own voice and is different from the rest in good ways. A presence whose existence I'd only become aware of not too many months ago from the time of this review. To me, Fran Friel is like the little round stone I lost my footing over when my shoe kicked into it on my sojourn across a pebble-ridden garden path. I picked it up and found it was a sparkling jewel.
So I put it in my pocket.
If you're looking for something else and you crave horror literature, Mama's Boy is what you want. The way Fran writes is something else, unlike most writers rising to the surface of notoriety having previously rarely written anything at all. Her prose is blunt yet casual, the story is essentially a derivative of the boy/mother relationship gone psychologically awry dating back to Ed Gein and Bloch/Hitchcock's Psycho, but it's told with blissful originality and you can digest it all in one sitting.
It leaves you feeling dirty, stunned, wanting to shower it all off, like the feeling you get when the credits roll after a deeply disturbing film (the way Adrian Lyn's Jacob's Ladder made me feel, for example). This is Fran's first book, though she's had plenty of practice in the craft with an eye-widening number of editing and writing credentials under her belt.
I wonder why I hadn't heard of Fran's work before, but that makes me wonder why she hasn't started her career until recently, because I know she would've done well years ago had she taken herself seriously as a writer earlier on. But we all have to start somewhere.
I guess that's what makes Fran something else, her work something exceptional. When you hold this kind of ability inside yourself for a long while, eventually when it's time to release it it's like letting loose a stream of fireworks into the night sky.
Mama's Boy is something else, and if you read anything else, I suggest this highly for the seasoned horror reader and those willing to dive off the deep end of psychological thrillers..
After all, wouldn't you put a jewel in your pocket if you came across one down your path?
I'd put this jewel into your night time reading roster. I dare you.

[Dark Recesses]

MAMA'S BOY
By Fran Friel
Insidious Publications
$14.99

As stated by the great James Newman in his introduction for Fran Friel's debut novella release, MAMA'S BOY, "...we all ought to keep a very close eye on this Fran chick from now on".
Much agreed, Mr. Newman.
MAMA'S BOY is an impressive debut, not only from Fran Friel as an author, but from Insidious Publications as well, this being the inaugural release in their newest line of limited edition soft cover novella series. Limited to 100 numbered copies, and signed by all contributors (Illustrators Tom Moran and Zach McCain, as well as authors Fran Friel and James Newman), MAMA'S BOY tells the frighteningly convincing story of an incestuous serial rapist/murderer known as Frank Doe. Set in an insane asylum, we learn through the dual narratives of a series of interviews with his doctor, and her personal journal, all the gruesome details of Frank's past. The story moves along at a nice clip, while Friel keeps the reader on his toes trying to figure out who's really the crazy one- the patient or the doctor. She knows how to end each chapter to keep the reader turning the pages, as we sink deeper into the horror and squalor of this mad killer's delusions. As he unfolds each new terrible act, we find ourselves alternately feeling sympathy and disgust with each dark turn of the page, until we, the reader, may question where our actual sympathies do lie by the last line.
MAMA'S BOY is cleverly and intriguingly written, and a must-read for those of us who love to discover new voices in the genre. I don't want to spoil the fun by giving away too much about the twists and turns to which Friel subjects her readers, but suffice it to say that if this is what she can do as a first novella, one can hardly wait to see what she'll have up her sleeve next time around.

--Nickolas Cook.