Miracle Boy

by Jack Moody

“Miracle Boy grapples with determinism, chance, and free will via a Dantean journey through the hells of alcoholism-induced psychosis. Yet Moody writes drunken madness and dissociation with startling lucidity. His prose is by turns forensic and mystical, often transcending to a state of pure poetry. The weight of the fear that pervades this text — fear of living, fear of dying, fear of doing neither — bears down on the reader from the offset, and the protagonist’s determination (and dire need) to ‘fix everything’ makes you want to save him yourself. If you’ve ever thought that you’ve ‘chosen the incorrect life’, felt overwhelmed by the thousands of metaphorical doors you could open, and decided that you ‘wanna change everything’, then Miracle Boy is the novel for you. This is certainly Moody’s most accomplished work and I’d highly recommend it.”

— HLR, author of EX-CETERA and History of Present Complaint

“Jack Moody’s Miracle Boy is a terminal case. Its sentences are inevitable, the fate of its narrator sealed. The prose has the clarity of the insane and the chaos of the mundane. In between, it is a sad heap of beauty.”

— Shane Kowalski, author of Small Moods

Genres: Fiction

133 pages, Paperback

Published August 14, 2024

About the author

Jack Moody is a novelist and short story writer whose work includes Miracle Boy, The Lights That Dim, and The King of Everything. He is a former contributor for Return Magazine, The Bel Esprit Project, and Brick Moon Fiction, and his stories have appeared in various publications, most notably The NoSleep Podcast and The Saturday Evening Post. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Jack Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went insane writing this book. I hope you like it.

[Kevin Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished the book and swallowed my drink and then began to read the book for the second time. This book rocks hard and Jack Moody is the next great writer you all need to read. Damn this book is well written. I haven’t read an author that is so brilliantly honest about their struggles in years. This book is not to be slept on. I tell you, I’d follow him anywhere and would read him rewrite the phone book. Please find him out or message me. Anxiety Press is just killing it recently. Don’t believe me? Just find out for yourself…

http://www.athinsliceofanxiety.com/p/...

[od1_40reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was put onto this one via Aidan Scott, author of ‘The Garden’, published earlier this year by Anxiety Press. ‘Miracle Boy’ is their latest release, and I think more people need to know about it!

Jack Moody is clearly a formidable literary talent. This book is outstanding. I’m reminded of William S. Burroughs’ ‘Junky’ and ‘The Naked Lunch’, ‘The Lost Weekend’ by Charles Jackson and perhaps even a little bit of Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’.

The book is a bleak, rockbottom, journey into hell through alcohol-induced psychosis. What is real, what isn’t… who knows? Who cares. We’re long past the restrictions of reality here. Moody’s prose is stunning, poetic in many places. It’s dark, transgressive and beautiful.

We follow the protagonist down into his worst, drunken, insane depths as he faces his fears and life choices. There are many doors in this book, and have you ever wondered what might’ve been different in your life if you’d opened a different door, made a different choice? How could things have been different? Moody writes on the book’s back cover “I went insane writing this book. I hope you like it”, and whilst I hope that isn’t entirely true, it’s certainly believable.

Jack Moody is one to watch. Good job!

[Adam Ferris · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The boy now stands at the end of a new hallway. The door opens for him. It urges him inside. This is his choice to make. The stairs reemerge and set themselves right to prove this. The boy can leave if he wants. But he won't. The nucleus of his future throbs and pulses at the end of this hallway. To step away now would be to defy predetermined destiny. It's counterintuitive but it's the truest sentiment the boy will ever conceive. There's no destiny without choice, and so the boy steps forward. This is the greatest moment of his life."

Miracle Boy is a poetic, chaotic, phantasmagoric journey through trauma. What drives the suffering artist and to what ends is one willing to go to create? Are creating and living synonymous with the tortured artist? How can one live up to the unrealistic expectations of plans? Would we really change the past if we could? How much do we choose to let the past control our present situation?

"The ethereal and empty guests bare their teeth and glare and reach out to grasp me with sharpened talons, to pull me away from the light inside, but their hands pass through my body like knives through smoke. They can't touch me anymore. I'm the artist. I wield the canvas. I hold the brushes. I choose the colors of my creation."

Jack Moody creates lush vivid imagery and vulnerable emotion spinning passage after passage that pulls on the heartstrings. Even though the depictions of psychosis are dark and haunting, the writing is beautiful throughout. Moody writes of the truth of an addict, an artist, a human. Sure one can make much of the symbolism of doors, and of cours,e there is a depth to all of this, yet the best bet is to let it all wash over you. Facing the ghosts and spirits of the past and feeling the deep rhythms of abundant prose teeming with vulnerability, Miracle Boy is a wonderful addition to the library of any literary fan seeking an authentic and emerging author.

"Tonight, when the flames are doused and the moon burns bright, I'll join the celebration. With so many doors in the black room, surely one will lead me to the greatest never-ending party in human history. Tonight I'll pry open the doors I had deemed out of reach. The entire cosmos is at my fingertips. How could I have not seen that before? Too busy crawling through collapsing tunnels to see the shovel beside me."

"That boy will go on to live a life afforded by chance, by a random combination of events and circumstances, and that boy will things, in many different ways, and one by one, doors will close and hese being doors will lock, and the keys he once possessed will be lost. And one day the boy will look in the mirror and the boy will see that who gazes back at him is a man. A man with black eyes and bloated flesh and a fattened liver, and the man will turn away from the mirror in disgust, and he will see nothing but the shimmering black walls of the empty room he exists within, and he will see the doors that could have been opened, but he cannot find the key to escape. The doors are sealed shut, but still they beckon, not wishing to mock the man, but hoping desperately for him to find the key because he wants to find the key, and these doors are nothing but an extension of the mind he tentatively possesses."

[Genaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in one sitting! A few elements hit close to home. A highly recommended read

[Lu Louche · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something to it. It sure is the style and how crazy everything is or seems in his psychosis but I also think the 2 parts worked and although at first I found the last part better I couldn’t really tell anymore.
The self-referential meta ending invites one to let one’s thoughts wander over the text again.
Bell is a nice name for a cat, that is for sure.

[Daniel Sheen]

Okay, so this is less like a book and more like tangles in the brain, in the way that William Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" is like tangles in the brain. Basically, almost the entire book is a metaphor. And then buried within the metaphor are dark truths hidden within yet more metaphors, so dont go in expecting an easy read. He even says it himself on page 126; "It's either genius or shit. Or both. I can never tell anymore." However, chapter 45, the last chapter, is really something else! This really is a genius level metafictional essay where suddenly the narrative opens up, breaking the fourth wall, and we have Jack basically admitting that the purpose of this book was to write about serious childhood trauma without actually writing about, or indeed mentioning, said trauma, and if that was the goal, then he achieves that goal in an elegant and spectacular fashion. This is an in-depth look at alcohol induced psychosis - brought about by said (or unsaid) trauma - from INSIDE the psychosis. This is a tremendously personal work, and as such, I will not be scoring it, as I find scoring biographies and memoirs rather cringe inducing. In fact, it seems like this book is so personal that Jack (despite now being sober) actually had another psychotic break while writing it. So again, this is a look at psychosis, from inside psychosis, while writing under the influence of psychosis. Phew! Expect talking sea turtles and dinosaurs and miniature plays and Jesters driving hearse's across dimensions, plus more black vomit than you can shake a hallucinogenic stick at. This felt more like an exorcism than a book, and I think it was, as per the conversation that happens on page 128, and for that, I can only feel grateful as to have been included in something so momentous. I hope it did its job. I hope that Jack can now walk away. This is a powerful, frustrating, confusing, transgressive, and creative look at madness and trauma, and as long as you dont go in looking for easy answers, it might just reward you. If you're a fan of Burroughs' however, or indeed, any sort of surrealist literature, this will probably be an easy win for you.

[Connor D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be blunt: Miracle Boy is a work of genius. It screams "cult classic". Unlike anything else that's out there today. It's the type of book that may not be understood right away, but it also doesn't need to be. Harrowing, deeply poetic, psychedelic, layered with metaphor and symbolism that will keep me returning again and again, with sharp comedic moments, and one of the greatest surrealist books EVER written. I don't want to go too much into the plot because it's difficult to explain. And anyway Miracle Boy is more a vivid experience than anything resembling a typical novel. It's a book that has to be read to be understood. I hope to see it on lists of the 21st century's greatest literature because without a doubt that's exactly what it is. The final chapter literally left me with my jaw hanging. I was in awe, flipping back the pages to read it multiple times. On top of all this he seems to be a relatively unknown author, which is partly why I feel the need to leave a review like this. I hope more people find his books.

I came to Moody's work late in the game, first reading The Absence of Death, but since then I've been sailing through his books, and without a doubt I agree with the blurb on the back of the book: This is the author's most accomplished work yet. Five glowing stars.

Postscript - - - HE WROTE THIS IN THREE WEEKS? WHAT???

[Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and bat shit crazy. I read this book in two sittings, the first half before going to sleep and the second when I woke up. Like a meal prepared by a world class chef at a 5 star restaurant, this book is an experience that even after devouring you will reminisce on often, recommend to anyone who will listen to you, and have you plotting your next visit. However, reading this might just kill your appetite. What's being served here is a narrative consisting of a myopic stream of consciousness vacating the author's body with ferocious urgency and speed; it's better than you can imagine.

This book is not concerned with the world, only one man's place in it, or lack thereof, which he continues to seek and try to grasp ahold of despite a diseased mind and poorly adapted coping skills that are working to destroy him, from the moment he opens his eyes in the morning each day through his sleepless nights.

But you will laugh often and there are moments that are sweet. All hope is not lost, though it doesn't translate as hope exactly... More like a cockroach navigating the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, in Moody there is a perhaps subconscious drive to survive, and you better believe it's going to be on his terms. A beautiful book, I'll leave it there. Do give this one a read, you can thank me later.

[Manny Torres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the greatest book ever written about the hallucinations that come after you stop drinking heavily. This is a vividly written, hallucinatory novel that's both a harrowing recovery tale and a young man's adventure. Moody never wastes a single word or phrase when describing the hell and eventual triumph of the main character. The elements of magical realism and metafiction intertwine seamlessly. This book either works as a lesson to those advancing towards recovery, or those driving to the edge of the universe on a final trip to oblivion. It's either fantasy, or science fiction in the way that Vonnegut wrote sci fi, or a straight forward meltdown of all senses. In its short size, it still feels epic. Read all of Jack Moody's books for further journeys into the colorful decay of the soul.

[DuVay Knox · Rating 5 out of 5]

JACK MOODY writes books that should have been Written but nobody knew that they SHOULD HAVE been Written so they DIDNT Git WRITTEN.

He blends BUKOWSKI, KEROUAC, BURROUGHS and KATHY ACKER into only something MOODY could write. Makes it ORIGINAL as the Man in this book segues between Paranoia, Sickness, Metaphysical Meandering complete with his Wandering, Rogue Theories of Life......AND YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE.

Which is why I like reading JACK. (see the MONTONY OF EVERLASTING to git that DOUBLE DOSE of Moodyness).

This book easily nominates itself as a Character-Driven, Oscar-winning film starring BRADLEY COOPER or TOPHER GRACE or even MAHERSHALA ALI (if U wanna cast against type).

SEE JACK WRITE. READ JACK'S WORDS. Evolve.

This book could be the MIRACLE that saves Your Life, BWOI.