Release

by Amelia Mangan

At the age of sixteen, Stanley Fitzgerald murdered his mother. He hasn’t uttered a word since. Institutionalized for the last twelve years, he spends his days numb and unresponsive, shut away in a dismal, silent world of his own.

Until he meets Marina.

Large bright feline eyes. Long chestnut hair. Rough edges of bitten fingernails. Hands that once murdered an entire family. Marina talks to Stanley. And before long, Stanley talks back.

As their friendship grows, Marina’s influence draws Stanley out of his shell. The doctors, pleased with Stanley’s progress, decide it’s time for his release.

Returning to the isolated Midwestern farmhouse where he grew up, Stanley is determined to start putting the pieces of his broken life back together. He never believes he will see Marina again. Not as long as he lives.

Until, one black and rainy night, Marina appears on Stanley’s doorstep.

“They let me out,” she tells him.

Stanley wants so badly to believe her.

Stanley has no choice but to let her in…

RELEASE is a Gothic fairy tale of love, death, guilt, and madness.

And it will never let you go.

Advance Praise for RELEASE:

"Reading Amelia Mangan’s Release is like being trapped in a slowly sinking ship while icy water rises all around you. It’s creepy, claustrophobic, and disturbingly vivid; I couldn’t put it down."
—Kelly Braffet, author of Save Yourself and Josie and Jack

"Beautifully written and utterly absorbing, Release is the story of a young man trapped in an insular world of memories and madness. Returning to the rat-infested farmhouse where he grew up, Stanley Fitzgerald settles into a routine. He cooks, he cleans, he listens to the radio. One day fades into the next, but there is a certain comfort in the mundane. A certain hopefulness in the simplicity of his new existence. Then a beguiling young woman shows up at his door and Stanley soon realizes that for a man such as he, there can be only one release.

"Amelia Mangan’s writing is so rich and evocative, the reader will be tempted to race through the pages, but don’t. Release is to be savored, preferably on a moonlit night with a chill in the air."
—Amanda Stevens, author of The Graveyard Queen series

"Haunting and hard to shake off. Release wraps its chilled fingers around you and doesn't let go."
—Kathy Charles, author of John Belushi Is Dead

"Release is the novel you'd get if you put Stephen King and Angela Carter in a room together and got them good and mean drunk. Scary, thrilling, gimlet-eyed, and so sharp you could cut yourself on it, this is a triumph of horror novels, and heralds an exciting new talent in Amelia Mangan."
—Jessica Alcott, author of Even When You Lie To Me

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Gothic

263 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 2015

About the author

My first novel, RELEASE, was published in 2015. I'm also the author of a number of short stories, including "I Love You Mary-Grace", as featured in The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eleven (ed. Ellen Datlow, 2019). This story was audio-adapted by Jason Hill, of Chilling Tales for Dark Nights' "Horror Hill" podcast, and can be listened to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5xBr...

Some of my stories can be read online, including:

"The Bridegroom" (stand-alone ebook, published by The Book Smugglers, also available for free on their site: http://thebooksmugglers.com/2015/10/t...)

"Blue Highway" (Yen Magazine #65; winner of their first short story contest; available to read for free online: http://www.yenmag.net/artery/blue-hig...)

"These Blasted Lands" (After The Fall, ed. Alex Davis; available to read for free online: https://boohoobooks.files.wordpress.c...)

Reviews

[Jychelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

**Goodreads Giveaway ARC Review**
Stanley is in an asylum. He doesn't talk to anyone, keeps to himself and long awaits the moments he can be alone in his room. Then he meets Marina, a pale girl who looks like a porcelain doll. Everything changes with one simple question "What are you in for?" Stanley, for murdering his mother at the age of 16. Marina for killing a family of 4.
12 years later he is released. The only place left for him to go, the farmhouse where he spent his isolated childhood with his mother. Memories haunt him as He cleans the abandoned home and starts to rebuild his life, never thinking he will ever see Marina again.
Marina shows up on his doorstep claiming they let her out.
I will admit that I was briefly bored with Stanley's transition back to home, up until you notice that Marina is not normal. It's to be expected for someone who had spent time in an asylum but super creepy not normal. What are her intentions? What is she hiding? What is the rest of Stanley's story? What is really going on underneath everything? Chapters 4 to 6 keep you gripping the edge of your seat as the mystery builds and you can't stop the questions in your head. Whaaaaat???? What WHAT? By the end of chapter 7 I don't even feel like my brain is functioning correctly, like reality was just thrown around like a rag doll and set on fire. Amazing. This book just totally baffled me. AND THE END OOOOO MYYYY BRILLIANT!!! So worth that little bit that I bored through! SO WORTH IT! Twisted, dark, psychologically, catastrophically, mind sexed, it was not mind rape because I enjoyed it oh so much!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing throughout RELEASE is phenomenal. It drew me right in, but not in a rushed manner. Ms. Mangan gives the characters time to develop, time for the reader to connect and become fully immersed in the whole situation and story. Of course, once that has been accomplished, the reader is then forcefully pushed down a rabbit hole of chaos along with the characters.

In a masterful display of 'show, don't tell,' RELEASE not only reads like watching a movie, but has parts and scenes that have every possibility of making the reader question his/her own sanity, scenes with such speed and chaos as to make the reader worry that they've missed something, or that they must be careful or they will something. The effectiveness of this technique is not something I've experienced whilst reading before now. These parts and scenes held so much impact that, honestly, I wasn't sure if I was wrong, the book was wrong, the character was wrong, or the whole universe had been upended! Turns out, everything was just as it should be and the only way to fully feel, read, and understand anything afterward requires being so fully immersed as to experience exactly what I felt. (After that, good luck even thinking about putting this book down!)

The ending, to me, was perfectly suiting. There was no rush to tidy up ends nor loose ends left dangling. The pace matched what I expected, matched my own feelings as I neared the final pages, and the message of it –the message that captured and summarized the whole meaning of the book, resonated so much with me that I was stunned. Yeah, I've been there, in a way, and seeing it put into words was like being smacked. Truly, it's the only way...

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading RELEASE and look forward to reading more by Amelia Mangan. This book could have gone horribly wrong, the storyline could have been a tangled mess of dead vines, but her writing really made this nothing short of, not just a wonderful read, but, a complete experience.

[Shane Douglas Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prior to RELEASE, I had never heard of Amelia Mangan, nor did I know anything very specific about this book, so I had no idea what I was getting into. Just that it was an interesting premise written by a new author. That’s a combo that hooks me every time. I love delving into the unknown and the unexpected, and what I discovered with RELEASE was unexpectedly delightful.

For a first novel, RELEASE surprised the hell out of me. It’s one of the more accomplished debut efforts I’ve seen in a long time. Mangan displays a mastery of descriptive imagery and a flare for character driven story that is unusual in a new author and something that, in this reviewer’s opinion, is crucial to a good story.

In RELEASE, Stanley Fitzgerald has recently been released from the mental hospital where he has been incarcerated for the last ten years. Against his doctor’s advice, he returns to the home of his childhood and, with the help of a distant cousin, attempts to put his life back together. But Marina, the murderous sociopath he met and befriended in the asylum, has other plans in store. One rainy night she shows up on Stanley’s doorstep, barefoot and drenched to the bone. Uninvited, she moves in and quickly takes over Stanley’s life. From this point on things get crazy and Stanley is plunged into a nightmare of manipulation, psychological torture, and despair.

With deft, lyrical prose, Amelia Mangan paints her story on the page with vivid detail, well written, flowing dialog, and outstanding character development. RELEASE is a fast moving, engrossing, and ultimately heartrending tragedy that moves along at a natural, well-managed pace. The characters are damn near perfect and Mangan’s grasp of language is top-notch, making for an epic, beautifully twisted Gothic fairy tale. If I were to recommend only one debut novel for 2015, RELEASE would be it, hands down.

[Kyle Romines · Rating 5 out of 5]

I noticed this book by chance when hosting a giveaway—the gripping cover and synopsis had me hooked from the start. I entered the giveaway, and then a second giveaway, until finally I just had to have the book, so I bought it through Amazon.

I’m so glad I did. Release is a great book, and I highly recommend it.

Firstly, Release is very well written. Amelia Mangan’s prose is beautiful, fluid, and gripping—she should be immensely proud of this first novel-length work.

But it was the story that hooked me. The novel opens with two imprisoned murderers forging a friendship in an asylum—and these are the main characters! It’s such an original story, with a real, warped relationship between two very damaged people.

Stanley, the protagonist, has hardly spoken a word since being confined to an asylum after killing his mother—that is until he meets Marina, an inmate who murdered an entire family. They become friends, until eventually Stanley is released back into the world, only to have Marina end up at his doorstep. I won’t spoil what happens after that, but it’s well worth a read. The story was so gripping, I read it in one day.

If you like horror stories, love stories, or solid writing in general, you should buy this book. I can't wait to read whatever Amelia Mangan does next.

[Sarah MacMillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been on a mental hospital horror kick recently. Release was so awesome-looking, and the front cover was practically shouting my name. I'm not a gore person, so I was holding out hope that the book's focus would be in its characters. Stanley and Marina are like a psychotic little Bonnie and Clyde couple and it was a strange relationship of both cute and creepy at the same time. Stanley's not as dark as Marina, but they bond over their tortured souls and murderous pasts. If that isn't a spooky thought, get ready for the farmhouse!

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Stanley has been locked up in a mental asylum for years. Notorious for the murder of his own mother, he spends most of his time isolated and listening to the turmoil of other patients. In fact, right away he describes a fellow patient who has slit his own wrists. Stanley is a strange character. I didn't know whether to pity him or hate him for his crime. Amelia Mangan's main man made me feel both.

When the beautiful but psychologically damaged Marina shows up, Stanley takes a liking to her. Marina has a rap sheet for murdering a whole family. Described like a doll with adorable features, it's hard to believe she's capable of those evils. Her interest in Stanley and their developing friendship coaxes Stanley out of his shell and with the good faith of his doctor, he's released and chooses to return to the farmhouse he once lived in before his commitment. Marina arrives there out of the blue. She's been released herself by her claim, but Stanley finds himself growing uneasy at her sudden appearance. What does she want, and more importantly, how did a girl who murdered multiple people get released so soon?

Favorite scene: Marina's first appearance. Just the way she's described reminded me of those detailed little ball-jointed custom dolls on DeviantArt. So pretty, yet so sinister!

Peeve(s): It can be a little confusing at first to know what's going on, and some scenes jump quickly from one to the next. This can be pardoned I think because the writing is excellent and the story is so perfect and scary.

Loose ends: I really liked Stanley's doctor. I wouldn't have minded hearing a bit more about him as a character because it was a real change of pace to read a doctor character at a mental asylum who isn't condescending and cares deeply for the patients.

[Christopher Ruz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional debut, compelling and disturbing all at once. Consider the claustrophobia and mental games of Misery, the layers of deception and un-truth in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, and wrap them all up in a neat package of paranoia and mental illness. Release was genuinely nasty at times, a horror story rooted in the worst aspects of our personalities rather than anything supernatural, but it also pulled off the impressive trick of presenting me with a fundamentally unlikeable protagonist and making me truly love and care for him by the end. Damn fine work.

[Mike Dominic · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a rare stratum of psychological horror novels in which the story proceeds primarily from the mind of the viewpoint character. I imagine such stories must be tremendously hard to write, but when done well, they are gripping and singular works of art. Novels such as Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" and Thomas Tryon's "The Other" are fine examples of the breed, and Mangan's "Release" easily belongs in their company.
This is a beautifully told tale that is nearly as much poetry as it is prose. Focusing on the central character Stanley, we get an intimate view of the arc of madness that is much more subtle than the genre of "horror" would imply. There is horror, visceral at times, but there is also romance, tenderness and pathos. Even when Mangan does get into the "wet red stuff", it's told in such a way as to be artful rather than lurid. In this world, the sex is much more repulsive than the violence, as befits the characters.
I was surprised to learn that this was Mangan's first novel, and further surprised that I have not heard more about this book. For the quality of her language as much as anything, this book deserves reading and this author bears watching.

[Kaylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the read!! Kept me confused but in a great way and I couldn't put it down. I just had to figure it out.

[Kik BoxR · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disjointed in the woods.

[Samantha Harden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was compelling, beautifully written, and nearly impossible to stop reading. I gave it four stars but it's probably more around a 3.75 rating on my personal scale, simply because I'm a little biased, as a person who enjoys positive character growth overall, but make no mistake; it's a damn good read.

[E.F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This emotionally taut tale stitches together the lives of two sociopaths into a tense page turner. Release invites you to their remote farm house and will keep you on the edge of your seat. Intense and utterly disturbing, the complex characters are rendered with richly detailed nuances that heighten the impact of every moral line they cross.

[Diana Marchant Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was all about this book until maybe the fourth section...then it got a little dull. Ok, we get it, he's in the woods and it's creepy. It just went on for SO LONG.

Literally the entire rest of the book was good though! The characters and plot lines were quite interesting. And I like the end, it definitely makes you think. That middle section just really slowed me down.