Junkies don't go to heaven

He wanted to be good like his mother said he was, not a bad man, like his father. But for Jake, for 3 nights every month at the time of the full moon, unless he is able to anesthetize himself completely, he will wake up, naked, sometimes bloody, not knowing where he has been. Because Jake is a werewolf. And the animal inside him wants to come out.

Very much not the usual werewolf story: no running with the pack, no delight in the power of the freedom. No, the reader travels with a troubled soul whose life is blighted with being what he is, of terrible 'memories' forgotten but still imagined and the inner conflicting voice which constantly argues for him to give in and be something he fears and hates. This is a story of struggle against the odds, of how things can be made possible by sheer determination. A metaphor.

The ending is unexpected, but good. Travis Baldree reads well, his slightly sinister voice for Jake encompassing his hopeless desperatkon, his desire to be other than what he is. The narration increases the power of this story as well as giving Jake and the other protagonists voice.

I received a complimentary copy of Black Marks, at my request, from the rights holder, via Audiobook Boom - thank you - and this brief review is given voluntarily, an attempt to share my feelings about it. There is action, plenty of it, but much is of the inner kind as well as external confrontation. And there is also love, but not just of the romantic kind. A constant swirl of thoughts and emotions of an ordinary man caught in an exceptional circumstance trying his best to do what he can to be 'good'.
An unusual book, very well worth reading. I will be watching for the author's other works.
A definite recommendation.

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