The Hobgoblin of Little Minds - A Lycanthropic Allegory for Mental Illness
Mark Matthews provided me with an ARC of this short book, and I am happy to have been able to take in another one of his works. He is a writer who specializes in psychological horror that pertains to addictions and mental illness. This is clearly his wheelhouse and he writes it with fervor and compassion.
This story is about Kori Driscoe, who grew up with a mentally unwell father who she loved dearly. He certainly loved her back, but without knowing how to express it in the best way. Her father, Peter Driscoe, was so consumed by his bi-polar and manic episodes that he felt he could not provide his daughter the love she needed. Despite receiving various forms of treatment, he ended up leaving and not returning during one of his episodes, which unearthed feelings of abandonment for Kori. She decided to visit the soon-to-be demolished Northville Psychiatric Hospital where her father was last treated and ended up finding him there, but changed. The other creatures she discovered with him were similar in their state, having been former patients of a psychiatrist bent on ‘perfecting’ these mental disorders into something powerful and messianic that could be bred and harnessed.
I truly enjoy the pain that Mark Matthews brings to the page. It is emotionally rich and sincere in its personal agony. He described Peter’s thoughts on Kori while he was being intimidated into becoming one of the psychiatric ward’s experimental patients, “So many locked doors and walls between them, if only he could just reach through the screen and speak to her the splendor of words he’s always hoped to say. Everything he had done in his sickness was just another way to scream her name.”
It is also very commendable how much homework the author does to be as accurate as possible with describing setting, mental illnesses, and their causes and effects. One of my favorite parts in this book that I spent some time pondering was when he wrote, “We disparage these individuals who crave illegal drugs, not asking ourselves if the body really knows something. Does it want cocaine to release something special? Or alcohol to quench a fire that is dangerous? Can we honor what we call illness as a special quality instead?”
I really enjoyed the allegory at play here between lycanthropy and mental illness. It is meaningful and somehow tender to the people suffering from these manic and depressive states. Matthews did not dishonor those who have mental illness in any way by creating this comparison, but rather brought attention to their very personally perceived situations with a compassionate and empathetic eye. I love this about his writing and I think you will too!
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