Winner of the 2013 Australian Shadows Award for Best Horror Novel and nominated a Notable Indie Book of 2013, 809 Jacob Street is a slow-burning roller coaster ride into terror and madness.
Set in Parkton, a dark and dangerous town with a corrupted soul, the story explores the definition of a monster, and reveals that sometimes, it’s the person sitting next to you that you need to be worried about the most…
Listen to Joey Blue’s Barstool Eyes song.
809 Jacob Street tells two loosely connected tales: 14-year old Byron James, who wishes he’d never even heard of Parkton, let alone live there; and Joey Blue, an old bluesman who fell into his songs and couldn’t find his way out again.
For Byron, his two new friends – his only friends – turn out to be class rejects with an unhealthy interest in monsters. They want to discover the truth to the infamous monster house at number 809 Jacob Street.
And when an old dead friend comes begging for help, Joey’s strange and pitiful world is torn apart. He is forced to stare down the man he has become to rescue the man he once was – and there is only one place he can do that.
The house on Jacob Street calls to them all, but what will they find when they open its door?
Praise for 809 Jacob Street
“…I wasn’t quite prepared for how accomplished this little novel turned out to be. Evoking those stories of old with his motley crew of kids (1980’s horror fiction), Marty gives the reader a subtle coming-of-age tale while also delivering cerebral prose that becomes almost narcotizing after a while. Here, there is a slow build of tension that is somewhat effortless … as if 809 Jacob Street was a latter novel in the author’s resume.”
– Matt Tait – Hellnotes review
“Marty Young’s 809 Jacob Street dragged me through the gutter, and had me enthralled with every page. The story explores so thoroughly a nightmare of tortured emotions and madness that it’s hard to believe it isn’t autobiographical. The characters, especially Joey Blue, are that convincing. This is a writer cutting his own way through horror, and I can’t wait to see where his journey takes him. I, for one, will be watching from here on out, because he made me a fan with this book.”
– Joe McKinney, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Flesh Eaters and Dead City
“By effectively blurring the line between the inner and outer worlds of its characters, 809 Jacob Street gives new life to the standard haunted house story. A dark and powerful tale of small-town paranoia, communal and personal terror, and the reality of monsters.
Young has produced a refreshingly hypnotic tale that blends Monster Squad and the small-town coming-of-age themes of Stephen King to his own dark and surreal ends.”
– Robert Hood – author of Immaterial and Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead
“You may think you’ve been here before. But, like the alleys that thread through sleepy, old Parkton, alleys that do not meet up with the residual centres of light and life, the concepts Young invites us to explore take us somewhere beyond. I can say little about what lies in the Monster House itself, only that this is a destination which lies very much in the journey. It is the way he turns the crossing of a small town into a Dantesque quest, that is the book’s delight.”
– Kyla Ward – Thirteen o’ Clock review
“This book gets scary… You need to buy this book, you need to get it. You need to read it, not only to support obviously local writers and publishers, but because it is a very good read.”
– The Witching Hour Paranormal Radio Show on 4ZZZ (Broadcast on Nov 2, 2013)
“Marty Young takes us inside the hearts and minds of people tortured by the monster house on 809 Jacob Street. This is a slow burning exploration of psychic terror that builds to a startling climax and the beginning of an even deeper mystery. Recommended!”
– Greg Chapman, Bram Stoker nominated author
“809 Jacob Street is a wonderful first novel for Marty Young and first release for new Publisher, Black Beacon Books. Highly recommended.”
– Frank Michaels Errington, Horror-Web.com
“Marty Young is a writer of rare talent. He manages to interweave the mundane and supernatural so skilfully you never see or feel the joins. He draws you outside the lines, behind the curtain, out of the blue and into the black, and does it with such grace and skill that it’s only in retrospect that you realise how dark your surroundings have become, how unfamiliar the landmarks are.”
– Kit Power, author of The Loving Husband and the Faithful Wife