VOCES ANIMARUM
Marten Hoyle
for I Ain't Your Marionette Press
Book Launch: November 22, 2023
A letter-anonymously penned, details a journey through a landscape of terrifying possibilities. I am welcoming you to walk the thin line between realities and nightmares. But don't think for a moment that I am going to allow you simply to walk a straight line here. No. For some moments, we will step into the evils of one realm, and then into the horrors of another. Sometimes, we will be in both places…and that is when you will hear the voices of souls.
For some (your friend and narrator of these words included) this is familiar territory. It is a sphere traversed by a psychologically sensitive minority. Less than 1% of the known population lives in this area. For years, I have attempted to create a representation of this world for those who stand outside of it. When the idea for this book came to me, it was a bizarre idea: A man suffering from a mental illness is told by his doctor to throw his medication away, and the story would be a journey based upon that premise.
The book is a metaphor, and an allegory for mental illness. Mostly it is centered around schizophrenia, or schizoaffective disorder (I do not know for sure which one I am diagnosed with, I have received both illnesses as a diagnosis from different doctors. Four of them).
It is a journey through schizophrenia designed as a letter from this territory that few are familiar with. I noticed there was very little literary perspective on schizophrenic experiences. What literature did exist, was not written by people who have the disease. I decided to change that. So, I created a fictionalized autobiographical sketch of my own journey with the illness.
Get Your Copy on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1998213056?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520
Marie Moldovan