When the Mockingbird Sings

By: Stuart Bray, Jason Nickey

Narrated by: Todd Waites

Length: 1 hr and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

This is the story of a vile, cruel, disgusting man, getting exactly what he deserves. Johnny is a gangster in 60's Moon City. When Johnny picks up a delivery for his boss at an old warehouse on the edge of town, his life changes in a way you won't soon forget.

©2023 Jason Nickey, Stuart Bray (P)2024 Fright Night Audio

well... that was definitely something!

I'm gonna have to sit on this one. it's definitely alot to digest. however, the narrator was phenomenal. I'll be back soon with some more thoughts when I've mentally processed this book.

Crazy!

I read this story but was excited to listen to the audio book. The writing is incredible. Both authors did a fantastic job. It's a hard story but I enjoyed it.

Check your triggers with this one

This review is going to be different than my usual reviews, mainly because I don't know how to review it in my normal 5 star manner.

Y'all, I may have made a mistake here. I have very little experience with extreme horror, and I chose this to be my first real extreme horror book. Whoops. I should have heeded... hedded... took hedded of the podcaster snippet on the cover of this book.

Johnny is a gangster, doing what is supposed to be a simple shipment pickup for his boss Sonny. As he and his coworker Roger (do mobsters have coworkers? 🤣) arrive at the dock for the pickup, Roger, the mobster with a conscience, realizes that this is going to be much more different than their usual pickups. Johnny is hardly bothered, and shows the pure depravity of his soul. The book continues following Johnny as he proves that he has no Jiminy Cricket sitting on his shoulder, and if there were any attempts of humanization by said insect, he was very quickly stomped to death (much like the fate of several people in this novella).

Narration - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The narrator does an incredible job throughout the book. You can really sense that Johnny literally has no care in the world for anyone except himself. It hits differently hearing it versus reading it, I can't just skip over stuff on an audiobook.

Depravity - ⭐️ or ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ depending on how you like extreme horror. I have a feeling that someone who reads it a lot will really enjoy it, and I've now learned that I really, REALLY don't like violence/SA towards children and feel physically ill when I read/hear it. I'm not usually a check my triggers kind of person, but I have a feeling I will be in the future. The stuff that happens to adults really didn't bother me, disgusting as it was. Does that say something about me as a person? 😂

Story - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It was truly an interesting narrative, and the twist later in the story really got me. I liked how it was split up into two sections, which I now realize are likely how the authors two parts are put together.

Adding them all together, I'd probably give it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ as a whole, and I've learned some things about myself about what I can and can't handle without feeling sick 😂

Prepare yourself

Depravity on a different level, the bar has definitely been set
Yes, there’s triggers but if you enjoy this type of fiction, it doesn’t get much better

Todd handles the subject matter flawlessly with his narration
Highly recommended if you’re constantly looking for the most extreme 5stars

insane

that was INSANE!! Disgusting and horrid honestly I made a face the entire time but couldn't stop listening. and the ending was mindblowing (pun not intended)

Not for the faint of heart...

Let's start with a disclaimer: if you have a weak stomach, this is not the book for you. This book contains scenes of graphic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse. The authors stress this before the book even starts, along with the reminder that this is purely fictional.

The story centers on a man named Johnny, a sexual deviant who works for the mob. When he's called on to pick up a "product" and make a delivery to his boss, the actions caused by his deviancy and selfishness cause everything to fall apart. He soon ends up a man alone, with everyone and everything set against him and determined to torture him with creative and horrific punishments.

The story is compelling to listen to because you wonder just what will happen to Johnny next, how he will react, and how you will feel when the next bad thing occurs. He is entirely amoral and does not possess the barest ability for self-reflection, so even though empathy compels one to feel bad for anyone put in such awful situations, there is still the feeling that he is getting exactly what he deserves. It's also compelling because Todd Waites does an excellent job of conveying Johnny's complete lack of morality, compassion, or empathy while still injecting him with a sense of victimhood and injustice that's seen in awful people in real life time and time again. My only critique is that the events of part 2 felt a little too convenient to allow Johnny to segue into his next round of castigation.

I received this title for free from Fright Night Audio as part of their review team.

Definitely Extreme

This book comes with a warning right at the beginning - even on the audiobook. Heed the warning if you’re bothered by very bad things happening to children. The content of the book is extreme, graphic, and vile. This is extreme horror on steroids. So there’s your warning.

The writing is very detailed and descriptive. What happens to the kids in this book is absolutely heinous. There’s some “pay back”, but even that wasn’t enough for what Johnny did.

I dig Stuart Bray and Jason Nickey, but this particular story isn’t something I’ll listen to again. It’s written very well, but I just don’t want to live it again. And while that may sound like a negative, it’s actually a testimony to the brilliance of the authors to make a person feel such revulsion.

The narration is spectacular. Todd Waites nails the character voices perfectly. He captures the grit of the story and the essence of each repulsive character with ease.

Excellent shock factor!!

I think my jaw was on my chest through the entire book. It didn't just hit the mark, it obliterated the mark. Excellent work gentlemen!

wowza

Stuart Bray and Jason Nickey have been on my radar for a while now. I own some of each of their books, but have thus far been thwarted by my ever expanding massive TBR. When the Mockingbird Sings is my first taste of both authors and it is delicious. And by delicious, I mean completely and utterly vile and disturbing. There were points where my jaw dropped and just stayed…dropped.

Johnny is a gangster tasked with picking up a special package for his boss. The package is a little girl, so naturally(?) Johnny assumes the don has nefarious intentions because isn’t that always the case with this sort of delivery? Or maybe Johnny is just the worst kind of person because his assumptions come from his own perversion. What should have been a simple pickup job turns into a huge fiasco that puts a target on Johnny’s head, not only from his boss, but from the rival gang’s boss. The series of hiccups would almost be funny if Johnny hadn’t already proven himself to be a vile person. You come to understand why he is the way he is, but it doesn’t make him a sympathetic character. I wanted to see him get his comeuppance very early on and that never changed.

Let’s talk about the audiobook for a moment. Todd Waites really nailed this performance. I almost believed he didn’t understand why all the other characters were so shocked at every word that came out of his mouth. I’ll be reading more of Bray and Nickey for sure. When you read as much extreme horror and splatterpunk as I do, you get a little desensitized. So when I find a book that gives me visceral reactions and even makes me put it down for a little bit before finishing, I eventually go back for more.

I was gifted an Audible code from Fright Night Audio. All views expressed here are my own. I think I was cringing the entire hour and a half due to the descriptive language emphasized by Waites’ performance. Extreme horror is meant to make you uncomfortable and this book achieves that in leaps and bounds.

I am not the audience for this book

I found nothing redeemable about this book at all. After 10 minutes I had to turn it off.