Black Heart Boys' Choir

De: Curtis M. Lawson

Narrado por: J. Keith Jackson

Great art demands sacrifice.

Lucien Beaumont is a teenage misfit and musical prodigy ostracized by his peers and haunted by familial tragedy. When he discovers an unfinished song composed by his dead father - a song that holds terrible power - Lucien becomes obsessed. As he chases after the secret nature of his father's music, the line between gruesome fantasy and real life violence begins to blur.

To complete his father's work, Lucien believes that he and his group of outcast friends must appease a demonic force trapped within the music with increasingly sadistic offerings. As things spiral out of control, he finds that the cost of his art will be the lives of everyone around him and, perhaps, his very soul.

©2019 Curtis M. Lawson (P)2019 Curtis M. Lawson

Super Dark and Well Written

Super dark, but well told story of a decent into madness and evil. Well drawn characters, a plot that doesn’t let up and a pace that builds well to the crescendo.

Darkly artistic

This is a pitch-black story that won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s very well written and rich with menacing character. A bitter teenager aims to end the world by performing a supernatural “cursed” song. The story is told with musical prose and an ambiguous plot structure that raises questions about the reliability of our psychopathic anti-hero’s first person perspective. Despite its pervasive bleakness, the book kept my interest until the inevitable Grand Guignol conclusion foreshadowed in the prologue. ‘Black Heart Boys’ Choir’ is bold enough to take risks as only indie press can in today’s overly cautious publishing climate, so give it a shot if you like your horror fiction grim and unflinching.

You can almost hear the music...

Black Heart Boys’ Choir is expertly written and the narration is superb. For a story that revolves heavily around classical music, Lawson was somehow able to make it all understandable and enjoyable for the musical layperson. Overwhelming creepiness and nihilism drips from every chapter. My only possible criticism would be that I began to really dislike the main character as the story went on. But I believe this to be intentional, given the direction the plot was going. Overall, it’s a great read or listen. Highly recommended for fans of Thomas Ligotti and Bret Easton Ellis.

Creepy and Cautionary

Frighteningly apropos in today's world - addressing issues from the bad kid's perspective. Great narration.

A crazy intense horror Story.... and I loved it!

So, what happened was... I was listening to the horror stories that I put on to go to sleep most nights. I'm pretty sure it was Youtube's Chilling Tales For Dark Nights channel. And they mentioned that the story I was listening to was written by a guy named Curtis Lawson and that he has written many other great books. So, I decided to look him up on audible. And wouldn't you know, I already had TWO of his books in my library and I just hadn't gotten a chance to listen to them yet. What are the odds of that? So I picked one and got right to listening! And it was great, gory, and held my attention throughout the entire book. The ending felt a little sudden, but that happens a lot in horror so it's probably just me. The narrator did a great job as well. He fit this part perfectly. Overall, I am a fan. And I hope to hear more from him on youtube and can't wait to start the next book that has been sitting in my library forever.

One of the most original stories out there.

This audio book was amazing. It kept my attention throughout the entire production. The main characters are relatable, if not more than a bit unhinged. Very well done descent into madness. Bravo, Mr. Lawson! Encore!

The music of the Old Ones

A fun creepy and atmospheric story that really takes advantage of musical elements in Lovecraft's stories that is often ignored. The integration of music and the musical outlook is very well done. A new and different story and worth giving a read.

Good Story, Weird Production/Performance Quality

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author in response for an honest review.

Overall, I liked this book quite a bit, but I wouldn't say I loved it. It's well-written and imaginative, and the plot was somewhat predictable but otherwise fairly well plotted.

The main character/narrator is a pretentious, formerly-rich, fallen-from-grace white kid (named Lucien Beaumont, because of course) with a penchant for classical music and American Psycho-esque violence who's suffering from the double-edged traumas of his father's suicide and a mother who has all but abandoned him to live the rest of her "life" in a drug- and booze-fueled state of non-living, locked away in her room.

Early in the novel, Lucien finds a vandalized copy of a madrigal (a song) that his father was working on with another famous composer were working on before his father committed suicide. Lucien assumes that the destruction wrought upon the song's manuscript was caused by his mother who, in a drug-fueled haze, wanted to take revenge on his oh-so-saintly father for committing suicide. Despite the vandalism, Lucien is able to make out a few notes, and decides to recreate and finish the song, and in the process finds inspiration from an infernal muse, a demonic unicorn named Amduscias who is one of the Grand Dukes of Hell. Like you do.

While not an entirely unsympathetic character, Lucien is so pretentious and self-righteous in his self-imposed elitism that I found it difficult to care about him and what happens to him because he's just such a douchebag. The fact that he was also the only three-dimensional character in the book (or was that just his unreliable narration?) made it difficult for me to care about any of the other characters as well.

The audiobook narrator's performance was fine, but nothing groundbreaking. However, I didn't care for the production quality all that much, even though I appreciated what they were trying to do with it, especially in regards to Lucien's fantasies / inner monologues. I think the same effect could have been accomplished through the narrator's performance instead of through the production, but what can you do?

All that said, I enjoyed this book quite a lot, and I will definitely be reading more of Curtis M. Lawson's work in the future.

Unreliable narrator... You bet!

Unreliable narrator... You bet! The entire time reading this book, I kept wondering is he in a psychotic break and it is all in his head and his friends are sucked into his messed up world wanting to grab a hold of anything that would give them an outlet for their violence. But I've gotten ahead of myself... back to the beginning

When I first started I found I liked the main character.... and I wanted there to be another book. So much so that I asked my husband if the start of the book as the real ending. I was disappointed... however once I got into it, I found Lucian is completely wackadoodle. While I hate bullies, I still found myself shouting at the main characters when they did something absolutely dumb or outrageous.

The book is good. It kept my attention the whole time. I really like the voice actor for this book. He has good range and brings the characters to life. While I found I wanted to like the main character as the book went on I found I was ok with how the book was going to end. I was so upset at poor Maxwell, a cinnamon roll that needed to be protected.

I especially liked the demon mentioning "Erich Zann" one of my favorite HP Lovecraft stories.

The books ending is perfect for the characters and I really enjoyed watching their fall into madness.

Bechdel test: Passed - only barely - Minor characters Violet and April talking to each other.

Gripping, profound, tremendous!

This one was a gem. A truly inspired story. I sensed a lot of influences, and they all came together really well. Don't let it scare you, but there's some American Psycho in here for sure. And similar to that one, it leaves you with some room for interpretation, which I really like...
Can't recommend this one enough. One hell of a book. Hats off to Lawson!