I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Mouth of the Dark by Tim Waggoner Published by Flame Tree Press on September 6 2018
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 256
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Delightfully twisted and disturbing, The Mouth of the Dark is part Tales from the Dark Side, part Poltergeist, and completely bat shit crazy.
The launch of small publisher Flame Tree Press caught my attention last month when they were blasted all over the internet—good marketing, guys!—and I was curious enough to head over to NetGalley and request one of their titles. And I have to say I’m pretty impressed. The Mouth of the Dark is very well written and I blew through it in a couple of days. Waggoner’s story has an urban fantasy vibe at first, but it quickly turns to horror. (Is there such a genre as urban horror? If so, I’m calling it!) This story was strange, and if you read the reviews on Goodreads you’ll see that word (along with “weird”) pop up over and over again. But I have a thing for stories that don’t fit the norm, which is probably why “strange” doesn’t really bother me.
Jayce Lewis’ daughter Emory has been missing for over three weeks, and even though she’s twenty years old and Jayce doesn’t see her that often, he knows something is wrong when she doesn’t return his calls. Since the police aren’t doing much to help, he decides to start his own investigation, retrace Emory’s last steps, and try to find out what happened to her. As he checks some of the places she might have been recently—the convenience store where she worked, her apartment—he begins to realize that Emory may have gotten herself involved in something very dangerous. Jayce is starting to see weird stuff around him—two teenagers with long sharp teeth who are eating a dog, for one—and the more he delves into Emory’s life, the stranger things become. Jayce is also starting to remember horrific events from his past that he’s suppressed over the years because they are so disturbing.
It turns out that Jayce has “the Eye,” the ability to see into a hidden world called Shadow, where Shadowers, as they’re called, tamper with the forces of darkness and live out their sexual fantasies without fear of judgement. Now that Jayce’s memories are returning, he’s even more frightened that Emory may have become tangled up with the denizens of Shadow. And he should be scared. When he meets a woman named Nicola who agrees to help him find Emory, Jayce is thrust into a world that he might not be ready for.
One of my favorite things that Waggoner did with his story was to include flashbacks, describing some of the weird things Jayce saw in Shadow as a child. There’s also a key event that happens early on that seems to have been the catalyst for all his experiences. The kicker, however, is that once Jayce sees something strange, he promptly forgets about it, burying it in his subconscious, to be dredged out much later. So he lives a fairly normal life, or at least he thinks he does, until he goes searching for Emory and those memories start flooding back in. But the closer he gets to finding his daughter, the more worried he becomes. Because clearly she was into some weird shit, and if he wants to find her, he’s going to have to face the fact that Emory might not be “daddy’s perfect little daughter” anymore.
The other cool thing I enjoyed was that Jayce is constantly having conversations in his head with his absent mother Valerie. He thinks he’s going crazy, especially when this “voice” tries to offer advice, but he’s been hearing her for so long that it actually seems normal to him. But Valerie’s voice is far from motherly, bordering on a verbally abusive, tough love sort of mothering style, but I thought this device added an extra layer to the story.
There is a bit of a “squick” factor in this story, so be warned if graphic sex scenes bother you. I’m not usually bothered by such scenes, but Waggoner takes them one step further by giving us a couple of rather uncomfortable father-daughter scenarios. One of the things that Jayce discovers about Emory as he’s investigating her life is that she has a proclivity for unusual sex. Imagine you’re a father and you come home early from work one day, only to find your daughter in the basement in the grips of a monster from hell. Except she’s enjoying herself. This is just one scene that made me want to cover my eyes, and not in a Michael-Myers-is-about-to-kill-someone way. And remember I mentioned that Jayce’s mother Valerie “talks” to him in his head? Well, there is also a scene in a sex shop where that comes into play and it was a bit much for me, let’s just say.
Up until the last quarter of the book, I was going to rate this a little higher, but the story takes a sharp turn into bizzaro, metaphysical territory at about the 75% mark and it sort of went off the rails for me. You may be wondering if Jayce ever finds his daughter, but it would spoil things if I told you. What I can say is that the Jayce I came to sympathize with becomes something else entirely by the end of the story. Waggoner does answer a lot of questions, like who is the Harvest Man? And what does he have to do with Jayce? And why the heck does Jayce keep hearing his mother’s voice in his head? The answers were not what I was expecting, and I guess that’s a good thing, since I appreciate authors who can deliver the unexpected.
Horror fans are going to love this book, so if you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend finding yourself a copy soon. Not for the squeamish, The Mouth of the Dark is nonetheless a book that readers will be talking about a lot.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.
Yeah, it was a weird and strange one but I liked it. I wasn’t a gan of thise scene either which is why it got a lower rating from me. I liked the ending more than you I guess. So far I have enjoyed two out of the three Flame Tree books so I think they are going to be a grest little publishing house.
I’m excited to try another one of their books.
I enjoyed it too and while the sex stuff didn’t bother me, in relation to his daughter it was pretty “ick.” I was never sure where this book was headed but once I reached the half way point, I also couldn’t stop reading it. I am really pleased with Flame Tree Press and am pretty much willing to give any of their titles a chance.
I agree, I was impressed with them and I’ll definitely check out more of their books.
I loved the weird aspect of this one, too. I felt similar about the ending, though.
I really thought the ending was going to be different, I guess I was a little disappointed.
This one sounds really weird. I’m not sure its for me at all thanks for posting.
I know what you mean, this definitely won’t be for everyone, but thanks for stopping by!
Ooooh I think I definitely could get into urban horror. If it’s not a real genre it totally should be!
It really had a strong fantasy vibe, as well as horror, I think that’s one reason I liked it so much.
I love weird and strange, and metaphysical is so my jam unless it is just out of place! I missed requesting this one on NG but Flame Tree is totally one of my faves right now. Adding this book to my list for my next haul – great review!
Kaleena recently posted…Reading Around the Globe: bookish4life
I’m ready to try another FTP book, I was impressed:-)
I read an arc of THE SIREN AND THE SCEPTER and loved it, and I have a couple October arc releases from them as well. TOO GOOD!
I’ll have to check that one out, thanks!
Weirdness and horror all rolled into one? Well, I find the combination impossible to resist… 😉
Thanks for sharing!
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…Review: THE SKIN TRADE, by G.R.R. Martin
Definitely worth checking out:-D
Wow, this one sounds wild! I’m not sure it’s for me since I do tend to get squeamish, but it does sound fascinating. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
You probably want to give this a miss, it’s wild and very disturbing in places!
Hmm, sometimes I love bat-shit crazy….
Ha ha, I know what you mean:-)
That is a creepy cover! Glad you enjoyed it
Lisa @TenaciousReader recently posted…Review: City of Lies by Sam Hawke
Yeah, the cover really sets the tone:-)
Not sure if I want to read this or not – your review is great and has intrigued me but then some of the things you didn’t enjoy – well, I’m not sure I would either.
Sits on fence.
Lynn 😀
Yeah, you do need an open mind for this one, I think:-) Not that you don’t have an open mind, but you know what I mean!
I think Barker’s Candy Man defines Urban Horror and this one definitely fits in there! It was so, so pervy but I could not stop reading, lol. Great review, Tammy! If I hadn’t read it already you would’ve convinced me to get my hands on it.
Ha ha I know what you mean! The weirder it got, the harder it was to look away:-)
Thank you for a really helpful review. You won’t be surprised to learn that this book clearly isn’t for me – but I’m very grateful that I haven’t had to find out by picking it up:)).