BLACK MOUTH by Ronald Malfi – Review

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.

Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi
Published by Titan Books on July 19 2022
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 400
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Four childhood friends are forced to confront the past in Ronald Malfi’s latest, an epic, nightmarish tale with unforgettable characters.

“Do you want to see a magic trick?”

After absolutely loving Come With Me last year (which made my top five books of 2021), I was both excited and hesitant to read Ronald Malfi’s follow-up. I ended up loving Black Mouth just as much, although it’s a completely different type of story. Where Come With Me was more of a thriller/ghost story, Black Mouth is planted firmly in the horror genre and tackles some very dark themes—abuse, addiction and predatory grooming. This is a slow-build story that takes its time, so readers looking for a quick read might not connect with it right away. But careful pacing and deep character development are some of Malfi’s strengths, so the ultimate payoff is well worth the wait.

The story is narrated by Jamie Warren and alternates between the present day and the summer of 1998, when Jamie was eleven. Jamie has just come out of a two month stint in rehab after nearly being fired from his job for drunken behavior, when he hears about his mother’s suicide. The last thing Jamie wants is to return to his hometown of Sutton’s Quay, Virginia, but now that his mother is gone, he needs to reconnect with his younger brother Dennis, a developmentally challenged man of thirty-three who has been living at their childhood farmhouse and is now Jamie’s responsibility. Jamie is unexpectedly joined by two childhood friends who he hasn’t seen in years, Mia Tomasina and Clay Willis. All three grew up together and went through a harrowing experience revolving around Black Mouth, the sunken, abandoned mine at the edge of Jamie’s farm.

In a strange turn of events, Mia shows them a chilling photo of a man she took only days before at a carnival. The man appears to be the Magician, a vagrant who befriended them during the summer of 1998 and drew them in with promises of magic and power. But Jamie clearly remembers what happened to the Magician, and it seems impossible that he could be back. 

In alternating chapters, Jamie takes us back to that fateful summer, describing how they met the Magician and the events surrounding his mysterious appearance in Black Mouth. Eventually the reader learns what happened to fracture their friendship, a horrifying event that sent them off in different directions and changed the course of their lives forever.

But fate has brought them back together, and the terrible events of the past seem to be haunting them in the present.  

Black Mouth is being compared to Stephen King’s It, and it is similar in some ways (both stories have a group of children whose childhood boogeyman comes back to haunt them as adults). But Malfi’s style is much different from King’s, although near the end of the story I definitely got Stephen King vibes. Let’s just say if you are a King fan, you’ll probably love this book too, although Malfi can certainly stand on his own as a horror writer.

Black Mouth is an intricately plotted marvel of a story. Malfi does not rush things, instead he delves into the minutiae of each character’s life, building fully formed personalities so that the reader understands the why and how behind the eerie events that are unfolding in the present. His writing is masterful and controlled, and at the heart of the story is an intriguing mystery that propels the story forward. The author teases out the information in small bites. For example, at about the half-way point we are introduced to a new character, a man named Wayne Lee Stull. At first I couldn’t figure out why Stull was in the story, but little by little Malfi explains his connection to Jamie and his friends, and it’s horrifying to say the least. Malfi also takes his time revealing the event that happened to the kids in 1998, which made it all the more awful when the pieces finally come together.

Malfi’s themes of abuse and addiction fit the story perfectly, without being sensationalized. All four main characters had awful childhoods in one way or another. Jamie’s and Dennis’s father was both physically and mentally abusive; Mia grew up in poverty with only her uncle’s old clothes to wear; and Clay is a Black man who was born with a condition called vitiligo, which turned patches of his skin white. He was tormented by bullies as a child but managed to turn that experience into a rewarding career as a social worker, helping other children of abuse. Jamie fears he’s become his father, who was also a raging alcoholic, and now Jamie struggles daily with the need to drown the past with a bottle of whiskey. Malfi’s descriptions of Jamie’s addiction and his attempts at recovery were so believable, I’m wondering if it’s something the author has struggled with himself, it felt that real. Mia was also an interesting character. She’s obsessed with death (and was as a child) and is now an indie filmmaker specializing in graphic horror films.

And then there’s Dennis, the bright spot in this very dark story, a grown man who is obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and loves his brother and his friends with a fierce intensity. Dennis knows much more than he lets on. He has an eerie connection to the spiritual world, and even though he struggles to communicate, Jamie understands on some level that Dennis might be important in the coming battle. 

The depictions of the Magician were simply chilling, an older man preying on young children, luring them in with the promise of magic and grooming them for his own, nefarious purposes. All four kids are already vulnerable, bullied at school and at home, so the presence of the Magician feels almost like an escape to them. Unfortunately, it’s anything but. I also loved the creepy settings. Malfi infuses dread into his descriptions of Black Mouth and the collapsed mine, as well as the barn behind Jamie’s house, where some very disturbing things happen (and the barn is a perfect image for the book cover, by the way!) 

The final showdown is an adrenalin-fueled nightmarish descent into hell. I haven’t mentioned the supernatural elements yet, but they come into play throughout the story, especially at the end. Jamie and Dennis eventually face the horrors of Black Mouth, a journey to a place that reminded me a bit of the Upside Down from Stranger Things. An emotional ending (that I wasn’t ready for!) caps off a simply brilliant piece of storytelling. Highly recommended for horror and thriller fans alike, Black Mouth should not be missed.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.