Ronald Malfi is one of my go-to authors, ever since The Night Parade, I’ve been hooked on his writing.

Malfi has a certain style, a skill that is hard to find; he is a master of setting the scene. The vocabulary he uses enhances the story, some authors use words, and it gives you the impression that they scoured the thesaurus to find the right word that fits; Malfi just knows the right words, it flows effortlessly – his words are the perfect fit for the story he is telling.

Black Mouth pulled me in, each character filled a hole: nothing more, nothing less. Our protagonist’s brother, Dennis, is a fantastic character; he completes the story. Malfi has used Dennis to do things that otherwise wouldn’t work or fit into Black Mouth, he allows for comic relief, he takes actions that no reasonable person would take. This is a case of perfect character for the perfect time and place.

I took my time with Black Mouth; the story deserved the time. It was intense, it went a lot of places and did a lot of things. It was a fantastic ride.

The publisher starts off the synopsis with a comparison to IT. I hate comparisons to other books, often they set up unrealistic expectations. I get the blatant comparison: events from their childhood bring adults back to the hometown where they experienced childhood trauma, blah, blah, blah; I also get the comparison between King and Malfi: both authors are content to take their time, draw the tension out with their superb vocabularies. But Malfi doesn’t need these comparisons; his work stands on its own as strong as any other author in the genre.

*5 Stars

I loved this creepy horror novel by Ronald Malfi.

It grabbed my attention very early on and I was gripped and curious the whole way through.

Four friends who had a strange, traumatic event in their childhood find themselves drawn together again to face up to their past. The end up back in Black Mouth, a small town with a large hole in the ground from a collapsed mine that they had all hoped to leave far behind.

Whilst the story is creepy, mysterious and compelling, it was the characters that really made it for me. The friendship between Jamie, Dennis, Mia and Clay felt so strong and the characters were well developed individuals who I genuinely cared about and found interesting to follow.

Whilst I didn't find it super scary, I did find I had this impending sense of doom the whole time and very much enjoyed wondering where it was going and who/what the Magician was!

I can't wait to read more of Ronald Malfi's books after this one, and more horror in general as this is a genre I really enjoy but don't read as much of as I'd like!

Ronald Malfi delivers his very own "It" with this cracking horror novel that may be his finest book to date.
While likening today's horror writers to King can often come off as cliché, its hard not to draw a direct comparison here.
Both stories follow similar overarching stories: a group of misfit friends who must return to their hometown as adults when a mysterious and dark figure from their childhood resurfaces.
Both deal with characters deeply impacted by trauma.
Both have one heck of a bad guy.
But this is far from an It knock-off. Malfi delivers a powerful story that's impossible to put down, complete with a richly drawn world, unforgettable characters, a well paced, twist-filled storyline and plenty of moments of unadulterated terror.
If Derry was the source of sleepless nights for kids of the 1980s and 90s, then Black Mouth more than holds its own as nightmare-fuel for readers of today.

This was a great horror mystery magical experience. We have an unreliable narrator. A group of misfit friends from an old mining town. It was a battle between good and evil. A determination of "am I insane". A journey of mental health. Dysfunctional families galore. Add to all that, a traveling magician grooming kids in the woods, or is he? Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Haunted by the memories of a traumatic childhood, Jamie ran away from his hometown leaving his brother Dennis and his friends Clay and Mia behind. But no matter where he goes or how much time passes, the nightmares never end and he turns to alcohol to find some relief. When he receives a call from the police, informing him that his mother passed away and his brother is now alone, he knows he has to go back for him. Around the same time, Clay and Mia are also drawn back to Black Mouth: the four of them share a horrible memory about their last summer together, about a mysterious man who used magic tricks to manipulate them into doing something terrible... and twenty years later, he is back.

In Black Mouth, Ronald Malfi creates a little world filled with well written characters to root for, a creepy and scary villain, lots of horror moments and emotional punches that will leave you in tears.
The settings of this story are incredible: not just Black Mouth, the area where a mine collapsed suffocating the workers trapped inside, but also Jamie's house, the carnival, the motel where they stop... Wherever the characters are, you can feel the supernatural and the dread invading their space.

The real strength of the book though are its characters: Malfi dedicates some chapters to properly introduce them one by one and, by the time they reunite, you feel like you've known them all your life too. Really well written, I found myself caring for them (I even cried a couple of times!). And the villain, "the Magician", is truly a charming one, dark and compelling, just like this atmospheric novel which I absolutely recommend to all horror lovers. This is my first Malfi, but it won't certainly be my last. 5 stars.

* I'd like to thank Ronald Malfi, Titan Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! This was such an intense and creepy read!

The author does small town horror exceedingly well, telling a story that gets darker and more horrifying with every page.

I loved our characters and worried about them so much! As for our bad thing? Oh, it's extremely bad.

Expect scenes that make you tear up and scenes that make you peek over your shoulder as you read.

Loved this!

*ARC via Publisher

The latest Ronald Malfi book is an atmospheric read, including collapsed mines, traveling circus, magicians, and childhood traumas which leech into adulthood. Three misfit kids survive Suttons Quay, West Virginia, only to return as adults to face down the evil. But things aren’t always what they seem in this devilish, creepy novel.

It resonates similar to Stephen King’s It, but with its own twists and ending. Solid read!

The only caveat is that the MC spends a good deal of time longing for whiskey, and he isn’t the hero readers might want. But I’m okay with rooting for a realistic, well-fleshed out character, so it wasn’t a complaint for me.

Besides, Dennis is my favorite in this story.

I listened to this audiobook on our road trip and I absolutely loved it! This was such an atmospheric, spooky story. I freaking love his writing style. It is so vivid and really pulls you in. There are themes of child abuse, manipulation, bullying, and addiction and all of them were handled with perfection. It felt like the author had personally been a victim of all of them with the raw, honest way they were presented.

The characters were all well-developed and relatable. It was as much focused on the characters' development as the plot. The past and present timelines were weaved together perfectly and the smaller tidbits of information and the larger mystery reveals were timed flawlessly.

The ending was action-packed and thorough. No stones were left unturned in this, and loose ends were tied up that I even forgot about. I drove around slowly toward the end of our trip to finish this because I didn't want to stop listening. Now that's sign of a great book! I highly recommend this to all horror fans.

Thank you to @netgalley @titanbooks and @tantoraudio for the gifted copies in exchange for an honest review!

5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2022/08/01/black-mouth-by-ronald-malfi/
My Five Word TL:DR Review : I absolutely loved this book

Everything about this book worked for me. The writing is fabulous. The storyline is intense. The characters and friendships are drawn well. The setting is dark and packed with atmosphere. I didn’t want it to finish and yet I couldn’t put it down. It was just excellent. I expected to love this. Last year I read and adored Come With Me by Ronald Malfi so my expectations for this were already high and I can genuinely say, hand on heart, that nothing about this book disappoints.

This is a story of four people returning to their childhood home to confront the horrors from their past so that they can move on with their futures. The story is told by Jamie Warren in two alternating timelines. Jamie takes us back to a summer when he was eleven years old, something of a misfit with an unhappy family home suffering neglect and abuse and yet finding friendship and a sense of place with his friends Mia and Clay and his brother Dennis. To be honest this story takes a look at young children who are preyed on by predators and these four are targets without doubt. They don’t fit the perfect cookie cut out pattern, they have unhappy family lives and are picked on at school, small wonder that given attention by a strange individual who befriends them and shows them magic tricks they find themselves beguiled. Of course not everything is quite so rosy and a sinister undercurrent is slowly brewing. Malfi takes us back and forth showing us the adults that they’ve grown into and the way they’re still haunted by that summer where their actions had such dire consequences.

The setting here is perfect. Black Mouth, known as such due to a mine collapse that took the lives of many and left the area with a dramatic and forbidding landscape, really lends itself to the story and the supernatural elements that are subtly woven into the piece. You’re never quite sure if this gang are misremembering things or simply embellishing events and seeing things through a childhood lens.

The characters themselves are really well written. Jamie, although he fled his childhood home as soon as it was possible, has never truly made a clean break. He is haunted by his past actions and suffers from alcohol abuse. Mia has taken her past experiences and used them to spark a creative talent in making horror movies. Clay has himself gone into the field of trying to help children in need, his own past and personal experiences giving him an inside knowledge. Dennis is the catalyst for return. The only one of the gang to remain in Black Mouth until the death of their mother compels Jamie to reluctantly return.

Slowly but surely the events from the past unfold to their terrible conclusion and in the current day the characters come to an understanding that they must find the monster who orchestrated their downfall. It seems that the character, known simply as the Magician, is still operational and causing misery wherever he appears.

For me I loved the way that you’re never quite sure whether this is going to vere completely into the supernatural or not. Those elements are subtly woven into the story in a way that always allows for doubt. Then there’s the dramatic finale. You can feel it building like a thunderstorm and it provides flashes of inspiration and plenty of destruction once it hits.

I’ve seen this compared to Stephen King and I can completely see where those comparisons are springing from, particularly in terms of It and a coming back together of childhood friends to confront events from their past. On top of this though there’s a wonderful carnival background that reminded me of Bradbury’s Something Wicked. There’s an examination of secret pacts and strange and ancient ceremonies and I also had rumblings of King’s Doctor Sleep in the way the adults preyed on children. Put bluntly, this is a horror story that will undoubtedly put you in mind of so many others that have come before it, but only in a way that it brings them to mind but then progresses to stand confidently on it’s own two feet.

I loved this and have no hesitation in recommending. Dark and compelling horror that held me bewitched with it’s ghosts and fascinating characters. I’m not a horror aficionado but this is definitely my kind of scary catnip. It’s not a blood soaked slasher so much as an intriguing look at something sinister, a look at monsters and the shape they come in and more importantly that truth is quite often stranger than fiction.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

As always I want to start by saying that I was given an ARC of this to review. My review is honest and left voluntarily.

Black Mouth is an addictive horror that pays homage to the likes of Stephen King’s IT while still delivering an atmospheric unique tale. It is clear Ronald Malfi knows the genre of horror well and is a accomplished story teller.

Black Mouth follows four adults as they return to their home town to confront an evil they were exposed to as teenagers. A master at building suspense we feel the dread and tension our protagonists experience as they come closer to the truth of what happened summers before. Together Jamie Warren, his estranged brother Dennis, Mia and Clay must all come face to face with a man who may well turn out to be a monster and confront their own demons along the way.

As always I don’t like spoiling a novel by going too depth to the plot. What I will say is the pacing was addictive. You feel you have to keep reading to find out the mystery of it all. With a few twists and turns along the way this truly is an horror come crime thriller that you will not be able to put down. The characters, while not perfect, are all well rounded and so human it is refreshing. Jamie in particular was a fantastic choice for a protagonist. He fails, he’s scared, he’s in some ways broken but still he keeps going. Normally he is the kind of character I would not root for but honestly it’s hard not to when you see him progress and overcome the events of one fateful summer.

As well as the characters the descriptions and setting are so unsettling. Towards the end of the novel Malfi utilises the idea of a sort of liminal space to amazing affect. As someone who loves horror even I was unsettled then. It was perfect.

The only one flaw I found was more to personal taste which is the trope of animals being hurt in the horror genre. It always unsettles me and oftentimes I find it used more for shock value than an actual plot point. Thankfully, while I still don’t enjoy it, Malfi does have justification and doesn’t just use it for this shock value. The events are there for reason and do serve a purpose which is why I did not deduct half a star. Even if personally I would have preferred an off page anecdote.

Blending magic, supernatural, horror and human morality Malfi in Black Mouth manages to create a gripping terrifying read that I am still thinking about now.

This is one of those book that I want to read listening to my gut and I usually love them. I loved this story, I loved the mix of past and present, the well written horrific scenes, the sadness in some parts.
It's a book about children who become adult and it's a story with dual timeline.
The evil in this book is haunting and chilling. The characters are complex and well developed.
This book kept me hooked and some moments were really terrifying.
I want to read more books by this author as the storytelling is excellent and the story gripping.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Fantastic literary horror that paid homage to Stephen King's It and Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. I'm still thinking about the four main characters. A group of four outcasts falls under the spell of a mysterious magicians when they're children, and the resulting tragedy changes the course of their lives. After running from their past into adulthood, they're called back home to face the same evil that continues to take the lives of children.

An electrifying and terrifying novel that centers around manipulations and childhood trauma seems to be a recurring theme regarding Ronald Malfi. The story centers mainly around Jamie Warren, a troubled alcoholic who has been running from himself his entire life. When he returns to his home in Blackmouth after his mother commits suicide, he and his childhood best friends have to confront the dark supernatural stain on their childhood. I liked this story a lot, the pacing was good, and I never felt like the story was dragging. Would recommend. Happy Reading! x

BLACK MOUTH, by Ronald Malfi, is a horror novel that features the "coming-of-age" troupe, but is also so much more. Our main characters begin as a group of kids from the "Black Mouth"--an old mining area that collapsed years before. Their section is seen as apart from the other areas of the town--an outcast. We have Mia, living with her Uncle; Clay Willis, with a skin condition that turns his brown skin into blotchy white areas; Jamie, and his mentally challenged brother, Dennis, who come from a home where their alcoholic father beat them regularly. They formed a close knit group, with a bond that lasted into adulthood.

Black Mouth has many stories surrounding it, and as kids, they never questioned them.

". . .These things happened in Black Mouth. Simple as that. . . ."

One fateful year, their encounter with a man known only as "the magician" would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

". . . Keep running. Don't stop. Don't look back."

Fast forward into the future, where similar instances of "the magician" are coming to light.

These characters, and others that are brought into the story, felt "real" to me. Their individual vices, problems, dreams, and ambition--or lack thereof--made them into people you didn't forget. As things progress, you feel that Black Mouth itself is a character in its own right, and an important location/piece of their puzzle. The question of supernatural verses human comes into play. (No spoilers here, you'll have to read to come to your own conclusions!)

There are parts of action, spaced out with the current mental state of the characters. I felt this balanced the novel out well, and it certainly kept me engaged the entire time.

". . . Because friendship, too, is a certain kind of magic."

Overall, a deep novel, with monstrous happenings, inexplicable phenomena, and human evil rolled into one. Pick up this novel and see for yourselves. . .

Recommended!

This is my second book by Ronald Malfi, and I can't believe that I only discovered him in the last year. If you're looking for a good, character-driven scary read, then Malfi is your man. I'm picky about my "horror" (a misnamed genre, usually) and prefer scary, well-written stories with multidimensional characters and an intriguing--but not too "out there"--plot. Malfi totally fits the bill.

In this novel, we meet a dysfunctional man, an alcoholic trying to numb his memories, who is called home when his mother dies. This opens up the box he's tried so hard to keep closed for almost 25 years. Along the way we meet his two best friends from childhood and his brother. All four kids had a terrible summer back in 1998 when they met a nomadic man living in the woods; he was simply known as The Magician. And now they all have to face the ghosts from their pasts.

I've seen some people compare Malfi to Stephen King. And I totally get that. The same things I love in King are also present in Malfi's work, especially the ability to completely ensconce me in a fictional world. I found myself so engaged with the characters in Black Mouth that the plot almost became secondary--I wanted to find out what happened to the characters, to learn more about their pasts, and to root for their successes. I've also seen some people say that Malfi's work is derivative, especially of King. Well . . . I don't know that I'd put it that way. For those of us of a certain age 😊 (Malfi and I are in the same ballpark there), reading King was a rite of passage. He was my first "must read" and many of my formative reading years were spent with King. I don't know but I'd guess Malfi could say the same. Like all great writers who influence (in style and/or content) generations of writers to come, King has had that affect on much writing of the last 40+ years. When I read Malfi, I see a writer who could have been inspired by King, but also a prolific writer who can create his own fictional worlds with his own set of characters and stories. And I have found Malfi to be really good at what he does. I did worry that the end of Black Mouth might get away from me (as often happens with King!) but Malfi pulls it back in just a hair's breadth before going too far afield.

Bottom line: read this. Then read more of Malfi. I've only read two so far but Malfi has a bunch of other novels just out there waiting for me. I'm really excited to jump into another one.

Although I wouldn't classify this was as "can't sleep" scary, it was certainly creepy! Had some major Stephen King vibes and I was here for it! There are all kinds of trigger warnings in this one, but all the best books do. The main character, Jamie, got on every one of my nerves! I did find it had a bit of a slow start, but I did enjoy the ending, might have even cried a little. I'll definitely be reading more from Ronald Malfi !

This is my second book that I have read by Ronald Malfi and I really enjoyed it. This definitely had an IT like feel to it but it seemed a little deeper. I loved the carnival/magician creep factor throughout. It definitely set the tone. It really had strong themes of friendship, brotherhood, and self forgiveness.

I can’t wait to read more from this author!

I really enjoyed this creepy, atmosphere read. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a great job. This is my second book by this author and it just keeps getting better and better. Childhood, outcast friends return home to Black Mouth, a town filled with terrible memories to confront the evil that still haunts them. It gave me Stephen King It vibes. What could be better than that?

What are your favorite Ronald Malfi books?

Black Mouth is available July 26,2022

Thank you to Netgalley and Tantor Audio for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

The blurb for Titan Books’ newest release, Black Mouth, says that it’s ‘perfect for fans of Stephen King‘s IT‘, and this might be one of the most accurate book comparisons I’ve ever seen, as Black Mouth gave me a ton of Stephen King vibes whilst reading it.

Black Mouth tells the story of four childhood friends: Mia, Clay, Jamie, and Jamie’s brother Dennis. The story begins in the modern day, with Jamie as a man in his mid thirties who’s just been through ninety days of rehab and is working through his first week of Alcoholics Anonymous. Jamie has been using drink to work through his pain and his demons, but finally feels like perhaps he can put much of that behind him and get on with his life. However, that new start is interrupted when he gets a phone call from the police back in his home town of Suttons Quay. It turns out that his mother has lost her life to suicide, and his younger brother Dennis, who is mentally disabled, was found walking down the highway in his underwear in a daze.

Jamie returns home to help his brother, but the pressure of returning to the place that haunted his dreams for many years pushes him to start drinking again. At the same time, their childhood friend Mia arrives with a photograph of a man she wants them both to look at. It seems like Mia has found a figure from their childhoods, a man called the Magician, who helped to ruin their lives, and believes that they can finally track him down. When it turns out that the man may have had a hand in a series of recent child murders, Clay joins them, and together the four of them set out to put their lifelong demons to rest, and to stop more atrocities from being committed.

Very shortly into Black Mouth it becomes clear why the book is compared to IT. The book is split into multiple narratives. The main one is Jamie in the present. Jamie is our lead character and the one through which we get to experience the book in a first person perspective. We also spend some time with Mia and Clay, as they get to split off and do their own things. But we also jump backwards in time and begin to learn what happened to these four kids in the ’90s. As the story unfolds in the present we get more flashbacks to the past, more pieces of the puzzle, and we occasionally see the two almost bleeding into each other. The structure instantly reminds me of IT, but it isn’t as weighed down as the King book, and moves with a much better pace.

Black Mouth is a chunky book, but it’s not overly long; it doesn’t feel the need to wallow in nostalgia for the past, nor does it go off on long tangents that add little to the story. It does spend time every now and then giving us more information on the characters’ lives, their histories, and how they’ve been shaped into the people we see here, and whilst this does feel like the style King uses it also feels so much more efficient. I never minded spending a few paragraphs learning more about these people because I knew it was going to be interesting and not a handful of pages that meant nothing. So yes, the book is like IT, but I also thought that it was honestly a lot better too.

The book manages to walk a very fine line, where you’re never sure whether or not there’s anything odd happening. Is the Magician, the figure from their childhood that they’re hunting now as adults, more than he appears? Can he actually perform real magic, or was it all tricks? Did Jamie see his face change into that of a monster, or was it a trick in the dark, and Jamie’s fears doing it? The book wants you to wonder about that, to question whether or not you can trust the memories of a child. Even in the present, when Jamie is haunted by the spirits of the past you begin to question if perhaps they’re part of his drunken delusions. The book kept me guessing whether or not we were going to get a big reveal that there were real monsters, or if it would all have been fake, and that ambiguity made it much more interesting than if we’d have been given answers straight away.

The book doesn’t just rely on the mystery to keep you interested though, and the main four characters make for engaging leads. Whilst we spend the most time with Jamie he’s probably the least likeable of the four, and his struggles with his addiction make up a big part of his story here. He makes some mistakes, acts questionably at times, but for the most part you can tell his heart is in the right place. Mia makes for a strong female presence, and has a no-nonsense attitude that I enjoyed.

Clay is the more complex of the four, and it was wonderful to spend time with him in his chapters. A Black man who’s grow up with vitiligo, he has a unique outlook on life, and he has a passion for helping kids that stems from his own experiences. Out of the four of them I’d most like to spend more time with Clay, and would love to see the author write more for him. And then there’s Dennis, who is just the sweetest guy. Dennis is disabled, and is very child-like. He loves the Ninja Turtles, cares deeply for his brother, and is kind and caring to everyone he meets. Dennis is the heart of the group, the one that the others all love, and are loved by, unconditionally, and I’d fight anyone who dared harm Dennis.

There are some warnings that should be given for Black Mouth, as the book deals with some heavy issues. Addiction and alcoholism are a big part of it, as is child death, murder, physical abuse, mental abuse, child abuse, and suicide. Despite this, it never feels too dark, too depressing to prevent you from reading on. But please be aware before picking it up, the book does deal with some tough topics.

Overall I had a lot of enjoyment reading Black Mouth. I think it was a great mystery story with some horror elements that kept you guessing what was real and was was fabricated, with a superb central cast of characters that you come to care a lot about. It’s a book that I’m definitely going to recommend to people, and one that I’m certainly going to be picking up again at some point. And going back to that original quote, I’d say it’s not just for fans of IT, I’d say it’s better than IT.

"The mind possessed an uncanny way of selecting which cards we keep and which cards we shuffle back in the deck." Ronald Malfi has made a huge fan out of me with this book! I have never read anything else by him, but I will absolutely scramble to read his other books. Black Mouth reads like a Stephen King book, without the girth or mass of a King book (this one was shorter). This would definitely interest fans of IT, Stranger Things, The Black Phone, Slenderman, and horror in a similar vein. The Magician's character was ominous and chilling. I really appreciated the portrayals of Dennis as a disabled person, and Clay, someone living with vitiligo. You don't often hear of people with disabilities or auto immune disorders in fiction, let alone horror fiction, so the educational aspect of this was great! The character development all around was just amazing. In my head, I was casting each of the roles for a film or television show. I have visited West Virginia a few times (I live in TN), and there is definitely something about Appalachian paranormal stories that resonates with people from the south. The dark forest (and mining culture) manifests many lively stories told from generation to generation, so that made this book even more relatable. This book is definitely in my top 3 best fiction picks of 2022!