“Do you want to see a magic trick?”
✨
This story felt so comfortably familiar but also unlike other horror I have read. I have seen people liken it to Stephen King’s IT and I think that is a fair comparison!
In Black Mouth we follow a group of friends who are drawn back to their hometown to face a nightmare from their childhoods.
As kids they were bound inexplicably by a dark character called The Magician. The Magician delighted them with magic tricks but ultimately asked more of them than any kid would be able to give. He left a scar on each of them that doesn’t seem to fade.
And now it appears that The Magician is back?…
I found this book to be tense, atmospheric and nuanced. It spins a fantastic ride of a tale that would hook any horror lover but also explores important human themes like trauma, grief and addiction.
I gasped, giggled and cried.
Honestly for me that’s the formula for a fantastic story!
👏🏻
Be sure to add this one to your TBR! It releases on July 19th, 2022.
🤩

This is the first Ronald Malfi book Ive read, and Im so excited to find such an exciting new author! This book sucked me in from the very beginning- fascinatingly dark with a compelling and creative story line. Highly recommended.

The writing us absolutely superb. Immediately in the first few pages it was like a balled fist had snagged hold of my shirt and yanked me into the story. This exciting tapestry was woven with two narratives: Clay, Mia, and Jamie in the past during their childhoods and in the present as adults. I won't give too much away except to say the villain who brings them together is chilling, haunting. Truly. And it's been a while since a book gave me those emotions. Malfi succeeded with this atmospheric tale in which the characters are deeply described and brought to life with a realness rarely written in to horror stories. I felt this book, their stories as I read.

"'I seeeee,' the Magician said again, his single eye narrowing. He began to roll up the tattered cuffs of his white shirt. 'Well, I suppose you’re both just in time to learn a new bit of magic.'"

Do you want to see a magic trick? Ummmmmm, that would be a NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE!

When I saw Ronald Malfi’s upcoming release out on NetGalley I was just a teensie bit afraid to request it. Not because I'm a chickenbaby and he’s a horror writer, but because I wasn’t sure how it would compare to the phenomenal Come With Me of last year. But since I want to not only read allllll of the things (even more so when they have a house on the cover) I clicked the request button lickity split. And despite me having a dismal review ratio, somehow I got approved. Then it rained like a Forest Gump rain for a couple of days and I just soaked this sucker in.

The premise here is . . .

In the summer of my eleventh year, a monster came to Black Mouth.

That quote and the blurb gives a shout-out to the obvious “Loser’s Club,”, but that is a disservice to Malfi. At this point his writing chops should stand alone and the comparison to It is weak at best (a bad guy came into some kids’ lives and then might be back when they are adults). And heck, if we’re going to compare every single horror novel ever written to Stephen King, you might as well throw “M-O-O-N, that spells moon” in there as well. I’m not going to give any more of the story away (you’re lucky I haven’t just been typing about my cat or something completely off topic like I normally do in my “reviews”). If you have enjoyed Malfi in the past, I’m fairly confident you’ll enjoy this one. If you enjoy discovering new fictional friends, I’m fairly confident these folks will end up as people you’d like to know in real life. And if you enjoy a good storyteller, I’m absolutely confident in saying Malfi is a remarkable one.

“We’re not the fucking Hardy Boys, Mia.”

“Maybe you’re not, but I’m the hardiest fucking boy there is.”

Oh, and unlike King’s alien space spiders and adolescent gang-bangs, Malfi manages to write his entire novel without pooping the bed with the ending.

I’m giving it all the Stars.

Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi

Genre: Coming of age, Horror

Thoughts: I absolutely loved Come With Me so, I knew I wanted to get my hands on a Black Mouth. I can see why people keep comparing this novel to IT but, I think they are quite different.

This is a coming of age story between friends who have lived through a tough past. One that involves a creepy magician who pops back up when they are older.

I don’t want to give up too much more information. I personally dislike spoilers in reviews.

If you enjoy creepy coming of age novels then this one is for you.

Thank you @netgalley & @titanbooks for this ARC to review.


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 5

Ronald Malfi has done it again. Somehow his writing, which seems like it's already at a pinnacle, just keeps getting better. I've seen a lot of comparisons of Black Mouth to Stephen King's It, and while from a marketing standpoint it makes sense to compare it to a famous book everyone knows, I find that comparison to not even be close. Yes, the way the narrative plays out has definite notes of Stephen King's earlier works, but Black Mouth is absolutely its very own thing. Jamie Warren, a man battling alcoholism, is forced to return to the small town in West Virginia where he grew up and eventually escaped when his mother dies and his mentally challenged brother is found wandering down the road. As the ghosts of his past haunt him upon his return to Sutton's Quay and the miasmic area near his property known as Black Mouth, Jamie's two childhood friends, Mia and Clay, appear to have stumbled upon the Magician, and even bigger ghost from all their pasts. Now the four friends must band together to deal with the mysterious and almost unreal man who darkened their lives and their futures so many years ago.
Not only did this novel possess the stellar writing of the best of his previous books, like Come With Me, but it was creep, cringe-inducing, and genuinely scary - and I haven't had a book scare me at all in years. Malfi is absolutely among the top horror authors writing today. 4.5/5*

I enjoyed this book a lot. I loved the trio of outsiders, the plot - which wove together the past and present - flowed nicely, and the antagonist was so perfectly dark and creepy. I found this book easy to get lost in. The whole “kids coming back to face the monster of their childhood” premise was extremely reminiscent of Stephen King’s It. However, the emphasis on magic, substance abuse and mystique gave it a fresh feel. If anyone was going to try this, I’m glad it was Ronald Malfi. A stellar book that I would recommend to anyone looking for dark fiction with some fantasy elements.

“Do you want to see a magic trick?“ hooks in friends Jamie Warren, Mia Tomasina and Clay Willis, united in being outcasts, to the world of The Magician. As an adult Jamie is wrestling with demons including that of alcohol when he learns of his mothers suicide. He is also informed that brother Dennis who has learning difficulties, has taken a six mile walk in heat wearing just his underpants. “She. Is. Now. Dead” is pretty much all Dennis will say but what Jamie mostly learns is that Black Mouth where he grew up has finally caught up with him as you can’t outrun the past. Meanwhile, in LA moviemaker Mia encounters Sunshine Devil Girl who warns her something is coming and that what she’s been running from is catching up with her. Clay is now a social worker and he becomes involved in a case very reminiscent of their past. The four are on a collision course where the past and the present sets off a chain reaction.

First of all, the characterisation is really good especially of Jamie and Dennis. Jamie is haunted by dark thoughts and ghosts which are described with powerful imagery. Dennis is simply wonderful and for me is the standout character as though he struggles in many ways his intuitive wisdom and understanding leads to the right path. His portrayal is fantastic and sensitively done.

All of them have struggles growing up in Black Mouth which is a cursed place where home life is black where they have bleak and black experiences. There is another black mouth image via the character of Wayne Lee Stull which is very horrifying.

There’s a lot going on that leads the storyline to a dramatic end. There’s tragedy, fires, murder, walking dreams, a carnival and to say nothing of The Magician. In places it’s spooky and creepy , with chills, shivers, gulps and jaw drops. It’s very haunting in parts in particular the heavy weight of pain that certain characters carry.

However, despite the many positives it is protracted at the start and a bit slow to get going. I can buy in too much of it but there is one very bizarre bit at the end I have difficulty swallowing as it just seems so random, striking an off note .

Overall though it’s a compelling read and ones that fans of Stephen King may appreciate.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Titan Books for that much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Now it's not always a good idea to compare an author to another. But this book had such old school Stephen King vibes, what can I do? Stephen King was my favorite author for a very long time! I love the way he turned a phrase and created realistic world and scenarios. The tension built slowly, and it was impossible to guess what happened next.

King's books are a bit different these days and I've turned to other genres. It was complete delight however to read this rendering of good versus evil set in a carnival like atmosphere of the town of Black Mouth. Jamie Warren, like the hero of many of King books, is dealing with his own worst enemy - himself and his demons. He is joined by childhood friends as they attempt to uncover what traumatized all of them two decades ago.

Don't get me wrong, Ronald Malfi is his own man and this book is a pleasure to read. If you like horror, personal trials, carnival terrors and just a classic good versus evil tale, then Black Mouth is for you! #BlackMouth
#Titanbooks. #Netgalley #Netgalleyreads

Black Mouth was my first book by Malfi. I'm intrigued. The story follows childhood friends who reunite in their hometown. Jamie Warren returns to bury his mother and care for his developmentally disabled brother Dennis. Mia meets a strange junkie who reminds her of things she'd rather forget. Clay wants to stay away from trouble, but life and Mia's e-mail convince him to revisit the horrors of his childhood.

They have been running away from the memories of a tragic summer and unnamed darkness. Years ago, a one-eyed homeless man taught them magic. But unfortunately, accessing the well of power required a terrible deed. I won't tell you if they have committed it, not to spoil the story. Anyway, escaping the mysterious man's influence came at a high cost. Four of them decide to hunt the monster and confront their pasts.

Malfi excels at writing atmospheric, quiet, and unsettling horror. It's not scary but disturbing in a subtle way. I liked Malfi's rich prose, but I had to be in the right mood to read it; it's pretty dense and descriptive. The narrative kept me tensely off-balance and remained surprising until the memorable ending.

The characters are great, complex, and believable, if not always sympathetic. Take Jon - a not-fully recovered alcoholic filled with anger and remorse for being out of his disabled brother's life. Dennis, in turn, is physically imposing and supernaturally sensitive. But not able to deal with the world outside. Clay suffers from vitiligo, making him an outsider for most of his life. And Mia... Mia is cool and no-nonsense but emotionally wrecked.

The titular Black Mouth is the collapsed coal pit. The location, the village mystery, and the haunting is explored with imagination and care for details. Malfi plays with familiar horror elements but twists them here and there to create something fresh and deeply unsettling.

The narrative follows a dual timeline - a present-day story and past events. I liked the structure - it slowly revealed things hidden in memories and reasons for characters' behavior.

As mentioned earlier, dense prose and detailed descriptions make Black Mouth a slower and moody read. Overall, I enjoyed it, but saying I couldn't put it down would be a lie. Sometimes, I had to encourage myself to finish the story.

Black Mouth is an intriguing book about friendship, overcoming personal demons (alcoholism, drugs), and giving yourself a second chance. Fans of slow-burn psychological horror and rich prose will be thrilled. Readers who prefer "louder" books will still enjoy it, but only when they'
re in the right mood.

Tale as old as time (or at least, it is with fans) of a group of young kids facing something/someone evil back in the day and coming back as adults to revisit it/sort unfinished business decades later. So ok, maybe Malfi doesn’t reinvent the wheel here, but he spins it oh so nicely.
I’m a fan of his work, have been for a long time. So much so I don’t even read plot summaries before going for his latest books. This one didn’t disappoint either.
A small West Virginia town, once industrial and since then abandoned and hopeless. A quarter of misfit toys of kids. And a Magician that lives in the woods and wants to teach them some tricks.
Oh what fun…until the Magician demands something back. Turns out the cost or real magic might be too high to pay.
Fast forward a couple of decades. The kids are now in their thirties and no longer in touch, but then come together like the intervening years were but a dream, for it looks like their old friend The Magician might be back. There’s been a recent sighting of him and he looks just the same. Can it be a mistake? Or is there something more sinister at play here?
Meanwhile, there’s a man, a terrible man, whose life path is set to a collision course with the group of friends. Once upon a time, his life too was irrevocably change by an encounter with The Magician. Only the lessons he learned were of an entirely different kind.
Poky, disturbing, atmospheric, character-driven and oh so well-written, this book is definitely a winner and would please any genre fan out there. Yes, it is ever so slightly overwritten and repetitive at times, yes, I didn't personally love any of the characters, and yes, I’m still not entirely sure how much I loved the last few chapters, but for the overall quality of narrative and engagement, this is still pretty freaking awesome.
The way Malfi draws you in, the way he tiptoes the thin line between natural and supernatural, alternating between real and imaginary nightmares…delicious.
Oodles of fun reading this. Definitely recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Jamie Warren is haunted by trauma, but when events reunite him and his brother, he cannot deny fate. The memories of that long time ago summer can no longer be denied. Now they must hunt down a man who can only be described as a monster.
This horror book reminds me of a Stephen King novel without the scary. This book has the same Stephen King’s IT trope of coming back to fight and old evil. The characters were interesting, with plenty of details and flaws. The setting sadly was not creepy or scary which was a bit of a letdown. The book was slow and just was not what I was wanting. Overall, I must give this book three stars because it was pretty average to me especially for how much I loved the author’s other book I have read.

The Goodreads description for Black Mouth notes that Ronald Malfi's latest release is "Perfect for fans of Stephen King’s IT...." This short segment of the book's synopsis doesn't seem to have carried over to Amazon or NetGalley, even though it's perfectly apt. In fact, I suspect some readers may find Black Mouth to be IT-lite. It's abundantly clear that King's classic was a touchstone to Malfi in this book's writing, and one might even argue that Black Mouth would not exist if King hadn't paved the way first (this is probably true for a lot of modern horror writers who grew up on King's work, me included).

Black Mouth exists in conversation with IT and its author, occasionally even mimicking IT to showcase that, at times, impersonation really is the best form of flattery, and to reveal just how influential King's work has been on Malfi. At times, it reads like Malfi saying to King, "this is what you showed me, and this is my riff on it." Some may decry this book as being little more than a copy of a classic horror tome, but it strikes me as more like a cover version. The tune is recognizable and has some familiar beats, but Malfi does enough to put his own spin on things and center those changes in an effort to create something that's both immediately identifiable and cogent enough to stand apart, and a ripping bit of rock and roll in its own right.

Jamie Warren has returned home to attend his mother's funeral and care for his mentally handicapped brother. He's also an alcoholic, fresh out of rehab and quickly rediscovering the siren song of the liquor bottles left behind in his childhood home. Meanwhile, a childhood friend he's lost touch with attends a carnival in Kentucky and spots a familiar one-eyed man from their past - the Magician, who lived in the woods around the sunken coal mine locally known as Black Mouth. Circumstances reunite Jamie with his old friends in an effort to stop the Magician once and for all.

Malfi interweaves their present-day stories with plenty of flashbacks to the past as the kids become acquainted with the Magician and fall under his spell. Above all is the overriding concern about Black Mouth, which, in present-day, is swallowing the old and crumbling Warren homestead. The collapsed mine looms large over the existence of our primary characters, taking on preternatural overtones, colluding with some of the children's birth defects and fate itself, as well as offering up thematic relevance. Even after leaving home, Jamie finds himself falling into the black mouth of the bottle and of depression. Each character must, at some point, contend with their own personal black mouths, as well - the black mouths of childhoods lost, of death and murder, and dark pasts hidden in the shadows of memory.

While Black Mouth shares plenty of common ground with King's IT (there's talk of a wheel of destiny, which can't help but remind one of ka, and ka is a wheel to be sure. Hell, there's even a riff on the turtle, which grows into its own unique moments here.), it is suitably its own work, and Malfi is his own man.

Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi


I don’t even know where to start with this review. I am torn between 3.5 and 4.5 stars. I have never read Malfi before, so I don’t know if this is his typical storytelling. There are so many good points to this story and some that fell flat.

In a nutshell, we have a few main characters. Jamie, an on-again and off-again alcoholic. Dennis, his brother, has some mental disabilities. Mia, a young lady with some mental struggles. And Clay, a young man with vitiligo. All four meet the Magician, and soon learn there is more to this “man” than they realize.

There are five sections to this story. Parts one, two and three; alternate between their childhood and adulthood stories. Most of them have moved away as they grew up. Started some careers, made some mistakes. We get a good picture of their mental and physical state. We learn all about their conflicts and growing pains.

Parts four and five - we are up to date on where they are in life. A huge event has led to a reunion. They come together in hopes of ending a tormenting childhood experience, in hopes to end a life of regrets and heartache. And they learn a little bit of magic along the way.

Throughout this whole story, I was wrong with every assumption except one. And even that assumption is just slightly off the mark.

Here is a quote straight from the story. It sums up this whole book perfectly. You can read into this quote in so many different ways…just like this story, it has so many angles.

“We cannot run from ourselves”.

I read my first real horror novel when I was 14 years old. I can recall reading it very clearly because it made such an impact on me. I mention this not because "Black Mouth" and "It" share a few similarities, though they do, but because this book has reignited those same feelings within me. I have read a lot of good horror novels because it is my favorite genre. In fact, I am obsessed with horror books. I have never been able to recapture that same feeling of being fully consumed by a book until this one.

The characters are so well created and defined that you quickly bond with them, not just as individuals, but as a group, which I believe is often difficult to pull off. These characters had suffered throughout their lives, and I desperately want then to overcome the obstacles that had been foisted upon them. I was completely invested in their stories and the outcomes.

Most of the settings were not spooky. However, with all that was taking place throughout the novel, I do feel that had the settings been over the top, it would have detracted from the story. That said, there was a creepy underworld at the height of the story. It was placed exactly where it was needed, in my opinion.

It is well written and the story flows easily. The plot is put together well without any holes in the story. There were a couple of side characters, but I never had issue keeping track of them.

Overall, I have nothing negative to say about this read. I think this novel is going to be a favorite for many, and not only for those who are in love with horror. It's just really that fantastic!

I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Many thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books.

This was a really interesting book. Somewhat reminiscent of Stephen King's "It", but different enough to be its own story with its own world and characters. In some ways I preferred this story. I'm a big fan of Mr. King, don't get me wrong, but this was a really different book.

At times haunting, atmospheric and at other times downright creepy, you feel the pain and fear of the characters as they try to save themselves and perhaps many others. The Magician is a terrifying, well-written villain.

Thanks to Netgalley, Ronald Malfi and Titan Books for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book is basically if Charlie Manx and Pennywise had a love child. It is the stuff nightmares are made of with elements of the human condition tied in. I loved every minute of this book.

Ronald Malfi’s storytelling will never cease to amaze me. Black Mouth gave me It/Beware the Slenderman vibes. After reading Come With Me, I truly did not think that the same magic could be done again, but it has with Black Mouth. I can’t put into words how much I loved this book and how I’ll be thinking about it everyday for who knows how long.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book!

No spoilers ahead :)

I initially picked up Black Mouth because I've heard so many great things about the author, I simply couldn't resist. I've been in the mood to read some horror as well. So, let's see what I liked:
- The characters are so real and so well done, you easily forget you are reading a work of fiction.
- The sentences are so well written, I sometimes had to pause to appreciate the way something trivial was phrased. Simply masterful and beautiful!
- The overall plot line
Things, that were not my cup of coffee:
- Somehow I wasn't feeling scared at all, which is typically my thing. Certain scenes, wich I'll not describe, left me felling rather sad and mournful.
- It was a bit of a slower paced book that I imagined horror would look like. Again: personal preference.

Shades of King in this emotionally observant tale of childhood trauma, dark magic and final reckoning.

With a brilliantly drawn cast of characters who are brought back to their childhood home by something that lingers in its deepest history, this is both a page turner and an emotionally resonant tale of the ties that bind and the evil that lurks in those creepy corners of life.

It is a horror story but also an intriguing and authentic dive into the many facets of the human condition.

Loved it. One of my favourites of the year so far.