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nerdyreferencelibrarian89 's review for:
Black Mouth
by Ronald Malfi
Black Mouth has some amazing tone, setting, and characters; however, I don't feel like the events all work together, particularly in the second half.
I really enjoyed the struggles of our main character and his brother Dennis, I felt like these were fleshed out well, and explored in depth. The remaining cast felt shallow, if likable.
What didn't always work for me, as much as I loved Dennis's character, is how frequently he fell into the magical character with a disability trope. I felt like outside of these moments he was handled in such a nuanced way, that it felt like a shame that he essentially became a plot device to guide along the rest of the cast.
Black Mouth as a setting itself is built up very well, it's got a creepy history, the perfect decrepit town feel. But I don't think we get to spend enough time in it in modern times to get pay off for the build-up.
There are some truly horrifying moments in this story, and Malfi does an expert job balancing psychological and supernatural horror elements until they swirl together to be indistinguishable. His use of describing noises and smells is particularly great.
Our over arching challenges and threats to the cast are where I struggled a bit. Without spoiling anything, there is an element introduced about midway through the story which I felt was done to try to dangle the "is this psychological or super natural" carrot over characters' heads. But I felt this element just didn't work as well as what had been previously built up.
Overall, I enjoyed Black Mouth and will definitely be reading more of Malfi's work, but it is not something I would consider a must-read for horror fans. It struggles a bit with pacing and some of its character use while excelling with building tension, setting, and emotion into its main cast.
I really enjoyed the struggles of our main character and his brother Dennis, I felt like these were fleshed out well, and explored in depth. The remaining cast felt shallow, if likable.
What didn't always work for me, as much as I loved Dennis's character, is how frequently he fell into the magical character with a disability trope. I felt like outside of these moments he was handled in such a nuanced way, that it felt like a shame that he essentially became a plot device to guide along the rest of the cast.
Black Mouth as a setting itself is built up very well, it's got a creepy history, the perfect decrepit town feel. But I don't think we get to spend enough time in it in modern times to get pay off for the build-up.
There are some truly horrifying moments in this story, and Malfi does an expert job balancing psychological and supernatural horror elements until they swirl together to be indistinguishable. His use of describing noises and smells is particularly great.
Our over arching challenges and threats to the cast are where I struggled a bit. Without spoiling anything, there is an element introduced about midway through the story which I felt was done to try to dangle the "is this psychological or super natural" carrot over characters' heads. But I felt this element just didn't work as well as what had been previously built up.
Overall, I enjoyed Black Mouth and will definitely be reading more of Malfi's work, but it is not something I would consider a must-read for horror fans. It struggles a bit with pacing and some of its character use while excelling with building tension, setting, and emotion into its main cast.