Number 38 - Black Mouth - Ronald Malfi

 

I read this book through Netgalley.  It will be formally released on July 19. 

I normally try not to compare to Stephen King when I review a horror novel as that just feels lazy, but in this case, there is so much Kingism going on it’s almost impossible not too. 

Small American town, a group of friends who bonded over childhood trauma are drawn back to their childhood homes many years later to fight the evil all over again. The flashback structure, juxtaposing present with past. Also- 800 plus pages on the file I read. It’s classic king storytelling territory.

 It differs on the  scale though.  Whereas King would have a huge cast of characters, each playing their role in the story, Malfi concentrates on just the 5 central characters for the whole book, and any other townsfolk are more or less walk on parts.  In a King novel, we'd feel like we'd lived in the town for years and knew everyone that lived there. In this book, we know our central cast and no  one else.

It’s written for the most part in a first person narrative, which limits the scope, but branches out into third person for alternate chapters. All the flashbacks are told by Jamie, our first person narrator.

Jamie Warren is a loser. As the story opens he’s in enforced rehab for his alcoholism, suffering some truly horrific hallucinations. Just after his release, he learns of his mother's death and has to hightail it back to Black Mouth to look after affairs, including his cognitively impaired brother Dennis.

Also on her way back to Black Mouth is his ex-best-friend and crush, Mia. She's had a strange encounter with a woman who knew far more than she should. She's also just seen the Magician, the mysterious stranger who came into their lives when they were children and changed them forever.  Completing the quartet is Clay, a social worker spurred on by the photo of the Magician to look into similar crimes to the one they were involved with.

Following them is Stull, another of the magician's ex-apprentices. in his first chapter he commits an act of animal cruelty that marks him out as one of the most reprehensible villains I've read in many a year. He's a remarkably scary character.

I loved the way Malfi slowly draws the various plot threads together, keeping the characters in the dark while we the readers can see the oncoming shitstorm. He really does know how to build the tension brilliantly. 

I also loved the way the characters react realistically to the situations they find themselves in. There's no sudden leaping to the far fetched supernatural conclusions, more scrabbling around trying piece together a natural explanation that isn't going to happen.

This was my first Ronald Malfi novel and certainly won't be my last. He takes on Stephen King in his own territory and easily holds his own.  He manages to stamp his own style and themes into the familiar formula. When physical copies of this are available, I will be adding this to my shelves.