Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The hardest thing to outrun is yourself. And yet that is what most of us spend an entire lifetime doing.
Jamie Warren is running from his past at such a frightening speed that it can only end in disaster. Ironically, like most of us, the faster we run from something, the more likely we are to run right back to that thing. This happens in a series of events leading to Jamie’s return to his childhood home at Black Mouth.
Haunted by his past, unsure of his future, he is suddenly confronted with a childhood friend who produces a photo of a predator from his past. To make matters worse, another friend also has a run in with a situation which bears the eerie resemblance to their past. In the meantime he finds himself having to deal with his mentally challenged brother who had been under the perpetual care of their mother who recently took her own life.
All of this was enough to send him back into the mouth of a liquor bottle.
I am a fan of Ronald Malfi. This book is no exception. Captivating and impossible to put down, the dark side of this reality is one that we all face when we deny what we know is true. And that is what great horror makes us do. We face that part of ourselves which is unreal, and at the same time too real. This demonstrates why Malfi is one of the greats in my humble opinion.
On a personal note, having survived a childhood with an alcoholic, I can attest to the dripping realism of this work. If you have had to deal with the evil of addiction in any way, this will cut close to home. There is also truth in the words of this novel. Truths you should acknowledge or they will swallow you up in the Black Mouth.
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