Ron's Reviews > Black Mouth

Does it matter if I'm a latecomer to Malfi's work? Hell no. As is often said, better late than never.

I'd say that this story reminded me of those dark and difficult moments when growing up, the key experiences that shape the years well beyond childhood. The vulnerabilities of the characters, and the way this is written by Malfi, make me feel for the them as much as believe in them. They are a few friends bound by the haunted Barrows-like place they live near and sometimes play. What brings them together is the same place that tears them apart, but what also brings them together is sameness in being outcasts.

Bringing the characters back to that place of their childhood can be the make or break for a novel like this (there have been so many novels written in this manner). Do they remain relative as adults? Does the story still feel engaging? Yes and yes for Black Mouth and Malfi's writing of its characters, both as children and later when adults (the timeline consistently moves back-and-forth, which I've always thought works better than linear). There is an important protagonist, Dennis, who doesn't speak much due to his mostly unidentified disability, but even so he becomes the glue that binds the foursome and the story. Possibly, because of his disability he is not encumbered by the world like the others, and yet again he is more so. It could be a small thing for many, yet for me it was big in “feel” then becoming the crux of this novel.