I know that I've heard of Tim Waggoner before and I'm pretty sure I've read SOMETHING he wrote years ago but I've searched my mind and my records and can't come up with anything. However, I knew just by looking at this cover that this is a book I wanted to read.

Jayce is looking for his daughter Emory. She has disappeared and it is believed that she has become lost in the "Shadow" - a very unique yet very dangerous realm. Jayce will do whatever is necessary to find Emory, even if it means unlocking memories of his childhood he has suppressed for years.

I have to admit that "The Mouth of the Dark" is a very different horror story. In fact, the word I can think of which might best describe it is weird. I mean, come on, we have homicidal sex toys (The Pink Devil), naked gladiator type fights to the death and a character known only as The Harvest Man. The book alternates between present day and flashbacks of Jayce's childhood as he learns of his true connection to the Shadow.

If you decide to pick this book up, all I can say is prepare for a hell of a ride. While I didn't find it very scary per se, it was gross and disgusting yet I couldn't put it down. Even though Jayce kind of creeped me out some - the man was WAY too obsessed with is daughter's sex life, I desperately wanted him to find his daughter and have a happily ever after. Silly me, expecting that from a horror story!

I really can't say much more about this book. I think it's kind of best to go in blindly, but know that you are going to meet some VERY odd characters and read about some EXTREMELY disturbing practices.

Thank you, NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

2.75 stars

This was one very strange book. It was very well written and I did feel a sense of dread throughout the journey of reading. BUT, and this is only my opinion, some things the lead character thought about, I could not unread. It left a mark in my brain and had me going, WHAT DID I JUST READ? On the one hand that could be a good selling point but on the other hand, I was wondering why add that? What did it bring to the story? So while I gave it two stars, someone else could have loved it.

It is a true horror book that left me a bit scared and anxious because it was just so darn weird like HP Lovecraft weird. It was unsettling in a few ways that did not have to do with horror. It is definitely an adult book.

While there were definitely parts of this book I enjoyed, I felt the theme and plot had just been done too many times before, without much to differentiate it from all the others. It kept me interested -- primarily because I enjoy this genre -- but not riveted. Good read, but don't lose any sleep if you can't get to it.

I'm a simple woman; I see a book blurb that mentions homicidal sex toys, I pick it up. Seriously though, this novel has a solid premise that just keeps giving. Jayce Lewis is a middle-aged, divorced insurance salesman. He leads a mostly normal life, though he does tend to be a bit paranoid. At least that's what he believes when he sets out to find his missing 20-year-old daughter, whom he hasn't heard from in weeks. His search quickly leads him into Shadow, a world where things are far more sinister than they might appear at first glance.

This book is completely and utterly insane, in the best way. Half the time, I had no idea what I was reading, but I loved it. You've got creepy insta-pregnancy, freaks who eat dogs, jars that contain lovely mementos like the screams of the dying...and that's in the first chapter. This novel kind of teeters on the edge of going full bizarro, and instead strikes right at that sweet spot where horror can make the reader feel so, so very uncomfortable even when then content isn't particularly graphic. Hell, this book makes napkins scary, no easy feat! The book only spans about 48 hours, though there are also some brief flashbacks, so the pace is insane and there's always something crazy happening. There were a few points that I felt were a little bit predictable, but on the whole this novel succeeded in catching me off guard on nearly every page, so I can forgive it a few obvious twists.

I really don't want to say too much about the plot, because it really is best to just immerse yourself in the weirdness without knowing *quite* what you're getting yourself into. This novel is fast-paced, and the batshit crazy rollercoaster never lets up until the very end. I highly recommend that you buckle yourselves in and enjoy the ride; it's well worth the price of admission.

Well, that was interesting. This was my first read by Tim Waggoner and will likely look into his other works.

This book is a story Jayce searching for his missing daughter Emory. Jayce is a man looking for his missing daughter that finds himself in over his head. He is portrayed as maybe a little weak, out of shape and continuously berated by his subconscious in the voice of his overbearing mother. As the story progresses you find the truth behind who Jayce is and his mother, I liked what the author did. But I didn't find myself as invested in Jayce and his daughter when the secondary characters were much more interesting.

The book truly shines when it depicts the interaction of Shadow with reality. The creatures that inhabit the world can come in all shapes and sizes and they are described in creepy, morbid details. I wish the book had focused more on this as the world that was created was fascinating.

Overall, this is a solid 3.5 stars, rolled down from 4 as the ending felt more abrupt then I expected with the rest of the details of the story and there is a scene with Emory that just didn't work for me.

Review: THE MOUTH OF THE DARK by Tim Waggoner

I loved this scary horror novel! In Oakmont, the underworld isn't organized crime. Instead, it's an extensive "region" called Shadow, a sort of shifting portal to that (and those) which lie Beyond. Open, to an extent, to "normals," Shadow magnetizes humans who possess "the Eye," and continued exposure results in "changes." Jayce can't remember a frightening incident when he was thirteen, nor can he account for the subsequent missing time. But now that his adult daughter may be missing, he discovers he does have "the Eye," and apparently daughter Emory inherited it. So, determined to locate and rescue her, Jayce starts hunting throughout shadow. THE MOUTH OF THE DARK is an exquisitely terrifying story.

The prolific Tim Waggoner returns with “The Mouth of the Dark” a very fast paced fusion of sleazy urban fantasy and supernatural horror. At a mere 200 pages it was a fairly brief read which got off the ground running with a middle-aged man, Jayce Lewis, searching for his twenty-year-old daughter Emory who has been missing for a couple of weeks. Jayce did not have the best relationship with Emory and after leaving some ‘missing’ posters in a shop close to where she worked is confronted by two unpleasant teenagers who pull a knife on him. Jayce is helped by another woman whom he recognises from the shop, who calls the teenagers “dog-eaters” as quite literally that’s what they are. They smell, have sharp teeth and look pretty nasty…

Within a few pages things quickly get bat-shit crazy and we realise that there is a type of supernatural parallel world which is somehow connected to ours called ‘Shadow’ which some humans see. Those with this ‘gift’ can successfully move between our and the shadow dimension and our world. The woman who helped Jayce, Nicola, sells medicine to doctors and hospitals in modern day America, but also inhabits Shadow. She agrees to help Jayce, realising that he has the ability to enter this other world and helps him understand it, as he has suppressed this gift since he was a child. She also suspects his daughter Emory is missing somewhere in Shadow and probably has inherited his ability.

The story is set over a brief 48 hours so the opportunity for detailed world-building was pretty limited and I would like to have seen this weird world of Shadow laid out in more detail. Hell, Stephen King or Clive Barker would spend the entire length of this just setting the scene if this was one of their creations. Instead much of it came across as a bit sketchy and cartoony, indeed, the scene where Jayce enters his first Shadow pub I couldn’t help but think of the famous alien bar scene in Star Wars. Then it is just one crisis after another as poor Jayce tries to survive in Shadow, learning all the way. It’s also very sexualised, repeatedly so, and I tired of this fetish and S&M stuff pretty quickly. Jayce also seems to have a creepy interest in his daughter’s sex-life, which was heightened when he discovers a dangerous supernatural sex toy in her bedroom (a Pink Devil) but don’t even ask what this thing does, you really don’t want to know. On a more normal level it does effectively play upon the nightmare of every parent, that of losing a child, heightened by the fact that Jayce no longer truly knows his daughter.

Once “The Mouth of the Dark” gets going much of the novel is set in Shadow, but I thought some of the most impressive scenes were the flashbacks to Jayce’s own childhood and that of his daughter. When looking back Jayce realises he has missed lots of triggers to Shadow which over the years he either ignored or supressed. Through Jayce’s inner voice he also hears his mother, who comes across as some sort of warning or conscience and this was very well written, especially in the context of how the story strand plays out. Along the way we meet the Harvest Mam, Ohio Pig and a very entertaining sequence with Jayce trying to get his hands on a severed head.

A lot of the stuff which happens in Shadow is so far over the top it is half-way down the other side, I have no problem with this kind of outlandishness, but when you are bombarded with it, much of it becomes repetitive and it loses its kick. I appreciate it’s strange, wild, crazy and so on, but after a while I was not too bothered whether Jayce was successful in rescuing his daughter or not, as my interest seriously began to wane in the final third of the novel. I have nothing against short and fast paced books, but the world I am reading about, even if it’s crazy has to click, and something about Shadow failed to do that. It was too sketchily drawn and could have done with more flesh on the bones. Horrible creatures are repeatedly thrown at the reader, thick and fast, so more flesh could have been added to the bones.

I imagine “The Mouth of the Dark” will get the full spectrum of reviews from 1* haters to 5* masterpieces as this novel is all about your own personal taste. I probably sit somewhere in the middle, it was too heavy on the sleaze and lacked suspense, but on the other hand was full of wild ideas and assaults the senses in true maximum overdrive style.

Fast-paced and a bit on the quirky side, The Mouth of the Dark is another great, new release from the folks at Flame Tree Press who are proving quite rapidly they are in the business to bring game to the genre. And bring it, they do.
While not a great fan of "creature-type" fantasy/horror, I got over that a few chapters into the book and it developed into quite the page-turner.
The story is simple enough; Jayce's daughter has gone missing and he heads toward the seedy part of town to post some flyers and ask a few questions. From there, he's introduced to more strange people than you can count and also encounters a sort of parallel universe that exists with ours called "Shadow." Shadow can only be seen and experienced by a select few And Shadow is seriously fucked-up in every degradation imaginable. Think "Labyrinth" meets "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with a side order of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Thunderdome" for dessert.
Tim Waggoner manages to pull this off deftly and impressively while giving slight clues and promises of the climax to come when the book hits its high note.
Characters are interesting, if a bit under-developed, but that's understandable given the book takes place in a short time span (a few days from what I could gather, but I wasn't reading for that so it didn't really register until I'd finished). One character in particular, a dude named "Ohio Pig" is most intense and enjoyable in a perverse sort of way.
Dialogue is a bit elongated in places but isn't overly done or melodramatic. Considering the circumstances Jayce finds himself in, it could have gone either way, but Waggoner manages to reel it in to fit the occasions.
The "ah-ha!" moment was slightly "not-ah-ha!" given the reader gets a fairly obvious precursor to it, but even with that, it wasn't one of those, "I saw that coming a mile away" type of things.
The one thing that bothered me about this book was the lack of explanation for the appearance and behavior of the bizarre assortment of creatures occupying Shadow. They were well-described, but their motives were never clear--you'll see what I mean the first time you meet the guy with the green rubber gloves.
Overall, The Mouth of the Dark was an enjoyable trip into the land of disbelief suspension and certainly worth a read.

I’ve been sitting here thinking of just where to begin this review. You see, Waggoner introduced me to a very unique world, one in which I felt thrilled to be a part of, if only for a limited time. My love for the weird and bizarre once more resurfaced, and it seldom does due to how rarely I find myself experiencing surrealism in the genre. When it does come about, however, I enjoy it immensely, especially when the imaginative aspects are through the roof. There was a great deal that spurred me to keep going here, and I won’t lie, sometimes it was less to do with the story and more to do with what outlandish scene might come next. I wouldn’t necessarily consider that a bad thing; a book like this depends largely on building up its strangeness and taking it to new heights. The concept of Shadow was a memorable factor; a monstrous realm that bled into normal reality, whereupon freakish creatures resided. It was as if Shadow itself was a distortion of the real world; a deformity, or a glitch, much like the very abnormalities it caused those exposed to it.

Sex played a major role here, and whilst it was wildly entertaining, it also proved to be a little disquieting at times. Being a tale about, ultimately, the relationship of father and daughter, Jayce often found himself reflecting upon Emory’s erotic style of life. It wasn’t altogether out of the blue, considering the very intimate revelations during his search, but it didn’t exactly make his thoughts any less discomforting. In all, it was quite the situation; imagine a parent discovering all of your sexual escapades, including the very unconventional toy you use. Awkward, right? As for Jayce as a protagonist, he was a determined person, yet it was clear he was a stranger even to himself. I enjoyed the travels back into his history, as whilst he was getting to know himself, I was getting to know him as well.

As for Nicola, of whom played the role of companion to Jayce, I liked her, however her fate left me a little disappointed. I guess I expected more of a fleshed out conclusion to their coupling; it seemed to be over pretty quickly. The single character that stood out for me though was the long-lived Ivory. She was certainly depicted in a bad light, but she wasn’t a typical villain. I firmly believe her actions were doing a service to the unsuspecting populace, even if her methods were terribly ruthless. A definite highlight was Crimson Splendour, and what lay underneath it; a nightmarish playground that enthralled the deviant in me.

I really didn’t see the ending coming – it just seemed to come from nowhere and escalate from one to a thousand. I wouldn’t even consider it a happy ending either, but I guess it would depend wholly on your definition of happiness. It surprised me, without doubt, and it established itself as rather distinct. I mean, I can’t honestly say I’ve never read a finale of that calibre before.

In conclusion: Perhaps suited more to the label of dark fantasy, this one focused on the creepily surreal side of fiction. I very much relished the weird and wonderful, and only experienced a few minor let-downs. I would love if Waggoner decided to make a series out of it, as he’s crafted a world I would enthusiastically return to.

Notable Scene:

It appeared at first as if the man was going to do nothing more than walk, but then his mouth – which looked wrong, even from this distance – yawned open, and a dark cloud emerged, expanding as it moved toward the club’s fleeing patrons. The darkness engulfed a dozen of those at the rear of the crowd, and then the screaming began.

© Red Lace 2018

The Mouth of the Dark
Author: Tim Waggoner
Book Review
Publication Date: 6th September 2018
Publisher: Flame Tree Press

“You’ve got the eye”

As a horror fan, and all round crazy fan-girl, it is always the stranger the better that I love. I love randomness, oddities, crazy, the unusual and the downright illogical. I relish the weird and the wonderful with a fiery passion, embracing it and all its wondrous madness. This book, this wonderful book, The Mouth of the Dark, is all of these things and more.

There is nothing I can say that could do this book or its author justice. Tim Waggoner, you are a literary genius. This is an extraordinary tale, a frightening, exciting, and thrilling ride from start to finish. The Mouth of the Dark has opened up a whole new world of wonder for me, I feel inspired by it, and I feel that it has cracked open a creative door within me that I don’t think can ever be closed.

We meet Jayce Lewis, a regular guy, a desperate father who is searching for his daughter, Emory. He knows something is wrong, he is deeply worried. He and Emory are not the closest anymore, not since the divorce, something he regrets deeply, but they keep in touch. She has gone missing from her home, in the Cannery. No one seems to believe him, that she is in danger, missing, abducted maybe; even her mother thinks everything is fine, and that she is just loved up and holed up with her current boyfriend and will get in touch eventually. Jayce knows, he can feel it, something isn’t right and he isn’t leaving until he finds her, he will do anything to find her, his little girl.

The Cannery has a questionable reputation; it is not the safest of places to live by any means. It wasn’t what he would have wanted for his Emory, but she is an adult now, she has to make her own way in the world, and he respects that. A lot of strange things happen within the Cannery, it’s a place for the unknown, the darkness, and the shadows. A different kind of life thrives here. While asking around about Emory, he meets Nicola, a curious woman who saves his life after he is attacked by some of the Cannery’s strangeness. She offers to help him find his daughter, it’s just a matter of can they trust each other, and can Jayce accept what he is about to find out. His whole life is about to change in ways he could never have imagined possible.

The Shadow, a world of dark wonder where the impossible is real, everything you could imagine, and the things you would rather not, it’s all real, and it’s here. A world existing alongside our own, just out of sight for most people, ‘normal’ people. Jayce soon discovers he has ‘the eye’, he can see the things most can’t, he is a part of the shadow, he just didn’t remember he was.

The Mouth of the Dark is a truly fascinating read, it has everything. We have lunatic killers, sex toys with a life of their own, dog eaters, clones, gladiator style fighting, melting heads and even a pinch of romance. It has something for everyone, and it is all wrapped up in a perfect twisted bow.


5/5 – Extraordinarily exhilarating. You won’t be disappointed.

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mouth-Dark-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/178758013X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1535301921&sr=8-6&keywords=tim+waggoner

Lesley-Ann (Housewife of Horror)

So it seems this author has been around for a while and written a lot of books for like Supernaturals, Resident Evil and Kingsmen! Yet, I have never heard of him till I decide to try this book and I don't know how his other books are but this is the weirdest, strangest, weirdest book I ever read. Not sure if this was the best book to start out with for this author but I must admit I am curious about reading more from him...lol.

It's about a father looking for his twenty-year old daughter who has been missing for a few weeks. The place he lives in has a shadow world that only a few people can see and it gave off a Total Recall type vibe to me. Jayce goes to where he thought Emery was working and the guy said he had never seen her before, but while Jayce is there he starts noticing some strange things.

Then outside by an alley he hears some weird sounds and runs into some "dog-eaters" some strange teenagers with sharp teeth and a nasty smell (maybe I should have turned away at this point), a strange woman Nicola helps him out of that situation and he goes on trying to find Emery but keeps seeing strange things going on so decides to follow Nicola. 

Jayce goes to his daughters appointment looking for clues when he has thoughts about things there he just shouldn't. Then he finds something under her bed and (this is where I should have quit!) finds an object and while looking at it some tentacles come out and start choking him while other go below the belt! Yes, it's a sex toy that could kill you! The shadow world things are messed up!

Nicola ends up helping Jayce look for his daughter but in doing so she takes him to places he didn't know existed and finds out he has this shadow site which is why he sees strange things. While we have all these strange things going on there is also a man called The Harvest Man, who breathes out black dust and then breaths it in and you turn to dust. 

Once Jayce goes to this one bar and meets some strange people the book picks up and he starts remembering things from when he was younger than tie into the ending which I kind of guessed it was going to go that way. I can't say that the weird went away as it didn't it was pretty strange through the whole thing and the ending was just okay. 

It was plain curiosity that kept me going with this book because it had a lot of things I wasn't a huge fan of in it, wierd sex toys only being a part of it! I wasn't comfortable with the thoughts in Jayce's head about his adult daughter's sex life and I will leave it at that! There is that weird part of me though that kind of liked this book despite the parts I didn't like. It was really fast paced which we all know is what I love and so I finished it up in about a day and a half so it was quick. 

I don't have a lot to say about the characters as I wasn't really a fan of any of them but if I had to pick one I liked more it would be Nicola, she was just plain weird but interesting. I didn't care much for the dad but overall I did root for him to find his way out of the mess he lands him and hoped he could find his daughter alive. It really is just a book about a dad trying to find his daughter and finding out more about himself but amped up on weirdness x 10. :)

It wasn't really scary but it was just plain weird and strange so if you like that kind of thing then I say go for it! :)

3,5 stars

I thought this book was definitely different. You can tell the author worked/thought hard on the world-building. I'd looknl forward to reading more from this author.

Tim Waggoner brings something new to the table with THE MOUTH OF THE DARK. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it before. If you are looking for a slump buster to get you out of your reading rut, then this is the book for you. There's a lot that takes place within this book. Tim Waggoner has created a world that I would like to come back to sooner rather than later.

A father (Jayce) is searching for his daughter (Emory). You know what they say, the first 48 hours are the most crucial. Jayce stumbles upon a hidden world called Shadow that exists alongside our own reality. Pretty cool, huh? This world is bizarre in so many ways. Jayce is guided by a mysterious woman named Nicola. Within Shadow, you have crazed killers, dog-eaters, homicidal sex toys, and the Harvest Man (a very cool character).

The scenes jump from the page as Jayce tries to track down Emory. I can't unsee some of the stuff in this book. If you are squeamish, then this book may not be right for you. Tim Waggoner covers a lot of ground in this book. You feel like you are right there with Jayce as he is thrust into different scenarios and discovers new things. Tim Waggoner does a great job with Jayce's character development and by the end of the book, you pretty much know him.

The plot slows down at certain points in the book, but for me, that doesn't take away from the story. I feel like you need the awesome details of Shadow. I'm sure I can find my way around Shadow now.

THE MOUTH OF THE DARK plays on every parent's worst fear, which is losing your child. But that isn't the only horrors that lurk in this book. The hair-raising scenes are everything. There are unimaginable horrors and so much depravity in this book. The pages are filled with debauchery and disturbing behavior.

With that being said, I've read Tim Waggoner before and I'll read him again. His writing style is great. His stories are always fresh and inventive.

Recommend!

4/5 stars!⭐⭐⭐⭐

What can I say about this book? First impressions, wow. This was one hell of a ride. It's gritty, dark, gruesome, horrific, and even terrifying in parts. It's not for the faint hearted and certainly not for the prudish.

The book draws you into the world of shadow and we meet Jayce who is searching for his missing twenty-year-old daughter Emory. As he searches he is drawn deeper into the darkness and memories from his past begin to surface. The images are vivid, the descriptive writing is excellent and at times I felt my whole body squirm as Jayce faced such fierce dangers.

The characters, Jayce, Nicola, even Ivory, were all well fleshed out and you'll find yourselves turning the pages to see what is going to happen next. How can any of this even be possible? The monsters that hide in plain sight and that fact that Jayce had forgotten the horrors that he'd seen growing up.

I loved Jayce's mother's voice. She was so witty at times, and blunt too. I really like her. I loved Jayce's determination even when his memories resurfaced and he found himself alone in a bathroom looking at those grey feet. This disturbing scene develops as the story unfolds and we finally get to the truth of what really happened in that bathroom.

This book is sinister and graphic and at times twisted and weird, but boy does it grip you. Some of the more graphic sexual scenes may not be to everyone's taste especially the ones that feature Emory, and I did find myself feeling a little uncomfortable at one scene in particular where Jayce remembers something from when Emory was fifteen.

All in all, I have to give this book 5 stars. The author's voice is fantastic and how he weaves the story leaves you wanting more. I do hope there will be a second book in the series. If you enjoy horror and supernatural experiences, this is one that you will definitely want to add to your to-be-read list. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

Tim Waggoner's The Mouth of the Dark is what happens when Clive Barker, Sam and Dean from Supernatural, and Chad Palahniuk go on an acid trip inside of Eli Roth's Hostile.

The Mouth of the Dark is about a man named Jayce Lewis who is in search of his missing twenty-year-old daughter, Emory. Not really knowing much about his own daughter, Jayce is forced to search for Emory in places known as Shadow; a darker reality that coexists covertly with our normal, everyday reality. On his journey, Jayce dwells deeper into shadow, and things get darker and stranger.

This story is thrilling, mysterious, weird, filled with gore, sex, and slimy monsters, and beings and situations that just make you think, "How freaking weird is this?" There’s a guy who smokes the feces of accidental death victims, monstrous sex toys, dog-eating teens, and a dark-being known as The Harvest Man.

Despite it being so weird, this story kept me reading because I wanted to know what happened to Jayce's daughter. I felt invested in this man’s mission to find his daughter because he is a good parent and wouldn’t let it go, unlike his ex-wife who just passes the missing of Emory as a phase.

I also felt right in the POV of Jayce whenever he encountered something strange and unusual because I was reacting the same way.

The Mouth of the Dark is very fresh and very new and offers some new light in the darkness of horror. It wasn’t sex or gore just for the shock value or to be extreme horror. This is a well-written horror story that is character driven.

I recommend!

Holy cow!!!! Hold on to your head because this book will blow your mind! The Mouth of the Dark by Tim Waggoner is one book that I can honestly say grabbed me and I could not put this down!! This was one of the weirdest most twisted books I have read in a while and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! If you are squeamish or have a weak stomach this book may not be for you but for the rest of you?.....Read it!! Thank you Netgalley and Flame Tree Press for allowing me to read this awesome ARC book! A HUGE thank you to the author Tim Waggoner for writing such a gripping and intriguing book! I highly recommend this book.

Definitely one of the most discomforting, eerie, and sexually-driven novels I’ve read in a long, long time.

It’s difficult for me to exactly pinpoint the highlights and letdowns of this novel (not that there are any I could find in the latter), but if I have to start somewhere it has to be with the one image the author has ingrained into my mind that will take some time to forget.

And that’s the one scene which I’m so happy the publishers decided to keep because, trust me, if this particular scene was scrapped the entire vibe of THE MOUTH OF THE DARK would have lost it’s exceptionally well-written plot. Naturally, you’ll have to read the book yourself to find out what I’m going on about and, this is not my intention to create false climaxes, there is a hint in the pun.

You’ll thank me later.

Waggoner’s latest novel digs deep into the occult, into our carnal indulgences, into all the gritty, dirty, and manic things you would never find by happenstance or blindly stumble into. An eclectic assembly of everything macabre and terrifying, THE MOUTH OF THE DARK is a riveting read you’ll keep reading long after the sun has gone down.

Seeped with dodgy oddities and unexpected moments of betrayal and allies, this great work of fiction has left me breathless in a way having run a marathon would or if you’ve been binge-reading George R.R Martin’s WILDCARDS series.

If you want to forget about the real world and peek into the darker side of things which can be just as double-edged as they are intriguing, grab your copy, highlight your favorite scenes, and try to ignore the things which go bump in the dark.

No one will dare to bump back.

I'd like to thank Netgalley, Flame Tree Press and Tim Waggoner for this ARC of The Mouth of the Dark.

The Mouth of the Dark is a horror book that enveloped me in a darkness that just seemed to get stranger with every new page! When I first began to read, I thought for sure it was a book on alien abduction, but I was very wrong! There are many different horror elements in this book and the descriptions are nightmare inducing. The plot gets more twisted with each chapter, so buckle up and enjoy the very strange and deranged ride of this horror story!

Jayce is looking around town for his missing daughter, Emory. The cops don't take him seriously so he decides to take matters into his own hands. He prints up flyers and heads to the Cannery, where his daughter lives. As soon as Jayce enters the CrazyQwik (a place his daughter worked) his world will never be the same. The darkness and strangeness of this town only grows more macabre and a strange cast of characters is thrown into this mix; most notably Nicola and 'Ohio Pig'.

The Mouth of the Dark is definitely worth a read if you love the strange and very dark side of horror!

Let's cut right to the quick - The Mouth of the Dark is weird. Seriously weird. Like bug-fuck, batshit crazy weird. Tim Waggoner revels in weirdness here, revealing new layers of oddities and arcane horrors on nearly every page. Yes, it keeps the book moving, which is exactly what you want in a narrative whose timespan is so firmly compressed (the events of The Mouth of the Dark take place within about 24-48 hours or so), but hot damn is it ever weird.

Weird isn't a bad thing, though, and it's one of the central selling points behind The Mouth of the Dark. On its surface, it's about a man searching for his missing daughter. As these types of stories often require, the father takes a trip down a wickedly dark rabbit hole and uncovers a secret world, in this case Shadow. Existing alongside our own daily rigamarole, only a certain special few can see Shadow and the peculiar life lurking within. There's green-gloved men who eat paper covered in hot sauce, couples who eat dogs, and a horrifying entity called The Harvest Man. The Harvest Man has breath that can kill - breathe out, and a black cloud envelops his victim. Breathe back in, and the victim turns to ash. He's like a wickedly fucked up Lamaze teacher with a case of halitosis cranked to 11. Oh, and there's also killer sex toys that sprout tentacles to help users rub one out while asphyxiating them.

Jayce discovers all these things in pretty short order, and Waggoner continually assaults him and us readers with new information and odd-ball scenarios on the regular. Discovery is the name of the game here, and in searching for the absent Emory, Jayce keeps finding more and more dark corners to peek into and only barely survive. Some of these corners involve the secrets of Shadow, while others pertain to his own buried and forgotten past, and nearly every single one of them posits some intriguing bit of fantastical horror. Others are a bit more personal, and frankly Jayce is kind of a creeper when all is said and done, what with his strangely frequent musings on his daughter's sex life and what potential kinks she may get off on. This struck an odd, disquieting note with me. Although Jayce isn't incestuous, he simply seems to let his mind wander down some off-beat tracks and Waggoner is content to let it flow, eschewing any darker aspects between father and daughter, thank goodness.

The Mouth of the Dark largely succeeds on the merits of its strangeness. I will admit I'm not a fan of fantasy lit, and by extension a lot of urban fantasy, which runs wild here in more horrifying and perverse forms. Waggoner throws readers directly into the deep-end, right alongside Jayce, and it takes some time to get oriented to the parallel Shadow reality running alongside our own. Frankly, I struggled quite a bit to suspend my disbelief early on, but as I wised up to Waggoner's game I was better able to appreciate the story. It didn't quite satisfy me, particularly the resolution, which felt like a rush to the exit, but it didn't disappoint either. Waggoner has one hell of an imagination, and at times The Mouth of the Dark feels like an episode of Fringe if Clive Barker had gotten his hands on the screenplay. I definitely can't complain about that, and any story that features homicidal sex toys will always be worth a read as far as I'm concerned.

[Note: I received an advance reading copy of The Mouth of the Dark from the publisher, Flame Tree Press.]

I am a huge fan of horror and now a huge fan of Tim Waggoner. After reading the prologue you know it is not going to be a “normal” scary story. Then we go to a father who is trying to find his lost daughter. At first I wonder3 what some of the relationships of the characters were meant to show the read because one were not very bright. However, the writer lets you the story early on and keeps you gripped within. I actually had nightmar s and wanted to sleep with the light on like I used to when I was a younger child. As the other reader have stated this is one you need to read if you love horror stories that keep you drawn into the action.


I give this one a 5 out of 5