Horror Review: The Mouth of the Dark by Tim Waggoner

September 10, 2018

This is book CRAZY but I liked it. I liked it quite a bit.

The Mouth of the Dark by Tim Waggoner
Horror Fiction
Released September 2018
Amazon | Goodreads | Flame Tree Press | Better World Books

Jayce’s twenty-year-old daughter Emory is missing, lost in a dark, dangerous realm called Shadow that exists alongside our own reality. An enigmatic woman named Nicola guides Jayce through this bizarre world, and together they search for Emory, facing deadly dog-eaters, crazed killers, homicidal sex toys, and – worst of all – a monstrous being known as the Harvest Man. But no matter what Shadow throws at him, Jayce won’t stop. He’ll do whatever it takes to find his daughter, even if it means becoming a worse monster than the things that are trying to stop him. FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

My Thoughts:

Where does one start with a crazy book like this one? I honestly don’t know where to begin so I’ll just start typing and see what happens.

I read this book with a group of blogging buddies and the main theme of our chat seemed to be WTF. Some of us were horrified, some maybe scandalized but I think there were a few who were a little tantalized though they’ll probably never admit it, haha.

At any rate, this is a story about a man named Jayce who realizes his grown daughter has gone missing. He makes it his mission to find her or at least to find out what happened to her. He’s sure something nefarious is up and boy is he ever right. He finds a strange otherworld filled with bizarre sex toys and malformed people and a scary being called The Harvest Man. He isn’t at all prepared for all of the weirdness that assaults him but he takes the hits as they come in a stumbling, hapless sort of way and doesn’t run screaming the other way as most other sane people would do. He heads straight into the madness and grossness and batshit craziness.

I enjoyed this book for its unpredictable over the top strangeness. It didn’t scare me but it’s not really that kind of book. I loved that it wasn’t afraid to peek into the dark, twisted corners and slam your face into them. That’s a fun time for me. This isn’t a book where you’re going to fall in love or even feel much compassion for the characters. They’re not assholes but there isn’t a lot to like about them either. It’s the storyline that carries you along as the characters are put into one bizarre situation after another. There are a lot of sexual hijinks in this one featuring otherworldly sex toys. I thought that was a nice bonus but be warned if you’re not into reading about weird sex because there’s quite a bit of it here. Also, the main dude has some major mommy issues (which were expertly explained near the end) and some weird thoughts about his daughter and her sexuality that made me feel pretty uncomfortable in a bad way while reading. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he’s a pedophile but he sure does have some pervy thoughts that I think most dads would scrub from their brains as soon as they hit. This guy sits and stews in them for too long.

The Mouth of the Dark was an imaginative, enjoyable, super pervy story whose pages flew. If you dig weird imagery, some unforgettable sex toys, perfectly placed gore, lots of gross little surprises, gruesome descriptions, dark humor and a finale that wraps everything together you’ll want to read this crazy book. If you don’t like those things, well, you probably wouldn’t be reading my review anyway.