Book Review: Mouth by Joshua Hull
Title: Mouth
Author: Joshua Hull
Release date: March 15th, 2024
*Huge thanks to Tenebrous Press for the digital ARC!**
Over the last number of years, I’ve come to expect brilliantly written books from Tenebrous with fairly insane concepts. Look at ‘House of Rot,’ ‘The Black Lord,’ and ‘One Hand to Hold One Hand to Carve,’ just to name a few.
When ‘Mouth’ was announced, I was immediately intrigued by one specific phrase – “…drifter Rusty finds himself the caretaker of a massive, tooth-filled mouth in the ground…and it’s hungry.”
WHHHHAAAAAATTT.
Sign me up! I love books centered around strangeness in woods, and this one looked to be a perfect fit of that bill!
What I liked: On it’s surface, ‘Mouth’ seems like a very simple, straight-forward story. Rusty is living his life on the road, struggling to connect anywhere, but also not wanting to connect or set down roots. Then, randomly, he meets a stranger at a shop, they have a meal together and to his surprise, this man, gives him his property. He’s tired and wants to move on. Only caveat, is Rusty needs to take care (and feed) Mouth. At first, Rusty things Mouth must be a dog, but soon, he discovers that Mouth is not a dog, but a giant, massive, tooth-filled hole in the ground that loves mice and can somehow communicate with Rusty.
From there, Hull delivers a multi-layered story of friendship, connection, relationships and coming together to get vengeance on those who deserve it. We get Abigail, a nineteen-year-old horror fanatic who has been on the run since her abusive step dad went too far. We see her and Rusty connect as well as how her, Rusty and Mouth form one of the most surprising trio’s of friends you’ll ever come across.
The POV chapters from Mouth were really amazing. What could’ve been corny, Hull deftly used to show how this sentient ‘thing’ comes to understand who Rusty and Abigail are and that they’re all there together, to help each other and take away each other’s pain.
The ending offers up a poignant take on these three companions, but also that Abigail may work towards showing the wider world that appearances can often mask the true nature of one’s heart and it’s that powerful metaphor that weaves its way throughout this novella that stood head and shoulders above everything else.
What I didn’t like: I personally LOVE novellas. Love writing them and love reading them, but in this case, I really do wish we got a smidgeon more in terms of story length, purely to learn a bit more about Mouth’s evolution. Abigail mentions it very briefly when comparing videos of Mouth, but I’d have loved to learn a bit more about the ‘why,’ but sometimes filling in those dots can make it all that more powerful.
Why you should buy this: Another home run for Tenebrous, this reminded me of the awe and the intrigue I felt while reading Andrew J. Stone’s amazing ‘All Hail the House Gods.’ You’ll instantly connect with Rusty, Abigail and you’ll desperately want to experience more and more story with Mouth.
Hull’s writing was propulsive, the story phenomenal and overall, this seemingly simple read was anything but. Stunning.
5/5
